From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Apr 29 05:43:56 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AD1BC37B404 for ; Tue, 29 Apr 2003 05:43:56 -0700 (PDT) Received: from dire.bris.ac.uk (dire.bris.ac.uk [137.222.10.60]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 734A543F85 for ; Tue, 29 Apr 2003 05:43:55 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from Jan.Grant@bristol.ac.uk) Received: from mail.ilrt.bris.ac.uk by dire.bris.ac.uk with SMTP-PRIV with ESMTP; Tue, 29 Apr 2003 13:43:47 +0100 Received: from cmjg (helo=localhost) by mail.ilrt.bris.ac.uk with local-esmtp (Exim 3.16 #1) id 19AUR5-0001RB-00; Tue, 29 Apr 2003 13:42:15 +0100 Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 13:42:15 +0100 (BST) From: Jan Grant X-X-Sender: cmjg@mail.ilrt.bris.ac.uk To: Jud In-Reply-To: <1051552552.73f8f180jud@myrealbox.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: Jan Grant cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: How to Regain 'Lost' User? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 12:43:57 -0000 On Mon, 28 Apr 2003, Jud wrote: > Was puttering along changing shells from sh to zsh for root and user, > using chpass -s. This went off without a hitch for root. Then > unaccountably (typo?), when trying the same for user, I received a > response that the user was unknown. > > When I try to create a new user with pw, I'm told a user with this > name already exists. When I try to delete the user, I'm told there is > no such user. Same with sysinstall - gave an error (74) when I tried > to (re)create the user. I've also attempted to delete the relevant > entries from the passwd, master.passwd and group files. After those > deletions, trying to add a user with sysinstall or pw results in an > error message about user being dropped or lost during the operation > (sorry, can't remember the exact wording as I sit here on lunch > break). > > So rather than continuing to flail about, where should I look for > information about what to do? You may want to check your /etc/master.passwd file (use vipw) to see if there's a problem there. Also read the man page for pwd_mkdb (8): you may find you can fix things by simply doing # pwd_mkdb -p -- jan grant, ILRT, University of Bristol. http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/ Tel +44(0)117 9287088 Fax +44 (0)117 9287112 http://ioctl.org/jan/ Work #90: As many pseudo-intellectual sycophants as necessary to make one inarticulate scotsman think he's a genius in command of The Profound.