shadow looks good, root can't authenticate

[pjr]

Hi,

I verified ls -lh shadow and passwd on RH 9.0 (Shrive) and ownership, etc.
look fine.

-----------------------------

Passwd shows:

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

This line shows that the root user has a shadow password, as well as a UID
and GID of 0. The root user has /root/ as a home directory, and uses
/bin/bash for a shell.

Shadow shows:

root::11803:0:99999:7:::(in other words, the shaw hash removed from between
the first two colons, so pw should be blank)

(also note this epoc date is fictional here b/c it is irrelevant but similar
to # here shown)

Now HERE'S THE WEIRD PART:

At the GUI logon, after entering 'root' <enter> I get a message
"Authentication Failed" <OK> (nothing else in the message), BEFORE I ever
even get the prompt for password (which would/should be empty). This
behavior is not the case if I enter JohnDoe or any other fake user name.

FLUFF: This is a brand new install of RH 9.0 Server on an old box, full
install (all package options, including Kerberos). Accordingly, I have not
established any other user accounts yet on it.

I'm VERY new, so if there is a more appropriate place I can post this, with
high probability of intelligent replies, please let me know.

Thanks in advance,

Paul

paul.j.r...@earthlink.net

cell: 919-417-7556