[Lias] User management problem

[Robert McLeay]

Hi Tom,

If running as root: 

grep -i "username" /etc/passwd

returns nothing and you still can't add the user, here are a couple of
suggestions.

Try logging out completely and logging back in again, in case you have
logged in as the user in question and su'd.

Also, could the box in question be cracked and have a rootkit installed
that messes with the usertools? (It's probably unlikely that this is the
case, but my laptop got cracked last friday, so it's still fresh in the
mind) :(

Another suggestion: If you have warped usertools, try mv /home/username
/home/oldusername and then readding the user.

As authentication on unix usually just works from flat files, restarting
or rebooting is highly unlikely to do anything.

Regards,

Robert.

On Mon, 2003-05-05 at 22:42, Tom Doyle wrote:
> Coming from a windows background I restarted instinctively! :(
> 
> I ran 'updatedb' with no parameters... 'find' searches are quicker but same
> problem still...
> 
> A very annoying problem as it was going to be our new mail server this week.
> 
> cheers,
> Tom.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lias-admin at lists.linux.org.au
> [mailto:lias-admin at lists.linux.org.au]On Behalf Of Simon Bryan
> Sent: Monday, 5 May 2003 4:21 PM
> To: tom at stvincents.nsw.edu.au; lias at lists.linux.org.au
> Subject: RE: [Lias] User management problem
> 
> 
> Tom,
> I think there is an updatedb command that reverifies the users - not sure
> use man on it first. Sure I will be corrected if I am wrong!
> Also try the Windows solution - reboot - the idea is to restart the relevant
> service, but I am not sure which one it is, you could try a look in
> /etc/rc.d/init.d to see if one is obvious otherwise reboot (ensure that you
> have at least one user and the root user you can login in with first! Test
> that with su.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: lias-admin at lists.linux.org.au
> > [mailto:lias-admin at lists.linux.org.au]On Behalf Of Tom Doyle
> > Sent: Mon, 5. May 2003 3:47 PM
> > To: lias at lists.linux.org.au
> > Subject: [Lias] User management problem
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have just deleted a batch of users (all of them) from my new
> > email server.
> > There was no errors and Webmin reported that all was well.
> >
> > I am trying to add the users again and I get an error saying they users
> > already exist. Manually playing with userdel/add gives the following!:
> >
> > [root at test etc]# /usr/sbin/useradd jonesl
> > useradd: user jonesl exists
> > [root at test etc]# /usr/sbin/userdel jonesl
> > userdel: error deleting password entry
> > userdel: error deleting shadow password entry
> > userdel: error removing group entry
> > userdel: error removing shadow group entry
> >
> > I have checked the passwd, group, shadow, gshadow & shadow- files. I dont
> > know what the last file is but none of them have a jonesl entry
> > or any other
> > of the users.
> >
> > Only strange thing is that a select group of users seem to delete and add
> > just fine (about 10 out of 700).
> >
> > No help on google either.
> >
> > I hope someone can help me. Reply to list please.
> >
> > cheers,
> > Tom.
> > _________________________
> > Tom Doyle
> > Network Administrator
> > St Vincent's College
> > Rockwall Crescent
> > Potts Point NSW 2011
> > Ph: 02 9368 1611
> > Fx: 02 9356 2118
> > tom at stvincents.nsw.edu.au
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > lias mailing list
> > lias at lists.linux.org.au
> > http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/lias
> 
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