useradd: cannot rewrite password file

seyiisq · 08-12-2014, 03:24 AM

Hello All,

I am trying to add user as root and I keep getting the error as shown above.

useradd: cannot rewrite password file

I know i have SElinux in enforcing mode but not sure what t do to resolve this

Code:

[Machine]# getenforce
Enforcing
[Machine]#

Please, can anyone help

kooru · 08-12-2014, 03:47 AM

It sounds as a very old bug. What's the distro you are running?
Try to disable SELinux.

seyiisq · 08-12-2014, 10:18 AM

Thanks Kooru,

I am on REDHAT Release 4.

sundialsvcs · 08-12-2014, 12:57 PM

FYI, if I were using SELinux, I probably wouldn't be using "password files" anyhow. This would probably be part of a larger system network which I would manage using Kerberos or LDAP (ActiveDirectory).

seyiisq · 08-12-2014, 02:20 PM

Thanks sundialsvcs,

We do not have that in place for our linux servers hence we are restricted to using Password file.

kooru · 08-12-2014, 02:44 PM

But RHEL 4.0 or 4.x?
We're talking about a system released in 2005 and its supports will end between 6 months. Just for information.

have you tried disabling SELinux?
also check for *.lock files in /etc (in according with this)

Smokey_justme · 08-12-2014, 03:05 PM

Hmm... Do an

Code:

lsattr /etc/passwd

first and see if there aren't any flags that block any modifications to the file (like the 'i' flag)