Hey,

i'm using AIX 5.3 which authenticates against a Microsoft Active Directory.
Everything works fine but like everytime there's a problem.

I created users with usernames with more than 8 characters.

Now i tried do login on AIX with these users, which didn't work. The login-window prohibits the entry of more than 8 characters. Trying to login by shell succeeds.
Same behaviour using the ls-command. Only 8 characters are displayed. In my opinion the backround works allright because... (see exmaple)

Example:
users: testuser & testuser2
--> chown testuser2 folder
--> ls -altr shows: drwxrwxrwx testuser ....
Trying to open the folder as testuser collapses.
Trying to open folder as testuser2 succeeds.


Most important is the problem with the login-window. how can i permit typing more than 8 characters??

Thx

For a pretty long time 8 characters were a limit in AIX. Everything in excess were not being taken into account. This has changed in one of the 5.x versions (i'm not sure in which one), but it may well be that "dtlogin" (or "dtgreet" respectively) doesn't reflect this change. In this case you should open a PMR at IBM and get some corrective services from them.

As an aside: it may be that user names with more than 8 characters are now allowed but i would - for reasons like your problem - generally avoid going to such limits. It should be possible to create a naming convention for which 8 characters suffice and i'd suggest using that instead of other measures which may as well create similar problems with the next system you are trying to interconnect with.

I hope this helps.

bakunin

Beginning with 5.3 AIX can use usernames up to a length of 255 chars. Unfortunately this has to be configured as the default is still 8 chars (AIX does not complain if your login name is longer - however everything after the eighth char is not used for login name validation but ignored). Use smitty chgsys and change the "Max login name length at boot time" to the value you need. Mind that you need to add 1 to that number because of the extra char for the terminating NULL char. Reboot and try again.

thanks a lot for your answers.

Your solution-suggestion works absolutly fine, shockneck.


I think the ls-problem will open a PMR.

If you want to, i'll post the answer (in case of a wise answer).
But if somebody knows how to abolish the problem, please post it.


Greetz