OK .. there is a shadow file and I did run pwck and pwconv and everything seemed fine. The root password in the passwd file is :x: All accounts were created with useradd but most use a shell account of /bin/false (Most are only email accounts). Running pwch and pwconv seemed to do the trick. I am curious though why it was only this one account? If shadow was not on wouldn't it be all accounts? Anyway .. thanks to all who have replied. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Gordon Dey [mailto:Gordon.Dey@basement.igs.net] Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 8:38 PM To: Dave Filchak Subject: change password error -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dave: Check to see that you have successfully done a pwck and then pwconv to turn on shadow passwords. If you don't see /etc/shadow and your root password is :X: then it's mucked up. You want to see the :X: *and* the presense of a /etc/shadow file. Plus, command vipw should ask you if you want to change shadow when you exit out of the passwd file. - -- 73, Gord. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE//LRqjzshXDxgCIARAjx7AKCt5q2pIE5ZjZRzISoeanjDHLTJNgCdFSHR JGHxWOnEVd+J9KYlvMWPFwE= =+yht -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ LinuxManagers mailing list - http://www.linuxmanagers.org submissions: LinuxManagers@linuxmanagers.org subscribe/unsubscribe: http://www.linuxmanagers.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxmanagers