🚀 go-pugleaf

Okay, something seriously weird is going on here.  But first, the good
news.

I reclaimed my root password by running sync as a normal user from an
ssh session, holding my breath and hitting the reset button.  'linux
single' at the lilo prompt worked.  Thanks Eric Dahlman, whoever you
are.

The bad news is that I can't log in at the console!?!  Before I
cold-rebooted, I tried loggin in at the console both as root and as a
normal user.  When I log in with the wrong password, it gives me an
error message and outputs another login prompt.  When I log in with the
right password, it resets the screen and returns to a login prompt, as
if I had just run exit.  Now, after changing the root password back to
what it should be, it does the same thing.

Luckily, I can log in from an ssh just fine, both as root and as a
normal user.  I did two things that could have caused this: 1) installed
shadow passwords, 2) messed with /etc/pam.d.

First, shadow passwords didn't break my root password, as I logged in as
root after installing it (but before the password was mysteriously
changed).  I only tried this with ssh, however, no from the console.  I
installed all the new binaries with shadow passwords, so everything
should be updated to know about them.

I also only played with /etc/pam.d/samba, so that shouldn't have done
it.  Telnet does the same thing, btw.  FTP works fine.  Here is my
/etc/pam.d/login 

auth       required     /lib/security/pam_securetty.so
auth       required     /lib/security/pam_pwdb.so shadow nullok
auth       required     /lib/security/pam_nologin.so
account    required     /lib/security/pam_pwdb.so
password   required     /lib/security/pam_cracklib.so
password   required     /lib/security/pam_pwdb.so shadow nullok\
use_authtok
session    required     /lib/security/pam_pwdb.so

So, I'm guessing it's the binary that handles login/telnet that wasn't
updated for shadow passwords.  Anyone else want to tell me I'm right? 
And how do I fix it.  login came with shadow passwords and was updated
when I installed it.  Where can I get a version that works, or do I have
to look through the source code and recompile it?

Adam Carheden wrote:
> 
> Okay, I have no idea how, but my root password no longer works.  Can I
> simply boot from a floppy and replace the root entry in /etc/shadow with
> one from a computer who's root password I do know?
> --
> Adam Carheden
> carheden@holly.ColoState.EDU