Re: password mismatch

From: Jeroen Geilman (nospam_at_notadaptr.nl)
Date: 10/13/03 

Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 00:00:42 +0000

Fredderic <fredderic@iprimus.DOT.com.DOT.au> randomly warbled in
comp.os.linux:

> A friend of mine installed RedHat on his machine (some version he got
> off a recent computer mag), and is having a little bit of trouble.
>
> He forgot his root password.

Ask yourself: Is your friend ready for Linux ?

(No no, don't answer that - it's a joke, see ?)

> I tried changing it for him using the passwd command, and it seemed to
> accept it just fine. But when we tried to log in as root, using the
> new password we'd just set, it failed.
>
> I took a look at the password file, and noted something rather odd.
> The existing account passwords all had hi-ascii characters in them,
> but the
> one I'd just set with passwd did not. In the end I just
> copy'n'paste'd his user account password over his root password, so he
> could at least use
> it. But he still can't figure out how to change his account
> passwords.

..Exactly the same way ;-)

>
> I'm assuming that either his PAM is stuffed up (expecting a different
> format password to the one passwd is generating), or RedHat have
> effectively ditched passwd and are using their own mechanism for
> setting

Not likely.

Don't assume - check it !

/etc/pam.d/passwd should at least give you a clue on what it accepts,
and ./login should at least allow him to log in , yeah ?

Chrissakes man, test something.

Can he su -, or is the root password simply not recognized at all ?

What's in the auth logs ?

Bit skinny on the pre here, dude...

> them. Any suggestions? I personally use Debian,

So do I , but that's hardly an excuse to misunderstand RedHat...

> so I'm unfamiliar with the finer points of RedHat-enism.

Hah ! I *ditched* RedHat because of those finer points...

> Fredderic

Really ? Twwo dd's ? 

-- 
Jeroen Geilman
All your bits are belong to us.

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