How can I change shell in Ubuntu?

Question

I have a Ubuntu Server VPS and I want to use /bin/bash/ as my shell. How can I change my shell? I have root access but I don't work as root. So dash is my default shell now.

I have read How do I make Bash my default shell on Ubuntu? and chsh seams to be the preferred way to go. But when I type chsh /bin/bash I get this message: chsh: unknown user /bin/bash

And if I just type /bin/bash the Bash shell seams to work fine. How to change it?

Dentrasi · Answer 1 · 2010-03-12T17:57:05.680

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When running as root, you can use chsh to change other users shells. The syntax you want to use it this. You can change your own shell without root rights.

chsh -s /bin/bash username

edited Mar 12 '10 at 17:57

answered Mar 12 '10 at 15:18

Dentrasi

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-1 chsh does not need to be run as root to change your *own* shell. Changing others' shells requires root. – Broam Mar 12 '10 at 17:25
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This worked. I always get the "You may not change the shell for ..." error message. – setzamora Jun 18 '17 at 21:30
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Logout and log back in after to observe the change – smac89 Nov 27 '17 at 09:26
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+1 I found this to work, after trying `chsh` command when logged in as the user and getting "You may not change the shell for ..." – therobyouknow Sep 19 '18 at 11:57
@Broam - This absolutely **does** have to be run as root on some systems. See the above messages. – Addison Jun 29 '20 at 23:32

score 100 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 12 '10 at 16:14

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To change a shell, use the bare chsh command. This will prompt you for the new shell. You do not have to run anything as root.

answered Mar 12 '10 at 16:14

Teddy

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Ah, that was even better! – Jonas Mar 12 '10 at 20:19
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don't forget to log out and log back in to see the change. – floer32 Jul 03 '13 at 12:23
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Doesn't work as normal user: $ chsh You may not change the shell for 'user'. – Henning May 01 '14 at 20:00
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Works for me. Sounds like your system has been deliberately locked down. – Michael Cole Feb 25 '16 at 21:22
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I use ssh, but chsh asks me for password which I don't know. Any way to work around this? – Qwerty Apr 28 '16 at 13:25
+1 @Henning I found `chsh -s /bin/bash web` to work, as in the [answer below](https://superuser.com/a/119182/21353) from Dentrasi. I can now use tab file/folder path autocomplete at the terminal with my new non-root user (as this is setup in the`.bashrc` file in the user's home directory, I believe (find it with `ls -al`) – therobyouknow Sep 19 '18 at 11:55
@Henning seems to be related to external domain login at my institution. – Josiah Yoder Apr 20 '20 at 19:29

score 65 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 12 '10 at 16:53

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You can change your default shell for your user by using the usermod command.

sudo usermod -s <shell> <username>

replace with the name of the shell you want to use (i.e. /bin/bash) and with the username for which you want to change it.

This will set the default shell for the username selected in the /etc/passwd file.

answered Mar 12 '10 at 16:53

txwikinger

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Use `usermod` if you see "chsh You may not change the shell for..." – Xeoncross Jun 27 '16 at 23:22
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voting up, since chsh didn't work for me indeed. Thanks! – Mixaz Dec 08 '16 at 19:46
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Important to note that `usermod` requires `sudo` – ARun32 Jul 04 '17 at 22:00

How can I change shell in Ubuntu?

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