500 OOPS: vsftpd: must be started as root
 

I cannot ftp to my suse 9.1 box.
below is the problem
# ftp 192.168.0.10
Connected to lnx2.
500 OOPS: vsftpd: must be started as root
ftp>

Okay, at the $ prompt, type in:

$ ps aux | grep vsftpd

What is the output?

If it shows up as running under your usual account, then theres your problem - vsftpd needs to be run as root (so it can bind to port 21?)

Kill vsftpd, su to root, then restart vsftpd

I wasn't running and when I tried to start it as root it says
# /usr/sbin/vsftpd
500 OOPS: could not bind listening IPv4 socket

lol, running that returned.

root 9360 0.0 0.0 22904 1320 ? Ss 01:04 0:00 /usr/sbin/vsftpd
Oldarney 9993 0.0 0.0 9136 1064 pts/1 SN+ 01:38 0:00 grep --color=auto vsftpd