How to change name on Home folder?

I have an Apple iBook PPC G4 1.33 GHz running Leopard OS X version 10.5.8 and with 1 GB Memory. I just purchased this machine, which is in excellent condition, but I have a problem. It is not earthshattering and doesn't threaten the life of the machine in any way, but it is my machine and I would like the Home directory to reflect that.
The name in the System Preferences for Administrator is "gdavies", which is myself, but the Home Folder in the Finder sidebar is named "macuser". I went in as root user and came close to complete disaster, but got out in time. Having me named as administrator in Accounts but not on the Home directory is unusual. If both were called "macuser" I believe I could fix it, but this requires a greater level of expertise than I have.
Any ideas how to make home folder read "gdavies"? I just bought this iBook and it came with the Home folder named as "macuser". I changed the computer's name in "Sharing" in system prefs and I believe I may have changed the name in the Accounts. I know I should not have done it that way, but it doesn't help changing it back.
When I open the Users folder in the Mac HD there are there folders, one called "gdavies" with 10 items, most empty, such as desktop, downloads and so on, though dropbox is there.
The next folder is the house icon for the Home directory named "macuser" with 38 items and is the working folder. Then there is a folder called "shared", which contains no items.
How do I change the Home directory name in the Finder window sidebar to "gdavies'?

Kappy, you are indeed working overtime to help me and I just want you to know how appreciative I am.
Now, I shall take your answer step by step.
1. Log into Accounts using the admin password for "macuser". That password and the "other" admin password for gadvies is one and the same. However, done.
2. Click on Login Options, done - verify gdavies has admin status - done - answer "yes, gadvies has admin status".
3. Turn off Auto login - done.
4. Logged out then logged into "gdavies".
5. Returned to Accounts pane authenticating with "gdavies" password - done. But remember that the admin password is one and the same for "macuser" and "gdavies". Now, I did *not* set it up like that. It just seemed to happen. do I :- ) or do I :- ( ???
6. Select "macuser" account and using Login options delete. Select the option to remove completely.
I am sorry Kappy, but this pesky "macuser" sits in the home directory without any account in Accounts. So there is no "macuser" account to delete.
I went through all the motions and I was sort of hoping that a "macuser" account would *appear* in the Accounts pane beneath the Guest account so that I could delete it, but no such luck. You know, sometimes things like that do happen.
Thanks a heap for the try, Kappy, I do appreciate you exercising on my behalf "those little grey cells" as Hercule Poirot would say - my favorite Private Eye (Agatha Christie).
Cheers, Gareth

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quick intro:
...had a screwy server, planned a rebuild.
added all active users to a specific group.
Exported said group, exported ALL users, exported anything I could think of!
Have vanilla built 10.4.10 server, few teething probs with a DNS glitch, think I'm over it...
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eeeff wrote:
quick intro:
...had a screwy server, planned a rebuild.
added all active users to a specific group.
Exported said group, exported ALL users, exported anything I could think of!
Have vanilla built 10.4.10 server, few teething probs with a DNS glitch, think I'm over it...
not 100 percent sure, but 4 users I've tested appear to be working.
imported specific group, didnt show any members.
Had to import ALL users before they populated, unfortunatley ALL users appear to have active accounts, only want specific group active
(was I expecting to much?)
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In a bid to tidy up home dirs, correct privelages etc.
is there a simple way to apply the same privs to hundreds of folders rather than selecting each one?
I basically want <user> as the owner, <admin> as the group, everyone else none.
The following terminal command will apply privileges to every folder inside the current folder. Note that the folder name and the short name for the user must match exactly. cd to the directory with home folders first.
sudo for i in `ls`;do chown -R $i $i;done
(cut and paste to reduce the chance of devastating typo
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Thanks john for you are reply.
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Changing the name of home folder

When I set up my machine, I set up the name of my home folder without knowing some of the ramifications of using it. I reviewed the steps in http://www.macworld.com/article/132693/2008/03/changeshortusername.html which seemed reasonably straight forward.
I created another user called limited, and logged out of my administrators account, and into the newly created "limited" account.
All of the steps, up to step 10, went smoothly - modified the short name, and Home directory to the desired new name.
Step 10 required changing the folder name using the following sudo command syntax:
sudo mv /Users/oldusername /Users/newusername
I received the following error after I entered the password:
"limited is not in the sudoers file."
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At this point, I don't know if my assumption is correct about the failure to execute the sudo command. Will adding the Admin rights to the account "limited" insert "limited" into the sudoers file? If not, what do I need to do to resolve that problem.
I've included the steps below:
============================================
1. If Automatic Login is enabled (in Accounts preferences) for the account you’re modifying, disable it. Similarly, if File Vault is enabled (in Security preferences), disable it. You can re-enable these features, if desired, after completing the procedure.
2. Log in as a different user than the one you want to modify; make sure the account you want to modify is not logged in.
3. Open the Accounts pane of System Preferences.
4. If the lock icon in the lower-left of the Accounts window is “locked,” click on it and provide an administrative username and password; this allows you to make changes.
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6. In the Advanced Options screen, delete your current short username in the Short Name field, and then type in your desired new short username.
7. In the Home Directory field, change /Users/oldusername to /Users/newusername, where oldusername is your original short username and newusername is your new short username. Make note of the original and new paths.
8. Click on OK and close System Preferences.
9. Open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities).
10. Type the following command, all on one line, and then press Return; when prompted, provide the password of the admin account you’re currently using, and then press Return again:
sudo mv /Users/oldusername /Users/newusername
(These are the original and new Home Directory paths from Step 7; oldusername is your original short username and newusername is your new short username.) This step renames your home folder in the Finder.
11. Restart your Mac.

NibblesNBits wrote:
When I set up my machine, I set up the name of my home folder without knowing some of the ramifications of using it. I reviewed the steps in http://www.macworld.com/article/132693/2008/03/changeshortusername.html which seemed reasonably straight forward.
I created another user called limited, and logged out of my administrators account, and into the newly created "limited" account.
All of the steps, up to step 10, went smoothly - modified the short name, and Home directory to the desired new name.
Step 10 required changing the folder name using the following sudo command syntax:
sudo mv /Users/oldusername /Users/newusername
I received the following error after I entered the password:
"limited is not in the sudoers file."
The only thing I could think of was that the account I created, "limited", was not set up with admin rights - so I went in and selected the "Allow user to administer this computer" checkbox for this account. However, a warning saying the change won't take affect until I logout and back in. I'm reluctant to do this, in case something happens where the Mac requires shutting down before all steps have been completed.
nothing will happen. just log out/in and rerun the command. an account has to be admin to use sudo.
Message was edited by: V.K.

Change Admin Acct - Home Folder Short Name

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How to change name on Home folder?

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