The suggestion from others -- that you added shadow passwords -- is my first
guess as well. But why guess -- take a look. Does your system have the file
/etc/shadow in it? When you add a new user, does the entry in /etc/passwd
have an x in the second (password) field? These are the signs of shadow
passwords on my Slackware systems, and I think this is a Unix/Linux
standard. (BTW, they *are* the default now on Slackware; I don't know if RH
also switched over to them.)
The problem with shadow passwords is that ALL apps that change or use
passwords need to be updated. As you describe the problem, it sounds like
/usr/sbin/useradd has been updated but not /usr/bin/passwd . To check this,
compare the dates of the 2 files (using "ls -l") and see if passwd is
appreciably older than useradd. Also use the "which" command to make sure
that the right copy of passwd is executing.
You say you can add new users. Can both old and new users then login
successfully? /bin/login also needs an update for shadow passwords, but the
new version shouldn't work with "old" accounts -- accounts with their
passwords only in /etc/passwd (unless the update added them to /etc/shadow
-- take a look). Or am I assuming too much from your inquiry? -- "no one can
change their password" has several possible meanings, and I may be
interpreting it incorrectly.
When you say "We also cannot change our finger info", I assume you are
referring to use of chfn (that is, I assume that root can still edit the
/etc/passwd file manually). For this, I'd check that the app (/usr/bin/chfn)
has the suid bit set (in the "ls -l" output for it, the lefthand codes
should start with "-rws"). If they don't change this (as root) with the
command "chmod +s /usr/bin/chfn". Shadow passwords shouldn't cause this
problem, and if this isn't the source of your difficulty with the GCOS
("finger") info, I'm stumped.
At 12:32 AM 2/7/99 -0800, Ken Russell wrote [excerpts only]:
>We have been having a big problem with our user accounts since we upgraded
>our server from RH 4.something to RH 5.2. Suddenly, no one can change their
>password, including root! We also cannot change our finger info. The
>password file looks OK, and we can create new users and delete old ones
>(useradd, etc.), it is just changing passwords that is a problem.
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
762 Garland Drive
Palo Alto, CA 94303-3603
650.321.3561 voice 650.322.1209 fax [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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