Introduction

In Linux, changing a username is possible, but it must be done carefully. If you rename the same user that is currently logged in, you may face session, permission, or SSH problems.

In this tutorial, we will safely change the old username maurise to the new username mourad. We will also change the home directory and set a new password.

Step 1: Connect to the Raspberry Pi

First, connect to your Raspberry Pi using the current username. In this example, the Raspberry Pi IP address is 192.168.1.104.

ssh maurise@192.168.1.104

After entering this command, type the current password of the user maurise.

Step 2: Create a Temporary Admin User

We need a temporary administrator user because Linux cannot safely rename the currently active user session.

sudo adduser tempadmin

You will be asked to enter a password for tempadmin. Choose a temporary password that you can remember.

Now give the temporary user administrator permissions by adding it to the sudo group.

sudo usermod -aG sudo tempadmin

After that, log out from the current SSH session.

exit

Step 3: Log In with the Temporary Admin User

Now connect again to the Raspberry Pi, but this time use the temporary administrator account.

ssh tempadmin@192.168.1.104

Enter the password that you created for tempadmin.

Step 4: Rename the User from maurise to mourad

Now rename the old Linux username maurise to the new username mourad.

sudo usermod -l mourad maurise

Step 5: Rename and Move the Home Directory

After renaming the username, you should also rename the home directory from /home/maurise to /home/mourad.

sudo usermod -d /home/mourad -m mourad

Step 6: Rename the User Group

On many Raspberry Pi/Linux systems, the user has a group with the same name. If the old group is named maurise, rename it to mourad.

sudo groupmod -n mourad maurise

Then fix the ownership of the new home directory.

sudo chown -R mourad:mourad /home/mourad

Step 7: Set a New Password for mourad

Now set a new password for the renamed user mourad.

sudo passwd mourad

Step 8: Make Sure mourad Has Sudo Access

To make sure the new user can run administrator commands, add mourad to the sudo group.

sudo usermod -aG sudo mourad

Check the user information and group membership.

id mourad

If everything is correct, you should see sudo in the list of groups.

Step 9: Test SSH Login with the New Username

Before deleting the temporary administrator account, open a new terminal window on your computer and test SSH login with the new username.

ssh mourad@192.168.1.104

Enter the new password. If the login works, the username and password were changed successfully.

Step 10: Remove the Temporary Admin User

After confirming that the new user works correctly, you can remove the temporary administrator account.

sudo deluser tempadmin

Then remove its home directory.

sudo rm -rf /home/tempadmin

Useful Verification Commands

You can use these commands to verify that the change was applied correctly.

whoami

pwd

sudo whoami

If the last command returns root, then sudo access is working correctly.