[enh] please add a password change utility for normal users

[Allison Karlitskaya]

Unless I'm completely daft, there is no way for a normal user (not admin, no
command prompt knowledge) to change their password.

[Daniel Robitaille (robitaille)]

Here is a gnome upstream bug on the subject:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=71215

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

*** Bug 15530 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Allison Karlitskaya (desrt)]

System -> Preferences -> About Me.

[Daniel Ellis (danellisuk)]

Agreed that non-admin users should definitely have access to a GUI to change their password.
On Windows you can change your password with CTRL-ALT-DELETE -> Change Password.

"About Me" is available in Ubuntu, although it can be a little difficult for new users to find.
Searching for "change password" in the Ubuntu help does not return anything relevant at all. Ideally the first search result would direct the user to "About Me".

I cannot find any password change GUI on a default install of Xubuntu, I just cannot find a similar application to "About Me".

[Jesus Gamio (jgamio)]

Daniel in Windows no everybody knows the CTRL-ALT-DELETE -> Change Password.

is not in Xubuntu the Applications->System->Users adn Groups the option ?

[Daniel Ellis (danellisuk)]

The issue here is that a non-admin user cannot change their own password from the GUI in Xubuntu. A 'Desktop User' when trying to run the 'Users and Groups' options will get a message stating 'Failed to run users-admin as user root.' And rightly so, we don't want a Desktop user changing other users passwords!
Xubuntu needs something like 'About Me' in Ubuntu.

Even in Ubuntu it is difficult for a new user to know to go to 'About Me' in order to change their password. Both Ubuntu and Xubuntu do not have anything in the help relating to this (well, nothing appears when searching for 'change password').

In the case of Windows XP, it is not a matter of whether a user knows to press CTRL-ALT-DEL to change their password. I happened to know that, but it can be easily discovered by a new user because it can be found in the help by searching for 'change password'. The first result mentions CTRL-ALT-DEL and the second result 'Change your Password' guides the user to 'Users and Groups' in 'Control Panel'. A non-admin user is able to change their own password within there.

I believe this to be very important, I have first hand experience in installing Ubuntu and Xubuntu on friends and relatives machines. The parents don't want their teenagers to be able to configure the computer and the teenagers don't want to have to get their parents just to change their password.

I suppose it doesn't really matter what method is used at the end of the day. As long as it is in the help, but a simple GUI would be preferable.

[Vincent (vinnl)]

I'm not on a Hardy installation right now, but would PolicyKit be able to solve this?

[Cody A.W. Somerville (cody-somerville)]

Indeed PolicyKit solves this. Just use the "Users and Groups" from Applications > Systems

[Dougie Richardson (dougierichardson)]

Patched the "Keeping Safe" section in Ubuntu Docs to reflect that a password can be changed using "About Me".

[Matthew East (mdke)]

This bug was fixed in the current version of ubuntu-docs in Intrepid.