"Login cannot retrieve the details of the user bob, exiting" error??

[abc_18]

We have two HP-UX 11.11 machines, "tour" and "defrance". The machine "defrance" is brand new. It uses /etc/passwd, and is not set up for NIS.

When user "bob" tries to log into defrance, he gets a very bizarre error msg, and then the rlogind abruptly drops the tty connection:

tour(bob) 238>rlogin defrance
Login cannot retrieve the details of the user bob, exiting.
Connection closed.
tour(bob) 239>

It is true that "bob" does not have an acct on "defrance", but I expected defrance to use the standard behavior, which is to just ask for a different username:

tour(bob) 238>rlogin paris

paris [HP-UX B.11.11]

Login incorrect
login:
----
Is the "cannot retrieve the details" error a new security "feature"?

Is there a way to turn it off?

Thanks in advance.

[Dietmar Konermann · Accepted solution]

Hmm...

could it be possible that the user *was* present in the past on this system? Maybe it's cached by pwgrd and thus ispreauthenticated.

Try to stop/start pwgrd to rule this out...

# /sbin/init.d/pwgr stop
# /sbin/init.d/pwgr start

Best regards...
Dietmar.

[abc_18]

Thanks Dietmar - that fixed it! I see now why you have a crown.