Incorrect Login for root

[Pete Nesbitt]

On December 21, 2004 04:47 am, V.V.Prasad wrote:
> IAK Tanoli,
>
> Thanks. One part of the problem got solved. Now I am able to login as root
> as well as all users. I ran pwunconv. That moved the encrypted passwords to
> the passwd file and deleted the shadow file.
> However, if I run pwconv again, I am back to square one.
> I ran pwconv and that is how the system is at now.
> But the question is do I need shadow? What am I getting with it?
>
> prasad

Hi,
you definately want shadow passwords.

Without using shadow, the password is encrypted (hashed?) and stored in 
passwd, but /etc/passwd needs to be world readable. Anyone with access to the 
system can grab the hashed passwords and feed them into a password cracking 
program.

Using the shadow password scheme, the encrypted passwords are stored 
in /etc/shadow, which is readable only by root. That way there is still the 
required access to /etc/passwd without exposing your password to the world.

have you run pwck?

The problem sounds similar to the system being set to use ldap or kerberos as 
the authentication method, however the fix has already been suggested (run 
authconfig) so i presume that is not it.

Have you changed any PAM related files (/etc/security /etc/pam.d)? 
--- 
Pete Nesbitt, rhce