[lug] Password problem (post RH7.2 upgrade)

[Anders Knudsen]

Just upgraded my RH7.0 system to 7.2.

After the upgrade, my root password did not work! :O
Some time digging caused me to find out that now, all passwords on the 
system are truncated to 8 characters!
If I typed the full password, which is longer than 8 chars, no joy.
Type in the first 8 chars of the password, we have login!
If I try changing passwd, to something longer than 8, then still can only 
use first 8 chars to login.
So...my question...
How/Why did this happen?
What can I do to mitigate?
I was unable to find any documentation, be that FAQ or manpage, that 
explained how to limit the maximum length of a password (unlike minimum, 
which is easy to adjust.)

Any and all advice greatly appreciated.

-Anders.