topic Re: Unknown user error with Hpux in Operating System - HP-UX

Unknown user error with Hpux

oza — Mon, 17 May 2010 06:50:55 GMT

Hi,
Any suggestion, I keep having User unknown error whenever I tried to switch to root in hpux. See details below.
$ su -
dbadum... User unknown
D060AHE... User unknown
cannot open /no/such/directory/dead.letter: No such file or directory
gbaheq01:/ #

Based on the suggestion from the forum, I have done the following:
# chmod go-w / /etc /etc/mail /var /var/spool /var/spool/mqueue
# chown root / /etc /etc/mail
and also
# vi /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
(and add right after the line #O DontBlameSendmail=safe)
O DontBlameSendmail=safe
But the error is still there. Any suggestion will be appreciated.

Re: Unknown user error with Hpux

Prasanth V Aravind — Mon, 17 May 2010 07:12:35 GMT

any scripts in /.profiole ???

what is "su root" output ??

same error or anything else ??

Gudluck
Prasanth

Re: Unknown user error with Hpux

VK2COT — Mon, 17 May 2010 07:17:32 GMT

Hello,

What do these commands show:

# pwck

# grpck

# /usr/lib/sendmail -bv root

# tail /var/adm/syslog/mail.log

# tail /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log

Also, can an ordinary user read the password
file (permissions 444 or 644)?

Is your su(1M) command really the one
that comes with the OS (in trusted
PATH)? I get very nervous when users
run "su -". I strongly recommend:

/bin/su - root

Corrupt pwgrd(1M) password and group
hashing and caching daemon can create funny
errors.

Well, we can come up with more ideas,
but lets see what the ebove commands reveal.

Cheers,

VK2COT

Re: Unknown user error with Hpux

Aneesh Mohan — Mon, 17 May 2010 08:16:34 GMT

Hi,

It seems like you are using a customised su command.Normally if you are doing su - from a normal user it should prompt for root account password.

Post this:-
#file `which su`

which
Aneesh

Re: Unknown user error with Hpux

oza — Mon, 17 May 2010 09:02:42 GMT

There are scripts in /.profile and the error is the same when I run "su root"
The permission on the password file is 644
The users that run su â are define in the /etc/sudoers file

gbaheq01:/bin # cat su
/usr/local/bin/sudo su.original "$@"

The output is attached.

Re: Unknown user error with Hpux

VK2COT — Mon, 17 May 2010 09:44:24 GMT

Hello,

Start with correcting these errors:

a) Invalid Unix accounts:

G495AHE:*:1186:20:Venkata Nareshbabu:/home/G495AHE:/bin/bash
Optional shell file not found

H184AHE:*:335:20:Emma Sevar:/home/H184AHE:/usr/bin/sh
Login directory not found

Y069AHE:*:340:20:Ed Tanner:/home/Y069AHE:/usr/bin/sh
Login directory not found

D080AHE:*:345:20:Scott Rumbold:/home/D080AHE:/usr/bin/sh
Login directory not found
...

b) Non-existent email alias or address dbadum:

May 17 10:02:32 gbaheq01 sendmail[23440]: KAA23440: to=dbadum, delay=00:00:00, mailer=local, stat=User unknown
May 17 10:02:32 gbaheq01 sendmail[23440]: KAA23440: from=D060AHE, size=183, class=0, pri=30183, nrcpts=1, msgid=<201005170902.KAA23440@gbah eq01.gb.tntpost.com>, relay=root@localhost
May 17 10:02:32 gbaheq01 sendmail[23440]: KAA23440: to=D060AHE, delay=00:00:00, mailer=local, stat=User unknown

c) If you allow user to execute su(1M) without SUDO, what happens:

# /bin/su - root

If you get the same error, then your root's profile is funny.

Let's see what happens next.

Cheers,

VK2COT

Re: Unknown user error with Hpux

singh sanjeev — Mon, 17 May 2010 10:23:31 GMT

is password file copied from another system.???

Re: Unknown user error with Hpux

Bill Hassell — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:39:59 GMT

>> The users that run su Ã¢Â Â are define in the /etc/sudoers file

The sudoers file is for the sudo command and has nothing to do with su. Im fact, if you have sudo installed, you should not be using su at all. Your system administrator probably installed sudo for security and reliability. Is there a reason that you don't use it?

And as noted in the errors reported by the pwck command, there is no /bin/bash on your system. If it has been installed, change the shells for the users with /bin/bash to the correct path (hint: chsh command).

As far as the errors during su - logins, you'll have to turn on shell tracing in /etc/profile and root's .profile to locate which commands are producing the errors and fix each one.

Re: Unknown user error with Hpux

oza — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:43:06 GMT

The error from the pwck has been corrected. How do I correct the dbadum... User unknown error.
How do I turn on shell tracing in /etc/profile and root's .profile to locate which commands are producing the errors and fix each one.

cheers

Re: Unknown user error with Hpux

R.O. — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:50:57 GMT

Hi,

Put this line at the beginning og "/etc/profile" and ".profile"

set -x

You will see the result of the execution of each command in these files.

Regards,

Re: Unknown user error with Hpux

oza — Tue, 18 May 2010 08:04:25 GMT

It looks like it's due to a missing directory on the server, which is preventing sudo from logging properly. As sudo can't write to a log, it is trying to send an email alert, and for some reason, it is trying to send them to an ID of "dbadum" which doesn't exist on the server.
I've now created /var/log, and have been able to su to root without getting the errors.
Thnaks for all your contribution.

Re: Unknown user error with Hpux

oza — Tue, 18 May 2010 08:06:18 GMT

I've now created /var/log, and have been able to su to root without getting the errors.

Re: Unknown user error with Hpux

VK2COT — Tue, 18 May 2010 08:22:51 GMT

Hello,

Good to see your problem is gone.

As a token of appreciation, you could assign
some points to the people who tried to
help you in this forum.

A nice word and kind attitude go a long way
in human relationships.

Cheers,

VK2COT

Re: Unknown user error with Hpux

Bill Hassell — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:05:16 GMT

> /var/log is missing...

This is not an HP-UX directory. It looks like the sudoers file contains a logfile directive that came from a Linux system.