"memory fault" error when trying to su

[James Ellis_1]

A developer tried to
su userid

and a "memory fault" error appeared.

Also this error comes up,

"SEQ" variable - stack problem, variable loses its value when used by 8 user IDs simultaneously.

What is the cause of this error? I did not find any core dumps in the user's home dir.

Thanks.

[Hai Nguyen_1]

James,

Does /var/adm/sulog give you anymore clues?

Hai

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

ps -ef | grep userid

also just check your licence:
uname -a
kibo:ocmpadm> uname -a
HP-UX kibo B.11.00 U 9000/800 510710548 unlimited-user license

The unlim. lic. can be downloaded free from www.software.hp.com, but it's possibly a patch issue.

Later,
Bill

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

attached is a strings /usr/bin/su
I don't see that as a possible error returned from su..

It could be a shell issue?

Later,
Bill

[harry d brown jr]

if they didn't use the "-" as in "su - userid" then it didn't "execute" their .profile, so that's ruled out.

Is this the only user having the issue?

Do you have any "limits" set?

live free or die
harry

[S.K. Chan]

As far as the "memory fault" error is concern, one posible cause is corrupted .sh_history file of that "userid". Try to remove that file and touch a new empty file and see if it helps.

[harry d brown jr]

Are you using NIS or LDAP for passwd authentication?

live free or die
harry

[Thomas Schler_1]

James,

do you use HP-UX 11.00? Do you have PHCO_16127 installed?

The patch description says "Bug in su(1) causes core dumps on HP-UX 11.0". Install PHCO_16127.