user account deleted

[Trio3b]

MDV 2008.1 with about 5 desktop user accts, one of which is user1.

 

while logged in as user1 I added a new account (named guest) in MCC. Upon logging out I was un able to login as guest - error was not "enough space " or something to that effect so I deleted the guest account ( I included delete home folder of the guest acct). I had taken extra precaution to make sure "guest" was highlighted in manage users of MCC. I'm certain that I deleted "guest" and NOT "user1" from MCC

 

Tried then to login as user1. error is "could not start kstartupconfig check your configuration". So logged in as user2 to look around and when I cd to user1 there are no directories, no files, nothing!

 

Then "chown -R username:user /home/user1" and I am now able to login to user1 but it is a fresh account with all the default empty directories assigned to a new user, but all my files that were originally in user1 are nowhere to be found. I am able to login to user1 with the original password ( so the system must remember something about the old user1 account!)

 

Any ideas what went wrong and where these files are? Does "guest" have any special meaning that would cause this to happen?

 

Thank you for any help

[dexter11]

AFAIK the guest account is the one where the home dir gets deleted automatically after logout. It will be added in the Mandriva 2009 spring. It's in Ubuntu. But since your system is 2008 Spring I don't know it is related to your problem or just a coincidence.

[ianw1974]

If you're using ext3, check the lost+found directory in case they've ended up in here after a file system problem. If not, then chances are they were deleted somehow by something. If you can get X running, and KDE or Gnome, then check the Trash in case they are in here.

 

If not, then you've lost everything, and I suggest you try using a utility called testdisk.

 

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

 

which can help you recover your files.

[Trio3b]

If you're using ext3, check the lost+found directory in case they've ended up in here after a file system problem. If not, then chances are they were deleted somehow by something. If you can get X running, and KDE or Gnome, then check the Trash in case they are in here.

 

If not, then you've lost everything, and I suggest you try using a utility called testdisk.

 

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

 

which can help you recover your files.

 

Thanks guys. It's entirely possible that I should NOT have named the acct guest as it may be used as a temp user directory in certain releases. Fortunately most of my important files were in user2 account so not all is lost but was scary nonetheless. Something odd here. Konsole for user1 opens to :

 

bash-3.2$

 

Whereas all other user accts open (in Konsole )to:

 

[userx@localhost~]$

 

Any significance?

 

 

Thanks

Edited March 24, 2009 by Trio3b

[Greg2]

Konsole for user1 opens to :

 

bash-3.2$

Here's a thread that should explain how to fix that: Name in konsole

[ianw1974]

You can also copy those files from /etc/skel directory (they are hidden), so with a . at the front, like .bashrc and so on. Log out and back in again, and it should be OK.