Is it safe to rename Guest and create another Guest?

[jimwg]

Greetings!

Many YouTube reviews on Porteus stress on getting a main user account outside default Root to avoid unrecoverable mistakes and accidents so I've been doing that on several flash drive here via the Guest account. Only thing is now it's far more "me" than guest now so I'd like to rename that account appropriately and also create another "replacement" Guest account just to stay in keeping with Porteus out-of-the-box. My question is, can I safely rename my guest account with my name and create another guest just to have that account available for whatever future reasons?

Thanks for any educating tips!

Jim in NYC

[donald]

Hi jim
some quotes

fanthom
... although guest and root are hardcoded in porteus settings
so i would recommend to stick to one of them.

brokenman
Furthermore, some scripts are hard coded to look for only these two users.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems (to me) that you may get more problems than you want to.

[francois]

Conclusion. Change the guest password.

[Seva]

i think its not just porteus, its a general linux practice to not use root by default
guest for use
root for maintenance
if 2-3 people use the pc then they can all use one guest account, no need to create separate users

[jimwg]

Greetings!

As per a Mint maven I used "gentent passwd" to list and check names logged on this (experimental) flash in the listing below. In learning Porteus and Linux, my tinkering created new user accounts via addusers, but the jimwg one doesn't log-in or work as though it has no home like the other accounts:

jimwg1001jimwg,,,:/home/jimwg:/bin/bash

Mint mavens say that jimwg here is actually "illegal" and a "dangerous" listing error and could corrupt the whole "users array". (This was the name I intended to replace Guest with before you all convinced me otherwise but I'll just stick between guest and root,) still I'd like to learn how to recover from major faults. I told the mavens that Porteus works different with a main root user and they suggested taking this to you all before I start deleting any accounts. This is an educational experience so I appreciate your input!

Jim in NYC

--------------------------------------
VIA "GENTENT":

root@porteus:~# cat /etc/passwd
root0:0::/root:/bin/bash
bin1:1:bin:/bin:/bin/false
daemon2:2:daemon:/sbin:/bin/false
adm3:4:adm:/var/log:/bin/false
lp4:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/bin/false
sync5:0:sync:/sbin:/bin/sync
shutdown6:0:shutdown:/sbin:/sbin/shutdown
halt7:0:halt:/sbin:/sbin/halt
mail8:12:mail:/:/bin/false
news9:13:news:/usr/lib/news:/bin/false
uucp10:14:uucp:/var/spool/uucppublic:/bin/false
operator11:0:operator:/root:/bin/bash
games12games:/usr/games:/bin/false
ftp14:50::/home/ftp:/bin/false
smmsp25:25:smmsp:/var/spool/clientmqueue:/bin/false
mysql27:27:MySQL:/var/lib/mysql:/bin/false
rpc32:32:RPC portmap user:/:/bin/false
sshd33:33:sshd:/:/bin/false
gdm42:42:GDM:/var/state/gdm:/bin/bash
oprofile51:51:oprofile:/:/bin/false
apache80:80:User for Apache:/srv/httpd:/bin/false
messagebus81:81:User for D-BUS:/var/run/dbus:/bin/false
haldaemon82:82:User for HAL:/var/run/hald:/bin/false
pop90:90:POP:/:/bin/false
vboxadd95:95::/home/vboxadd:/bin/bash
nobody99:99:nobody:/:/bin/false
kdm102:102::/home/kdm:/bin/bash
avahi214:214:Avahi:/dev/null:/bin/false
guest1000:1000::/home/guest:/bin/bash
jimwg1001jimwg,,,:/home/jimwg:/bin/bash
amber1002,,,:/home/amber:/bin/bash
tiffany1003,,,:/home/tiffany:/bin/bash
root@porteus:~# cat /etc/passwd/
cat: /etc/passwd/: Not a directory

[Seva]

me personally fine with 2 hardcoded users, its easier this way

[Seva]

no, i dont like to use root by default, it would give me creeps too
maybe i will give Puppy linux or one of its flavors a shot
switching an os is a lot of a hassle for me, im not geeky enough for all this

[tome]

Is it safe to rename Guest and create another Guest?

It should be safe but these steps (+thinking) are required:

1. login as root
2. open terminal and execute:
3. adduser jimwg (use default values)
4. mv /home/guest/{*,.*} /home/jimwg
5. chown -R jimwg /home/jimwg
6. cp -a /mnt/live/memory/images/0*/home/guest/. /home/guest
7. login as guest (fresh account)

/home/jimwg (adduser) could be changed. Now you can login as guest or jimwg (no password).
Not enough tested so test it before use.

[Bogomips]

Naive question comes to mind, which is what it would entail to make sub-users of guest, out of curiosity.

[jimwg]

Naive question comes to mind, which is what it would entail to make sub-users of guest, out of curiosity.

In this case, like climbing Everest, I guess!

Good reply! Thanks!

Jim In NYC

[jimwg]

Help.

I changed the guest password from guest to avalon and now the system won't log into guest at all, even using boot-up script menu. I just keep being retuned to the dark blue LOGIN screen. I've since changed the guest pw several times but no cigar. Am I locked out for good?

Jm in NYC

[tome]

Login as root and move needed files from guest somewhere else.

[TTW]

One of the attractions (compared to my current Puppy installation) is that Porteus supports user account not an automatic login in to root with no other option. What I am not clear on though is does it limit only to Root and Guest? Or can you set up other family users?

Not a deal breaker as ultimately you can give each family user their own USB - but then that becomes a headache of maintenance for me - the onsite helpdesk.

TTW

[francois]

In the above interventions, have you read and tried tome's strategy to create additional users?