[SOLVED] Unable to login as root through SSH

satya123 · 04-13-2011, 06:49 AM

I am sure I am typing the password right. And yes I have restarted the sshd daemon after making the changes

EricTRA · 04-13-2011, 07:02 AM

Hi,

Strange. And you are able to login remotely with any other user than root to the same machine with password authentication? What other changes did you make to the sshd_config file?

Kind regards,

Eric

repo · 04-13-2011, 07:06 AM

You did remove the "#"
before the line

Code:

PermitRootLogin yes

right?

Kind regards

satya123 · 04-13-2011, 07:12 AM

Yes I did remove the # before PermitRootLogin. That was the only change I did to be precise.

brownie_cookie · 04-13-2011, 07:46 AM

that's strange..

can you give us some code? copy/paste what you do in PuTTy to make the connection

satya123 · 04-13-2011, 08:14 AM

Putty is a kind of GUI configuration.

We just type in the IP address and select the type of connection (ssh/telnet/rlogin).

So I login to the remote system having the above mentioned IP address. Then the user name and password will be asked for authentication.

So it is more or less like the normal SSH session. I guess there is a problem with the configuration only.

One moment. I checked the logs and it says "User root not allowed because shell bash does not exist"

Hope this helps..

EricTRA · 04-13-2011, 08:44 AM

Hi,

Can you login on the remote server and su -? Then check permissions on /etc/shells and check if /bin/bash is mentioned in there. Also check permissions on /bin/bash itself.

Kind regards,

Eric

satya123 · 04-13-2011, 09:59 AM

Thanks a lot Eric

. The problem was the root entry in /etc/passwd file got modified somehow. The default shell was something else there. That was the reason for not logging in. I checked the /etc/shells and then stumbled upon this.

Thanks a lot everyone

brownie_cookie · 04-13-2011, 10:12 AM

Glad LQ could help

EricTRA · 04-14-2011, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by satya123

Thanks a lot Eric

. The problem was the root entry in /etc/passwd file got modified somehow. The default shell was something else there. That was the reason for not logging in. I checked the /etc/shells and then stumbled upon this.

Thanks a lot everyone

Hi,

You're welcome! Glad you got it solved. However, the passwd file being modified without you knowing it kind of worries me. Are you the administrator of that system? And do others have root access too? Sudo set up for some other users? I'd check the security of your system if I were you. Have fun with Linux.

Kind regards,

Eric