UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello,

Before I go typing a lot of stuff that may be useless. Here is the summary of my problem:
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I cannot log in locally on my Solaris 10/09 x64 system. When I try to log in using my NIS account credentials, the system shows the X Window system trying to load (i.e. "Starting Desktop Login on display :0....." in the console-looking thing (pre-gui)), then it kicks me right back out to the login screen. I am using the Java desktop but the CDE Desktop does the same thing.

I can log in successfully as root. but I cannot remote console into other systems from my local/trouble box using my NIS credentials; but I can remote into other systems using my NIS credentials using other systems (if that makes any sense). In short, it seems like my NIS credentials seem to work or are valid but that my profile has become corrupt for local logins... ?
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It all started when....

I was messing around the other day trying to change my default shell from the bourne/basic shell to something else (i.e. ksh or zsh). I read some forums that suggested running the passwd -e (username) command etc... I couldn't get these to work....
Solaris UNIX: Change Default Shell

It may just be coincidence (most likely) but after doing that and looking at the passwd and shadow files (not saving, just using "view passwd" and "view shadow" and immediately quitting (Shift + q -> q), I cannot log in on the system using my NIS credentials. It may have been something else dumb that I did along the way but I can't think of anything else other than that that may have affected my account.

Just because it was my test box, I re-built it thinking that it was something local, and when I still had the problem, I went to the NIS server (in the SMC) and changed my password, reset my password, etc... and it all seemed to work fine from the server-side (i.e. I set my password as something, and was able to get the server to recognize the change in the Remote Console on another system, and I set my password properties where it had to be set "... at next logon...". On my problem/local box, it recognized that I needed to change my password on the first logon, let me change it, and then when the X Window system tries to load, it kicks me back out to the login screen.

I am fairly new to Unix/Linux, so any assistance on where I may start looking is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

---------- Post updated at 01:35 PM ---------- Previous update was at 12:32 PM ----------

I created another user account (through SMC in NIS), and it suffers from the same thing on the same computer. I have the same symptoms with the new account on the problem computer.

can you set for nis user local home in /etc/auto_home and /etc/auto_master ?

(comment out #+auto_master and #+auto_home for nis users )
and add to /etc/auto_home like this if there isnt

Code:

user1 myniscl:/export/home/user1

and be sure rpc.nisd daemon working..

Hello ygemici,
Thank you for your reply. I am not sure that I understand all of what you said. I have rights to change the /etc/auto_home and /etc/auto_master. The current local home is set similar to what you recommend (e.g.):

Example entry from the auto_home:
---------------------------------------------------
user1 nisserver:/Ldisk/accounts/user1.
---------------------------------------------------
The auto_master has the following:
---------------------------------------------------
# Master map for automounter
#
+auto_master
/home auto_home
/apps auto_apps -nosuid
#/user/local auto_local
---------------------------------------------------

I checked for the rpc.nisd deamon but did not see it running (did a "ps -ef | grep rpc") or that it is present. I saw rpcypbind deamon was running.

I am fairly new to the Unix environment so I do not know as much as I should (yet...).

The other thing is that my account (which does not work on the system now) worked previously. There was an issue when my predecessor created the account and he mentioned something about the shadow password being a problem. I am not sure if this is the same thing again...?

passwd -r [nis[plus] or ldap] -e

updates files other than /etc/passwd,

Code:

passwd -e -r nis

is what I would expect, but I don't know for sure how your system is configured.

This might fix your current problem, but it will prevent it in the future.

I suspect your editor adding some alien characters to the files you viewed...
It is a good practice and saves a lot of trouble to ONLY use vi when editing anything system... So even if it were not the case, try to avoid using anything else when looking at sensible system text files...

Thanks jim mcnamara for the info.

I tried the passwd -r nis -e myusername and it seemed to do some things (i.e. it asked me what my password for my account was and then it asked me if I wanted to change my shell). I think this is what I wanted to do originally (just change my shell). At first I changed it to the zsh after figuring out where the files were doing a which zsh. Then when I still couldn't log in, I switch it back to the default again...

However, it did not fix the problem. I still get kicked out right after I try to log in. I am going to create a test user account now to see if it suffers from the same thing. I tried re-building a system and naming it something else just to rule out a blocking thing on the computername/id but the different system still has the problem with my account, so it defineately seems to be a problem with the account itself and the /home directory and/or settings.

It could very well be from when I was looking at the files as vbe said. I thought that the "view" command was a non-volatile thing. I may have viewed the files while doing a su and that could have goofed my passd file or my shadow file....

I appreciate your help in this. I am new to Unix and have not run into this before.

---------- Post updated at 12:02 PM ---------- Previous update was at 11:51 AM ----------

New Update:
I just created a new user account. Afterwards I was told to do a /var/yp ./make command to push out the settings etc.. for the new user account. I have the same problem with the new user account. I can Remote Login to another system but I cannot log in on the local machine.

Not sure if this helps...

Have you tried the password and group file checker programs? They don't change anything, they just check.

Code:

pwck
grpck

Also check /etc/passwd against /etc/shadow to make sure that they are in the same order and match on username.