You want to

cat /etc/passwd | grep ts


Are you trying to add the user, change the password, etc. as root or some other user?

ok, so the /etc/passwd file exists, and the permissions look ok. try what billymayday suggested, and post the output. also, try this, and post the output:

then do what billymayday suggested again, and post the output.

I rebuilt the VPS from fedora core to debian, now when I try to change the password I get a slightly different error message, which reveals a bit more of the problem I believe....


> passwd ts
Enter new UNIX password: Retype new UNIX password: No password supplied
Enter new UNIX password: Retype new UNIX password: No password supplied
Enter new UNIX password: Retype new UNIX password: No password supplied
passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
passwd: password unchanged


I have contacted my hosting provider asking if this is a problem with the server that they have to fix, any ideas?

> cat /etc/passwd | grep ts
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/bin/sh
ts:x:1000:1001::/home/ts:/bin/bash


> /usr/sbin/useradd -p password ts
useradd: user ts exists


> cat /etc/passwd | grep ts
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/bin/sh
ts:x:1000:1001::/home/ts:/bin/bash

OK, it looks like for some reason the system is receiving repeated "enter" characters. Normally it should pause every time it prompts you to "Enter new UNIX password:". You enter a password (although nothing shows up on the screen for security reasons), it prompts you to re-enter it to make sure you didn't make a typo, and then it says authentication tokens changed or something like that. If you are not hitting enter, then something is screwed up. It seems like there would be other symptoms though...

As a workaround, you could delete the new user like this:

And then try this again:

That should work. Instead of typing "password", put in whatever you want the password to be.