Moving Solaris Users and Passwords to Linux

chicofidel · 08-18-2005, 01:36 PM

Guys -

I'm moving some FTP accounts from my Solaris 2.8 FTP server to my x86 Linux server and i do not want to have my FTP users set their passwords again. I want this change to be as transparent as possible. Shouldn't i be able to simply copy the /etc/passwd /etc/shadow and /etc/group files to my new box?

Thanks in advance

PenguinPwrdBox · 08-18-2005, 01:41 PM

No. Don't do that.
You may wipe some system accounts that are different from Solaris to linux.
I would scp the passwd, group, and shadow files across, and add a .old to the filenames.
Go into the .old files, and remove all the system accounts (nobody, gopher, etc) leaving only your users.

Then:

Code:

cat /etc/passwd.old >> /etc/passwd
cat /etc/shadow.old >> /etc/shadow
cat /etc/group.old >> /etc/group

chicofidel · 08-18-2005, 01:51 PM

Yes definately not. Actually i did a copy and paste of the FTP entries and it seems like it's not working. Let me try again ... will reply shortly

PenguinPwrdBox · 08-18-2005, 01:59 PM

It is conceivable that you will have to reassign passwords, as the hash that was used to encrypt them is probably different than the one you are using now...

chicofidel · 08-18-2005, 02:32 PM

The hash works cuz i can log in to the system. However, i can't connect via FTP. I get the following in /var/log/messages:

- PAM(username): Authentication failure.

But if i su - username as root, i get a shell

PenguinPwrdBox · 08-18-2005, 04:01 PM

What FTP server are you using?

chicofidel · 08-19-2005, 06:55 AM

actually, everything works fine. I forgot to add the (false) shell i used for the FTP accounts to the /etc/shells file on my Linux box. Thanks for your help.