Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ingr!nijmeg!st_nik!nik
From: nik@st_nik.UUCP (Nik Simpson x333)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Problems with su
Summary: try running pwck on passwd file
Message-ID: <10020@st_nik.UUCP>
Date: 14 Feb 90 18:20:45 GMT
References: <19379@grebyn.com>
Organization: Intergraph UK Ltd. (SWINDON)
Lines: 22

In article <19379@grebyn.com>, rhodes@grebyn.com (Ned Rhodes) writes:
> 
> 	I had a disk go bad on a V.3 system.  I formatted up another
> drive and did a re-installation of unix.  I then overlaid my backup tape
> to take care of the differences.  The system comes up fine with one
> exception.  I can only login as root.  Whenever I try another username,
> it gives me the initial login banner and then says "no shell".  If I log
> in as root and then do an "su newusername", I get the error message "su:
> No shell".  

	Often the problem is that the passwd file is missing or has an
invalid field in it.  Any passwd entries after the invalid field will not
be usable.  I would suggest you run the /etc/pwck command which will tell
you about any bad fields in the /etc/passwd file.

	Hope this helps,  most problems we have like this are from this cause.

-- 
|--------------------------------------------------|
|  Nik Simpson	UUCP :  uunet!ingr!swndn!st_nik!nik|
|  Senior Systems Engineer.     Intergraph UK Ltd. |
|--------------------------------------------------|