Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!ll-xn!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request
From: biocca@bevb.bev.lbl.gov (Alan Biocca)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: passwd bugs (was Re: Root passwd bug on 386i)
Keywords: 386i
Message-ID: <2477@helios.ee.lbl.gov>
Date: 5 May 89 06:11:15 GMT
References: <8903311251.AA04283@cobra.mitre.org>
Sender: usenet@rice.edu
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley
Lines: 15
Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
Original-Date: 24 Apr 89 19:24:43 GMT
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 265, message 4 of 9

In article <8903311251.AA04283@cobra.mitre.org> gfr@cobra.mitre.org (Glenn Roberts) writes:
>X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 232, message 10 of 21

>If you set your root password to anything with more than 8 characters on a
>Sun386i you won't be able to log in from the console as root!  (still can
>'su' though).  I haven't taken the time to find out why this happens or
>whether this same problem could exist on other Sun systems.

I have experienced this with user accounts as well, and this on Sun-3/68020
based systems running 3.x...  The system is inconsistent when dealing with
long account names in some cases trimming to 8 characters and others using
the whole length of account name (depending on the program(s) involved).
Our solution was to stay below 8 characters.

comments by Alan K Biocca