[H-GEN] I can't login - HELP!

Mike Andrew mikero at norfolk.nf
Wed Dec 15 01:44:55 EST 1999


[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and ]
[ Unix-related topics.  Please observe the list's charter.          ]

it's /etc/shadow that's gone scrambled. Pam is upset about it's data base

run "pwck" and keep running it until the mess is sorted out, then

"pwconv"

this will accept your new /etc/passwd enttries into the shadow system

the 'x' in passwd.bak is quite normal, they are passwords that have been
converted by shadow-utils at some time in the past to /etc/shadow.


 Wed, 15 Dec 1999, Murray Spork wrote:
> [ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and ]
> [ Unix-related topics.  Please observe the list's charter.          ]
> 
> Eeek.
> 
> We had a power failure this afternoon and it fried my Linux box.
> 
> My /etc/passwd and /etc/group files went missing. I booted up in linux single
> mode. There was a file passwd.bak and group.bak that looked ok so I did --
> 
> cp passwd.bak passwd
> cp group.bak group
> 
> When I continued the reboot with <ctrl-d> I get to the login prompt without any
> more errors -- but it won't accept my password.
> 
> So I went back into single mode and changed the passwd using /usr/bin/passwd
> 
> Didn't help. Still wont accept the new password.
> 
> I checked /var/log/messages and this is what I found
> 
> plato PAM_pwdb[556]: get passwd; pwdb: structure is no longer valid
> plato login[556]: FAILED LOGIN 1 FROM (null) FOR root. Authentication service
> cannot retrieve authentication info.
> 
> I then tried deleting the passwd field for the root account from /etc/passwd.
> This didn't help either.
> 
> Also -- all  the passwd fields in /etc/passwd.bak appear to be a single  "x" --
> which is weird isn't it?
> 
> Can anyone help?
> 
> I am using Mandrake 6.0
> kernel is 2.2.9-19mdk
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Murray Spork
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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--
http://users.nf/linux/
StepByStep submissions: mikero at norfolk.nf



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