Hello everyone,

I am unable to add new users to my system. I am currently using gentoo on ppc (G4, sawtooth) which I recently installed.

After running useradd, I run passwd to give the new user a password. Then I log out and try logging back in as the new user. I get the login prompt, then the password prompt, but after I give a password the system hangs. I tried waiting up to 20 minutes, but the same thing happens over and over, requiring a hard reboot.

I even tried out the superadduser util just to make sure I wasn't missing anything, but this doesn't work either.

The really strange thing is that root logs in without problems. I can even su to the new user in question, but I can't log in normally. Passwd doesn't give me any errors either when I change a user's password... I just can't login at the prompt.

I tried changing my compiler opts to something a little less questionable (mcpu=7400 instead of 7450) and re-emerging shadow, too. But this hasn't changed anything. (admittedly, I don't understand the shadow or PAM stuff very well)

Any help would be appreciated! I can provide information whatever information you think I need to work though this.

Thanks!!!
-b

After you add the user, edit /etc/passwd and remove the x from the second field, so it looks like this:
<user>::506:506:<Users real name>:/home/<user>:/bin/bash

Then save that and you should be able to login without a password.

Also make sure you have a /etc/skel directory with at least these files in it.
.bash_logout .bash_profile .bashrc

Okay, I tried this, but I get the same problem - system hangs. Interestingly, the first time I did this, I mistakenly removed both the 'x' from the passwd file and the colon that preceded it. What resulted was an 'invalid password' error when I tried to log in, but the crashing problem went away. After I fixed this (removing the 'x' but not the colon), the problem came back: my system hangs after I type the password and hit [enter].

BTW, if I don't type in a password and then hit [enter], my system doesn't hang. This suggests to me that the problem is in whatever program checks the password... perhaps this is a PAM problem? I don't really know where to start with PAM; it's pretty damn complex.

Right now I am recompiling glibc, since someone else (in another forum) suggested that glibc could be a problem if it were compiled with aggressive opts... so we'll see.

Anyone know how to cut out all the parts and replace them? I am at the point that I am actually considering just reinstalling the whole system. Ack.

If you remove the x from /etc/passwd then you don't need to enter a password, just login with the user name and hit <Enter> at the password prompt.

This should work, I have used it many times when I forgot passwords. Make sure your /etc/shadow file is owned by root and only root has rw access, that can cause problems in some systems if /etc/shadow has the wrong permissions.

Sorry, forgot to post back- problem solved. I rebuilt my whole damn system, piece by piece, without avail, until I finally got down to the kernel. Turned out I was using an unstable kernel. Ack! Don't know how I made that mistake in the first place, but the problem is solved now.

Thanks for the advice, everyone!