Re: unable to su to root, sudo works SOLVED sort of

Damon L. Chesser wrote:
subject says it all, from auth.log:
Jan 19 15:56:06 dam-main su[5800]: pam_unix(su:auth): authentication failure; logname=damon uid=1000 euid=1000 tty=pts/2 ruser=damon rhost= user=root
Jan 19 15:56:09 dam-main su[5800]: pam_authenticate: Authentication failure
Jan 19 15:56:09 dam-main su[5800]: FAILED su for root by damon
Jan 19 15:56:09 dam-main su[5800]: - pts/2 damon:root
Jan 19 15:56:32 dam-main login[4704]: pam_env(login:session): Unable to open env file: /etc/environment: No such file or directory
Jan 19 15:56:32 dam-main login[4704]: pam_unix(login:session): session opened for user root by LOGIN(uid=0)
Jan 19 15:56:32 dam-main login[5814]: ROOT LOGIN on 'tty1'
Jan 19 15:58:29 dam-main sudo: damon : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/damon ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/tail -f /var/log/auth.log
Jan 19 15:58:29 dam-main sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by damon(uid=0)
Jan 19 15:58:29 dam-main sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Jan 19 15:59:30 dam-main su[5919]: pam_unix(su:auth): authentication failure; logname=damon uid=1000 euid=1000 tty=pts/2 ruser=damon rhost= user=root
Jan 19 15:59:32 dam-main su[5919]: pam_authenticate: Authentication failure
Jan 19 15:59:32 dam-main su[5919]: FAILED su for root by damon
Jan 19 15:59:32 dam-main su[5919]: - pts/2 damon:root

There is no /etc/environment as the log claims.

I can log in as root (shown above) both on tty1 and in the GUI (gdm). Running Sid, up to date
This is not a show stopper, but it makes me go, "hmmmmm". Any ideas?

and I can do sudo su.

All,

Since I have a badCRC on hda, I will redo my HD layout. I will omit XP on my HDs all together. I will set up a raid1 as the boot device (mdadm). This will prevent a bad disk from making me lose my boot ability and I will use XP (when forced to) in a VM. The drawback\advantage is I will have to re-install Debian. This should fix what ever fault is causing this very interesting issue. I should like to figure out what the fault is, but it is more expedient for me to get a system that will not go belly up at any moment. Thanks for the input.

--
Damon L. Chesser
damon@xxxxxxxxxx



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