On Sun, Aug 19, 2007 at 09:23:45PM -0400, Hal Vaughan wrote:
> I installed Etch on a computer for my Mother today and it wouldn't allow
> me to use "hal." On all my email accounts and other accounts on all
> the systems I deal with, I've always used the name "hal," but now it's
> not allowed.
The hal user was previously used by the Hardware Abstraction Layer
daemon. Since 0.5.7.1-1 it's called haldaemon and since 0.5.7.1-2 the
old hal user is ensured to get removed in postinst of the package. So
the system should allow you to create this user.
> Is there a way around this? Can I get my name back? It seems
> shortsighted to create systems that create a username like this. It's
> not as common as john or jane, but it's a well known name that it seems
> likely people would be using to log in with.
Please verify you're running Etch/stable and your version of hal is
greater than 0.5.7.1-1, i.e. using dpkg -l hal. If it is, you can safely
remove any existing hal system user using deluser --system hal and
create your own.
That user, however, shouldn't have existed in the first place...
Cheers,
Franz
--
.''`. Franz Pletz <fpletz@franz-pletz.org> - http://franz-pletz.org/
: :' :
`. `' Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be
`- done, and why. Then do it. -- Robert A. Heinlein
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