NIS problem: user not authenicating on one machine

BrianK · 11-11-2005, 06:10 PM

I added a user to my NIS server, did the "make -C /var/yp" variefied that it works on several machines. On one machine, however, it does not work. Oddly enough, on that machine, the account worked yesterday. Yesterday (or possibly the day before), I chagned the password for that user directly on the NIS server. I've rerun the make command since.. The user can still log in through all other machines, and other NIS users can log into this machine.

If I ypcat passwd.byname, I get the same return on all machines.

I can log into other NIS users on the machine in question, it's just this one account (chow) on this one machine (arsenic) that does not work. Unfortunately, chow sits at arsenic, so I can't just ignore the problem.

/etc/nsswitch.conf is set to look at "files compat" for passwd, shadow and group.

Any ideas?

The NIS server is running RH9
The client machine is running Suse9.3

Mad Scientist · 11-11-2005, 07:45 PM

On my NIS clients, that portion of the nsswitch.conf file looks like

Code:

passwd:     files nis
shadow:     files nis
group:      files nis

And you're sure this is not a firewall issue, since you've checked the other accounts in the last day to make sure that while "chow" doesn't work, the others do, right? If that's the case, you've really weeded down the number of culprits, and I would spend some time with nsswitch.conf, the passwd file on the server, and the user's home directory.

BrianK · 11-11-2005, 08:36 PM

After reading your post, I wanted to verify that my nsswitch was actually "nis compat" rather than "files compat" like I typed. It was.

For s4!ts and giggles, I tried logging in as chow. it worked. I logged into another machine & ssh'd in as chow. it worked again.

baffled.

Oh well, if anyone has experienced this before and has an idea what it may be, feel free to chime in. In the mean time, chow is a happy linux user again - for reasons unknown.

BrianK · 04-14-2006, 06:29 PM

ARGH... Broken again

As luck would have it, the graphics card died on that machine. In my attempts to get the machine up again, I switched distros (something I had been meaning to do anyway). Now, wouldn't you know it, the user chow does not work under the new distro. All other users work - all NIS users, but, for some unknown reason, "chow" does not.

any ideas what might be the problem? I'm guessing it must be something with the user "chow" on the NIS master, but I don't know what I should be looking for... chow uses the same shell, has its home dir in /home/chow (which exists on that machine), and is a member of the same group that the other working users are members.

baffled once again.

FYI: I'm using ubuntu with a 2.6 smp kernel. 2.6.12-10-686-smp to be specific.

BrianK · 04-14-2006, 06:37 PM

nevermind... got it working. It was looking at the wrong NIS domain