"I wrote that in a different post."

That's irrelevant. What you were really trying to say with "sticking to what matters" is that you wanted to reserve the right to unilaterally rant about how you hate linux while expecting free help at the same time.

"No, it can't. You're just proving my point that Linux should be better by now, having both many companies supporting it and many people working for it for free."

I can't be taken as an insult? Really? hmmm...
I think we might disagree on the meaning of "proof" and "support" here...

Anyway, maybe what I have managed to prove here is that you're a freeloader and a jerk. Why would anyone want to help you again?

"That's irrelevant. What you were really trying to say with "sticking to what matters" is that you wanted to reserve the right to unilaterally rant about how you hate linux while expecting free help at the same time."

No, you didn't understand. I meant that I would like my problem solved.

"I can't be taken as an insult? Really? hmmm...
I think we might disagree on the meaning of "proof" and "support" here..."

1st: you can't take it as an insult, at least the way you said it, because I didn't say anything bad about the people who try to make Linux better for free. As I said in the other post, Linux is both supported by companies and by people who work for it for free and not only the first.

2nd: what do you mean, 'proof'?

"Anyway, maybe what I have managed to prove here is that you're a freeloader and a jerk. Why would anyone want to help you again?"

What did I do wrong? Should I instead of saying 'This is why I hate Linux', 'this is what I don't like in Linux that could be improved'?

Why do you call me a freeloader? I don't know nothing and I don't have time to learn programming to participate in the improvement of Linux! The only thing I can do for it is telling everybody around about the cool stuff it has, which I am doing - the other day I showed the beatiful screensavers from Ubuntu to a friend of mine.

user-friendly is relative, a linux user won't think that windows is user-friendly either, you can't say that linux is not user-friendly because linux users will find it user-friendly. So, in principle, you can't really say any OS is not user-friendly, you can say its not windows user friendly, or not newbie friendly, but thats about it.

"a linux user won't think that windows is user-friendly either"

that's true

Ubuntu is user-friendly very, it's just ur used to doing things in windows where u have all Admin/ROOT access to everything

I used to myself be a windows user it sucked on stability but user-friendleness was good with it, so in july having to do a re-install because of XP SP2s stability of slowing down - yes it always slowed down in less than a week requiring a re-install of just about every week or other week, last time and last time i used it the recored was about 2months tops, now even with feisty updated to Gutsy - yes I use Ubuntu it is more stable and i have NOT re-isntalled in like record time - 5 + months even the upgrade is more reliable than XPs full install..

B.O.T

if linux is a bother u can now go back to windows or find another distro. Plus what u are trying to do can be found with a simple search thru a search engine - a good one, and following simple steps, and reading and a bit of understanding and a bit of background will help. If in the end another distro or u'd rather still give up on linux/ubuntu go ahead it might not be ur time to migrate to linux, as it was NOT mine when i ordered the FREE breezy CD - I think my first version - i found it lying around and it's the oldest one i have so i think it was the first i tried out, anyway i did NOT know much about ubuntu or the name exactly and junk and it took me roughly 2 years to finally install ubuntu - july 2007 onwards to appreciate it and understand it and so far i've gotten used to it, once one get it set up rightly then it feels like home and u'll start to forget all about what Windows was like except for a fond back-end memory of it somewhere in ur brain and it gets fader and fader as time goes by.


edited:^ 2 -> ^

adding: also that if u can NOT find exactly what u are trying to do then u can try still doing searching and piecing a bit by bit from diff. sources to solve the problem and or problems u are having.. - I do that myself a lot and some solutions are similiar on each linux box and i'd have to piece them bit by bit and try em' out again even if they DO NOT apply for the particular distro I use and also one can read all relevant links in searching thru a search engine again to find a fix for ur problem..

That's easy to say.

If I could do it, I wouldn't ask for help. I tried some searches, but either I'm not good enough, or it's really something not very well explained, yet. If one could find all one needs, people wouldn't need to post in forums anymore.

Please.

You wouldn't need to explain me everything again if there is that information out there, but only to post the link here.

Actually yes it was, and yes if everyone searched using a search engine, the linux/? forums would be actually mostly empty for help topics..

Also i'm saying i know sort of what ur going thru - Same thing I sort of had when I first tried the Breezy Live CD and I just waited it out - i felt like linux was NOT for me at that time, and I waited and finally got Fed up with xp - reinstalled and remembered the Feisty CD i got and said to myself i'll try out linux now if this XP fails on me instead of re-installing XP and well I installed fiesty have a USB/Modem i asked on the forums on how to get connected to the net a year or so before - nothing except for linuxmodems or whatever - i did try the live CD out and it wouldn't work with dialup i thought so i gave up and never installed it until the tale begins above..


