passwd -r nis fails

2007-12-25 10:28:00

I got two responses, both of which suggested trouble-shooting techniques.

I didn't try them because I had figured out the answer myself already.

Thanks to:

Arthur Darren Dunham <add@netcom.com>

anders@hmi.de (Thomas Anders)

The solution:

It turns out that newer versions of Solaris do not allow root to change

NIS* passwords. From man passwd(1) in Solaris 2.5.1 and later:

In the files case, superusers (for instance, real and effec-

tive uid equal to 0, see id(1M) and su(1M)) may change any

password;

But, from man passwd(1) in Solaris 2.4 the same section reads:

Super-users (for instance, real and effective uid equal to

zero, see id(1M) and su(1M)) may change any password;

So, in 2.5 or 2.5.1 this root power was rescinded. Nice of them to

document it so well. :-(

The original question:

> I am suddenly unable to change NIS passwords on my E-150 w/ 2.5.1.

> Changing files passwords works. rpc.yppasswdd is running. This worked

> a week ago!

> When I try:

> root> passwd -r nis user

> Enter login(NIS) password:

> New password:

> Re-enter new password:

> I get:

> passwd: couldn't create client

The suggestions:

Arthur Darren Dunham <add@netcom.com>:

Try trussing yppasswdd. That may be more enlightening.

anders@hmi.de (Thomas Anders):

Is rpc.yppasswdd running on the same server? If not, snoop the

network traffic and look at the rpc.yppasswdd output on the server.

David L. Markowitz Director, UNIX Software

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