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

[D. Stimits]

Anders Knudsen wrote:
> 
> 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.

It sounds like you had MD5 passwords before, and either turned off MD5
passwords, or are missing PAM modules needed for MD5. Probably you
should boot up with a rescue mode floppy or CD, and do a chroot to the
mount point of the mounted hard drive with root partition. Then you can
run passwd. A sample of a good rescue floppy:
http://www.toms.net/rb/home.html

D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com

> 
> -Anders.
> 
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