passwd changing problems

[Job Cacka]

<<"I am running RHEL-3 on a AMD-64 Sun Fire V20Z box
<<when i try to change the passwd for any user including root on the
<<system ,the command returns as follows:
<<[root at Agni root]# passwd
<<Changing password for user root.
<<passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
<<
<<I googled and tried pwck,grpck,pwconv,grpconv..these commands are
<<fine(run without errors).etc...but the problem persists."

It sounds like you do not have a /etc/shadow file. Do you? Is it or the
/etc/passwd file corrupt?

Are they the same number of lines?
# wc passwd
# wc shadow
   The first number returned is the number of lines in each file.

Are the accounts locked?
# man passwd
 Look at -l and -u

Have you used any tools to administer users, groups, or passwords in the
past (LinuxConfig, Users and Groups)?

Both of the files should be owned by root and in the root group.
The passwd file permissions should be 644
The shadow file permissions should be 600

When did this start?
If you look at the time/date stamps on your /etc/shadow, /etc/passwd, and
/etc/pam.d/passwd file did they change then?
Look in the /home directory and do:
#ls -lt
What user was created most recently? When were they added? Did you do
something differently when creating them, or setting their passwd?

Do you have SELinux setup?

Hopefully this will help troubleshoot your problem.
Job Cacka