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chage: PAM authentication failed ?

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Mikhail Zotov

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Mar 30, 2004, 8:09:22 AM3/30/04
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Hello everybody,

Every attempt to run chage on a Slackware 9.0 machine
results in a message given in the subject line.
On the other hand, in Slackware 9.1 chage works fine.

What can be wrong and how this can be fixed?
(An upgrade 9.0 -> 9.1 is currently not possible :-))
man chage says nothing on the subject.

Regards,
Mikhail

P.S. To answer by e-mail, please write to user
"e-boogie" defined at host "yandex.ru"

Lew Pitcher

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Mar 30, 2004, 8:45:04 AM3/30/04
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Mikhail Zotov wrote:

> Hello everybody,
>
> Every attempt to run chage on a Slackware 9.0 machine
> results in a message given in the subject line.
> On the other hand, in Slackware 9.1 chage works fine.
>
> What can be wrong and how this can be fixed?
> (An upgrade 9.0 -> 9.1 is currently not possible :-))
> man chage says nothing on the subject.

Mikhail,

Some more detail would be appropriate here. What commandline did you
use, and what (exactly) were the error messages? What packages have you
installed, and what customizations have you done?

You see, the error message you quote in the subject line seems to
indicate a problem with PAM (or 'Pluggable Authentication Modules), and
Slackware has /never/ used PAM. The vanilla Slackware packages are not
compiled with PAM support (they do have "shadow password" support,
though), so a PAM error is suspicious out of a Slackware program.


- --
Lew Pitcher, IT Consultant, Enterprise Application Architecture
Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group

(Opinions expressed here are my own, not my employer's)
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Alan Hicks

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Mar 30, 2004, 10:23:04 AM3/30/04
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In alt.os.linux.slackware, Mikhail Zotov dared to utter,


> What can be wrong and how this can be fixed?

STFW! Slackware does not include PAM. You'll have to compile it from
source yourself.

- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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Lew Pitcher

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Mar 30, 2004, 10:32:22 AM3/30/04
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Alan Hicks wrote:

> In alt.os.linux.slackware, Mikhail Zotov dared to utter,
>
>>>What can be wrong and how this can be fixed?
>
>
> STFW! Slackware does not include PAM. You'll have to compile it from
> source yourself.

More to the point, the OP should identify /why/ his 'chage' program
tries to invoke PAM. I've checked my up-to-date Slackware 9.0 install,
and the 'chage' there doesn't include a reference for PAM.

Package: shadow-4.0.3-i386-6

root@srdscs05:~# cat /etc/slackware-version
Slackware 9.0.0

root@srdscs05:~# which chage
/usr/bin/chage

root@srdscs05:~# strings /usr/bin/chage | grep PAM

root@srdscs05:~# strings /usr/bin/chage | grep authentication

root@srdscs05:~# strings /usr/bin/chage | grep failed
%s: failed to drop privileges (%s)
failed opening %s
failed locking %s
failed updating %s
failed rewriting %s
malloc(%d) failed

root@srdscs05:~# grep usr/bin/chage /var/adm/packages/*
/var/adm/packages/shadow-4.0.3-i386-6:usr/bin/chage

- --
Lew Pitcher, IT Consultant, Enterprise Application Architecture
Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group

(Opinions expressed here are my own, not my employer's)

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Anonymous Sender

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Mar 30, 2004, 1:04:19 PM3/30/04
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pgp trash troll delete

Anonymous Sender

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Mar 30, 2004, 1:04:18 PM3/30/04
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pgp trash troll delete

Alan Hicks <al...@lizella.network> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1

> In alt.os.linux.slackware, Mikhail Zotov dared to utter,


> > What can be wrong and how this can be fixed?

> STFW! Slackware does not include PAM. You'll have to compile it from
> source yourself.

> - --

> It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
> Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
> Ecclesiastes 7:5

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

Anonymous Sender

unread,
Mar 30, 2004, 1:04:18 PM3/30/04
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pgp trash troll delete

Lew Pitcher <Lew.P...@td.com> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1

> Mikhail Zotov wrote:

> > Hello everybody,
> >
> > Every attempt to run chage on a Slackware 9.0 machine
> > results in a message given in the subject line.
> > On the other hand, in Slackware 9.1 chage works fine.
> >

> > What can be wrong and how this can be fixed?

> > (An upgrade 9.0 -> 9.1 is currently not possible :-))
> > man chage says nothing on the subject.

> Mikhail,

> Some more detail would be appropriate here. What commandline did you
> use, and what (exactly) were the error messages? What packages have you
> installed, and what customizations have you done?

