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 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - 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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