change user account name - how to?

[tomcloyd]

I cannot seem to find how to do this in a forum or Google search - I'm surprised.

I just reloaded KB 13.10 onto one of my boxes. It already had a /home partition, and I left that alone, designating it to be /home for the new install. I had a number of programs installed in that user account, among other things.

Accessing the new account, I find that the account name is not quite right. It should be "tomc" not "tom".

I cannot seem to change it via System Settings. It accepts input in the acct. name field, the "Apply" goes active, I click it and give my admin password, then nothing happens. The account name is unchanged. Not good.

I need the account name change also to show up in /home.

Is this something one just cannot do?

[kubicle]

Is this something one just cannot do?

It can be done, but it isn't really a trivial operation, here is a fairly good howto (written for arch, but the commands should work on *buntus), heed the warnings and ask questions if unsure:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/change_username

[tomcloyd]

Thanks. Will give it a look.