Running chsh does not change shell

Just ran into this. No matter what I did logging in and back out would not change my shell yet it was listed in /etc/shells and in /etc/passwd.

finally it dawned on me: Maybe I am logged in with another session?

So I did

# who

and it validated I did have indeed other open sessions from other machines:

dom  pts/0        Nov 6 13:53 (10.1.6.121)
dom  pts/1        Nov 5 12:30 (10.1.6.165)
dom  pts/2        Nov 4 12:33 (10.1.6.197)

I then did:

pkill -KILL -u dom

I was immediately logged out and after logging back in: Voila! Shell was changed

If you see chsh: Shell not changed., it could mean that the shell was already changed.

Check which shell is listed:

cat /etc/passwd | grep `cd; pwd`

If it's correct, log out and back in to have the change take effect.

When to run "chsh -l" if you to see:

/usr/bin/zsh
/bin/zsh

Then use:

chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh

Warning: The commands was run on Fedora 25, In ubuntun the option "-l" from is out.

Change it from /etc/passwd

I had some problems with zsh (that is default in manjaro) and I used it for get back to bash.

[infinito@manjaro ~]$ grep infinito /etc/passwd
infinito:x:1000:1000:Sergio N:/home/infinito:/bin/bash      <---here

if im right

sudo chsh -s /bin/zsh zol

is the correct command

the above command actually changes the shell but the problem with this is that you are logged in as that user here username "zol" so try logging out and comming back, this works

For some it may be a "big gun to kill an ant", but I did it in my free time to practice some things in shell.

Below is my "elegant" solution to change the default shell interactively and with some contingencies to ensure that it is changed according to the user's choice:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

clear_screen() {
  sleep 1
  printf "\033[2J\033[H"
}
# Clears the terminal screen after a short pause.

# Function to check if the shell is available
# Arguments:
#   $1 - The shell to check
# Returns:
#   0 if the shell is available, 1 otherwise
check_shell_available() {
    local shell=$1
    echo "$_AVAILABLE_SHELLS" | grep -q "$shell"
}
# Checks if the specified shell is available in the list of known shells.

# Function to check if the shell is safe
# Arguments:
#   $1 - The shell to check
# Returns:
#   0 if the shell is safe, 1 otherwise
check_shell_safe() {
    local shell=$1
    # List of allowed shells that i know are safe (sweet yourself with your own list)
    local allowed_shells=(
      "/bin/sh" "/usr/bin/sh"
      "/bin/bash" "/usr/bin/bash"
      "/bin/rbash" "/usr/bin/rbash"
      "/bin/dash" "/usr/bin/dash"
      "/bin/zsh" "/usr/bin/zsh"
      "/usr/bin/fish"
      "/usr/bin/screen"
      "/usr/bin/tcsh"
      "/usr/bin/ksh"
      "/usr/bin/mksh"
      "/usr/bin/lksh"
      "/usr/bin/oksh"
      "/usr/bin/posh"
      "/usr/bin/yash"
      "/usr/bin/elvish"
      "/usr/bin/xonsh"
    )
    local forbidden_shells=("/bin/false" "/usr/sbin/nologin")
    [[ " ${allowed_shells[*]} " == *" $shell "* ]] && [[ -x $shell ]] && [[ $shell == /* ]] && [[ ! " ${forbidden_shells[*]} " == *" $shell "* ]]
}
# Checks if the specified shell is allowed and safe to use.

# Function to change the user's shell
# Arguments:
#   $1 - The shell to change to
change_user_shell() {
    local shell=$1
    sudo usermod --shell "$shell" "$(id -un)"
}
# Changes the user's shell to the specified shell using the usermod command.

# Function to verify if the shell was changed
# Arguments:
#   $1 - The shell to verify
# Returns:
#   0 if the shell was changed, 1 otherwise
verify_shell_change() {
    local shell=$1
    local current_shell
    current_shell=$(grep "^$(id -un):" "$_PASSWD_FILE" | cut -d: -f7)
    [ "$current_shell" == "$shell" ]
}
# Verifies if the user's shell was successfully changed.

printf "Starting script...\n"

# Check if the user is in the sudo group
if ! groups | grep -q '\bsudo\b'; then
    printf "The user is not in the sudo group.\n"
    exit 1
fi

# Check if the dialog command is available
if ! command -v dialog &> /dev/null; then
    # Ask the user if they want to install dialog
    printf "The dialog command is not available. Do you want to install dialog? (y/n) "
    read -r response
    if [[ ! "$response" =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
      printf "Dialog installation canceled.\nPackage required to continue.\n"
      exit 0
    fi
    if ! sudo apt-get install -y dialog; then
        echo "Could not install dialog."
        exit 1
    fi
    clear_screen
fi

# Update the list of available shells, if possible
command -v update-shells &> /dev/null && sudo update-shells
# Updates the list of known shells, if the update-shells command is available.

# Get the list of available shells
_AVAILABLE_SHELLS=$(grep -v '^#' "/etc/shells" | tr '\n' ' ')

# Display the list of available shells for the user to choose
# shellcheck disable=SC2086
_SHELL=$(dialog --menu "Choose the shell you want to use:" 15 50 10 $_AVAILABLE_SHELLS 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3)
# Displays a dialog menu for the user to select the desired shell.

# Check if the shell is available
if ! check_shell_available "$_SHELL"; then
    dialog --msgbox "The shell you entered is not available." 10 50
    exit 1
fi

# Check if the shell is safe
if ! check_shell_safe "$_SHELL"; then
    dialog --msgbox "The shell you entered is not safe." 10 50
    exit 1
fi

# Ask the user if they want to perform the operation
dialog --yesno "Do you want to change the shell to $_SHELL?" 10 50
response=$?
if [ $response -ne 0 ]; then
    exit 0
fi

_PASSWD_FILE="/etc/passwd"

# Try to change the shell using chsh
chsh -s "$_SHELL"
# Attempts to change the user's shell using the chsh command.

# Verify if the shell was changed
if ! verify_shell_change "$_SHELL"; then
    # Try to change the shell using usermod
    change_user_shell "$_SHELL"
    # Attempts to change the user's shell using the usermod command.

    # Verify if the shell was changed
    if ! verify_shell_change "$_SHELL"; then
        # Try to change the shell directly in the passwd file
        _CURRENT_SHELL=$(grep "^$(id -un):" "$_PASSWD_FILE" | cut -d: -f7)
        _OLD_LINE=$(grep "$(id -un):x:$(id -u):$(id -g)" "$_PASSWD_FILE" | grep "$(which "$_CURRENT_SHELL")")
        _NEW_LINE="${_OLD_LINE//$(which "$_CURRENT_SHELL")/$(which "$_SHELL")}"
        sudo sed -i "s|$_OLD_LINE|$_NEW_LINE|" "$_PASSWD_FILE"
        # Directly modifies the /etc/passwd file to change the user's shell.

        # Verify if the shell was changed
        if ! verify_shell_change "$_SHELL"; then
            dialog --msgbox "Could not change the shell." 10 50
            exit 1
        fi
    fi
fi

dialog --msgbox "Shell successfully changed to $_SHELL." 10 50

dialog --msgbox "Restart the session to apply the changes." 10 50

clear_screen

exit 0

Feel free to change the trusted list and the methods of changing them or the order in which you try them.

If you have any questions, I'm here to answer them, just ask. (I'm also willing to make edits, if necessary)

Hope you like it!

EDIT: I added more explanatory comments about each method.

I got this error when installing zsh and ohmyzsh. I rebooted system to clear ssh first shell session and it worked. SO I change it and got this same error msg. Then I reboot. Now it loads zsh instead bash.