su login problem
 

Hi all

We use putty to login into our redhat servers with 2.4.21-27.0.1.ELsmp kernel.

In a particular redhat server I am able to login as a normal user via telnet. sshd is running but I am not able to use ssh logins.

Even in telnet I am not able to use "su" or "su -" to switch to any other user. If I use su like

$su - user1

or

$su user1

the putty terminal just freezes. The putty client is fine as I do not have any problem in logging to other servers.

/bin/su has -rwsr-xr-x access rights, so suid is not a problem.
We have had similar problems before, but a reboot usualy solved it.
This time I want a permanent solution as rebooting often is not an option. As I am not able to login as root, I cannot view files like

/var/log/messages
/var/log/secure

Thanks
Easwaran.K.V

Telnet is really insecure, and its strongly recommeneded using ssh instead.
Can you logon via ssh as a normal user? Normally logging in as root in ssh is forbidden for security reasons, look in your /etc/ssh/sshd_config file to enable root logins. If you can logon as a normal user in ssh then just su root once you're logged in.

You need to take a look in your log files and see if it gives a reason for the failure.

e.g. /var/log/auth.log
or syslog