From: Jim Winstead Jr. (jwinstea@jarthur.claremont.edu)
Date: 07/06/92


From: jwinstea@jarthur.claremont.edu (Jim Winstead Jr.)
Subject: Re: non-root user unable to change passwd (was Re: Linux v0.96 rootimage uploaded)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1992 00:00:10 GMT

In article <1992Jul06.173817.6991@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu> jliddle@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Jean Liddle) writes:
>
>I did run into a problem which I hope someone can help me out with. It must
>be a FAQ, but I can't find an answere in any of the standard FAQ files.
>
>I just added a new user "jliddle" manually, as described in the FAQ:
> - edit /etc/passwd
> - create new home directory (/home/jliddle)
> - chown jliddle /home/jliddle
> - chgrp ## /home/jliddle
>
>I can login as jliddle just fine, but when I run passwd and enter the new
>password twice (when prompted) I get the message "unable to open passwd
>file".
>
>my permissions are as follows:
>
>/etc/passwd -rw-r--r-- 1 root root
>/bin/passwd -rwxr-xr-x 1 bin bin
>
>which is unchaged from installation from the 0.96 root diskette.

This is a result of the sometimes goofy file permissions on the root
disk - do a chown root:root /bin/passwd and you should be okay. Sigh.

-- 
                                    +    Jim Winstead Jr. (CSci '95)
                                    |            Harvey Mudd College
                                    | jwinstea@jarthur.Claremont.EDU
                                    + This is all my words.  Honest!