Well mov. on a year or so later I got interested in linux and ubuntu again and checked see what was updated - ordered the Feisty cd and as said above installed it after XP crapped out on me and then remembered about the dialup connection thing and i did read about linux before hand and those things, went onto a now i don't have computer dialup up to the net - had windows - and did some searching on the forums again and a program came up gnome-ppp moved to usb pen drive, installed it went into setup - curious - selected detect and WHOA momma it lit up and i knew my username and password and batta bang batta boom from that day on i stayed with linux.

U can find the original posts on the ubuntuforums and the day i said i am now one of u was the day I installed ubuntu and stayed from that day on, i posted on the forums minutes after connecting to the net, and now after a bit well I now know enought to get up and running thru wvdial and the command line interface and thru the live cd - i got gnome-ppp backup on my usb drive for emergencies and the livecd or if i'd like to connect to the net, and then after a bit and now I just remember the dev device / com equiv. place to use the network tools included to dialup thru the live cd..

it's

/dev/ttyUSB0

and i can dialup by inputting the required info and clicking activate however i still stick with gnome-ppp on my main install because I like it and also I now know how to compile programs patch em' - still need help if going to patch a kernel, but i'm learning..

All i'm saying is if that this little hurdle bothers u to death then STOP: TAKE A DEEP BREATH: and ask ur self "AM I READY TO BE LINUX USER NOW"

that's what i did...every little problem before hand in ubuntu/linux bothered me and i'm a GUI guy and yes I also know other things one can do with ubuntu/linux than stated above...learning is a bit fun..

My story background was to help comfort u that it's okay to NOT be ready for ubuntu right now and to wait it out....for another year or so and try again....and also that I used to get easily frustrated with Ubuntu like u and now i'm a linux convert and now I understand and AM one of those that now say "SWITCH TO LINUX"...



I understand ur PAIN.

I'm not sure if you do: because of dmrc and other problems I've already needed to reinstall Ubuntu 3 or 4 times in a year, while with Windows, an installation lasts for years before I need to reinstall it.

And since I can't afford to buy Windows, I gotta learn Linux NOW. Either if I'm ready or not. From what I know about the programs that it has (kinda every app one needs - this is a huge compliment I make to Linux/Ubuntu), I'm ready, but these stupid things like when someone wants to change the username and things like this happen or when the kernel updates wreck the Windows XP's entry in the boot menu list (I have dual boot) kinda make me sad.

Since nobody can help me with this issue in particular, could you please tell me how I can reinstall Ubuntu without affecting Windows XP (last time I had to reinstall Ubuntu, I had to reinstall Windows too, because the booting was wrecked)?

Open new thread, search forums, use bittorrent to find windows....
You have to change for linux, linux will not change for you, keep this in mind.
Also how you criticize linux in a linux forums will not get you very far. At least for me, I don't want to help you anymore.

Good luck...

To really clear up some stuff here.


Windows is a full operating system written by a single company

OS X aka MAC is also a full operating system written by a single company


Linux is a kernel and nothing more. Yes folks belive it or not you cant even talk to linux or use it as any kind of useful operating system.
Linux is not an operating system its a kernel. So what were really talking about is unbuntu having issues with username conversion this is probably due to using a full Graphical enviroment which all these nasty little problems start to creep in. Remember that allot of the stuff that a distro uses is written by several people and sometimes you have problems with programs that dont sit well with changing permissions or configuration files on the fly. This also causes the solution to be evasive and makes it difficult for us to give you a better answer then this. I personally dont use Unbuntu but create my own distro from scratch. Tho I have never come to the point where I need to change my username ?


Only thing I can really tell you is you can try loging in as root and creating a clean userid and see if problems persist.

Maybe the problem is in the Window Manager. Unfortunatly we don't know which one the OP is using. This was mentioned in my first post.

Couldn't the op just change the name of the $HOME directory to match his current user name, or am I missing something?

They could just do that but the issue comes with the hidden configuration files that several programs put in the home directory. They may have some hard coded paths to things that are no longer there.

an example would be like using icewm and having the background in your home directory under pictures when you change the name of the user it would cause issues if you just changed the name of the home dirctory.

example say my uname is jdoe so my home is /home/jdoe and my background image is in /home/jdoe/pictures/back.jpg


now i change user to hdoe so i rename my home directory to hdoe

now in that hidden file its still going to be looking for the background in /home/jdoe/pictures/back.jpg when in fact its actually now in /home/hdoe/pictures/back.jpg

if i just change the name of the user icewm would not know where to find the background image.