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[Larry Jordan <question77583@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Question #77583 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/77583

    Status: Open => Answered

Larry Jordan proposed the following answer:
     Didn't mention it before, but a normal user's id is usually 1000 or
more.  The user id for root is zero (0).  So that may override changing
your home directory if your user id is set to 0.

     Still think the best way, if you don't have other users on your
system, is to go with changing the properties under Users & Groups.  If
there are no other users on your computer but you and root, try setting
the home directory correctly and setting your UID to 1000.  If there
are, check their user id's first to make sure you aren't trying to take
someone else's.

     If you get no effect from that, you can try the command line
option.  The 'usermod' command should do it.  Problem then, is how did
it get changed in the first place?  If a malicious program installed a
command in a startup file (whether the init.d variety or startup script
or a line in your .profile, whatever), it may change back when you start
up again.  In that case, you may have a hard time tracking down the real
problem, but for now, try using:

sudo usermod --home (your true home directory) --shell (presumably
bash?) username

There are other options that can also be changed from a command line,
such as userid and groupid(s).

     Believe from the man pages you can call with just 'sudo usermod
$username' and it will check to see if a home directory is already
assigned to the username.

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