> You see, the error message you quote in the subject line seems to
> indicate a problem with PAM (or 'Pluggable Authentication Modules), and
> Slackware has /never/ used PAM. The vanilla Slackware packages are not
> compiled with PAM support (they do have "shadow password" support,
> though), so a PAM error is suspicious out of a Slackware program.

> - --
> Lew Pitcher, IT Consultant, Enterprise Application Architecture
> Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group

> (Opinions expressed here are my own, not my employer's)

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----


> Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (MingW32)
> Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

> iD8DBQFAaXneagVFX4UWr64RAlu4AJ9Fmi09rTKlBrH69JnMMsbk1vJ9nQCffv9m

Mikhail Zotov

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Apr 1, 2004, 8:38:39 AM4/1/04
to
Lew Pitcher <Lew.P...@td.com> wrote in message
> More to the point, the OP should identify /why/ his 'chage' program
> tries to invoke PAM. I've checked my up-to-date Slackware 9.0 install,
> and the 'chage' there doesn't include a reference for PAM.
[snip]

Dear Lew,

Thanks a lot for the very detailed answer.
It helped me to figure out what's going on:

root# grep bin/chage /var/log/packages/*
/var/log/packages/shadow-4.0.3-i686-2dl:usr/bin/chage
^^^^^^^^
:-/

Thanks again!

Mikhail

Lew Pitcher

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Apr 1, 2004, 9:14:30 AM4/1/04
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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Mikhail Zotov wrote:

I'll say :-/

That shadow package looks distinctly wrong.

According to slackware.com, the official Slackware 9.0 'shadow password' package
is shadow-4.0.3-i386-6 and the official 9.1 package is shadow-4.0.3-i486-8
(which also applies to slackware-current). Even http://www.linuxpackages.net/
doesn't list a shadow-4.0.3-i686-2dl package.

- --
Lew Pitcher
IT Consultant, Enterprise Application Architecture,


Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group

(Opinions expressed are my own, not my employers')


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Eef Hartman

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Apr 1, 2004, 10:07:19 AM4/1/04
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Mikhail Zotov <mux...@lenta.ru> wrote:
> root# grep bin/chage /var/log/packages/*
> /var/log/packages/shadow-4.0.3-i686-2dl:usr/bin/chage
> ^^^^^^^^

A package like normally is one, downloaded from "linuxpackages.net"
(the letters are for the one that posted it, and to distiguish it
from the official Slackware packages).
Someone probably wanted a PAM version of "shadow" and now you've
upgraded, the PAM support it needs isn't there anymore.
Replace it with the original SW package for YOUR Slackware version
and see if the problems disappear.
--
********************************************************************
** Eef Hartman, Delft University of Technology, dept. EWI/TW **
** e-mail: E.J.M....@math.tudelft.nl, fax: +31-15-278 7295 **
** snail-mail: P.O. Box 5031, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands **
********************************************************************

Anonymous Sender

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Apr 1, 2004, 1:21:20 PM4/1/04
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pgp trash troll delete Guy Macon

Lew Pitcher <Lew.P...@td.com> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1

> Mikhail Zotov wrote:

> | Lew Pitcher <Lew.P...@td.com> wrote in message
> |
> |>More to the point, the OP should identify /why/ his 'chage' program
> |>tries to invoke PAM. I've checked my up-to-date Slackware 9.0 install,
> |>and the 'chage' there doesn't include a reference for PAM.
> |
> | [snip]
> |
> | Dear Lew,
> |
> | Thanks a lot for the very detailed answer.
> | It helped me to figure out what's going on:
> |

> | root# grep bin/chage /var/log/packages/*
> | /var/log/packages/shadow-4.0.3-i686-2dl:usr/bin/chage
> | ^^^^^^^^

Tomas Stefano

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Apr 1, 2004, 1:23:14 PM4/1/04
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Eef Hartman wrote:
> Mikhail Zotov <mux...@lenta.ru> wrote:
>
>>root# grep bin/chage /var/log/packages/*
>>/var/log/packages/shadow-4.0.3-i686-2dl:usr/bin/chage
>> ^^^^^^^^
>
>
> A package like normally is one, downloaded from "linuxpackages.net"
> (the letters are for the one that posted it, and to distiguish it
> from the official Slackware packages).
> Someone probably wanted a PAM version of "shadow" and now you've
> upgraded, the PAM support it needs isn't there anymore.
> Replace it with the original SW package for YOUR Slackware version
> and see if the problems disappear.


Tthe PAM-enabled libraries come the from Dropline GNOME project. The
Slackware distribution maintainer AFAIK refuses to include PAM into the
official branch, because of its security problems. Anyway, the Dropline
GNOME enables this features and in combination with other non-PAMified
libraries it can cause some problems. The solution is, remove at least
the shadow*dl and libpam*dl packages and you'll see.

best regards

Tomas

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