[ubuntu-uk] Renaming The Home Folder

[Neil Greenwood]

On 27 July 2010 07:57, Nigel Verity <nigelverity at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Guys
>
> Some advice please....
>
> In order to minimise the differences between working at home and away, my
> desktop and laptop have very similar folder structures. This has proven to
> be a little counter-productive since, when I'm transferring files between
> them using Filezilla or Nautilus, it is easy to confuse which pane is
> displaying the laptop's contents and which the desktop's.
>
> The logical solution would appear to be to rename the home folder on one of
> the machines so that the path is clearly distinguishable. However, I note
> that Nautilus has the "rename" option greyed out for the home folder. To me
> this suggests that renaming it might not be a good idea or, at least, needs
> to be done in conjunction with other actions.
>
> My concern is that renaming the home folder will screw up the configuration
> of numerous applications. Is it best just to live with things as they are or
> is there a clean method of renaming the home folder?
>
> Thanks
>
> Nige

I agree with Alan that using something like Ubuntu One (or Dropbox,
or...) is a better idea, but if you want to rename your home folder
you can do it through the Users and Groups configuration applet.

I've *not* tried it. It might be better trying it in a VM or some
other installation you don't mind trashing. As a minimum, you could
create another user account on your machine and rename the home folder
for that user. I don't know if it will copy the files from the
previous folder for you either - you may have to do that yourself
afterwards.

If you still want to do it, open System > Administration > Users and
Groups. Click the advanced button, enter your password to unlock the
next screen, and on the third tab (sorry, I don't know the label on
it, my machine is displaying things in Welsh) there is an entry for
your home folder. Try changing this and clicking OK...

Cofion/Regards,
Neil.