root cannot login from console

[Tuan Nguyen]

Hello everyone,

I am having 2 hp-ux 9000 servers. One system is running hpux 11.0 and the other is running hpux 11.11. They are trusted systems. From the console, I can login as an regular user and su to root but I cannot login as root.

Please help.
Thanks a million
Tuan

[Tuan Nguyen]

Sorry...additional info...

Both systems (11.0 and 11.11) exhibit the same behavior. Is there anyway to allow me to log in as root from console.

Thanks again
Tuan

[Patrick Wallek]

See if you have a file called /etc/securetty

If so, does it have the word "console" (without the quotes) in it.

This file defines where the root user can login from directly. If the file exists, but does not contain the word "console" or contains something like "/dev/console" then you will see the behavior you mention.

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi Tuan:

On the server that prohibits a root login at its console, see if you have an empty '/etc/securetty' file. If so, add a line with the word "console" to it.

Regards!

...JRF...

[mobidyc]

Hello,

do you have any particular error message when you try to log in with root?

what is the content of your /etc/securetty file?

Regards,
cedrick Gaillard

[Tuan Nguyen]

Patrick, James, Mobidyc

Thanks for your super quick responses. I appreciate that.

Yes, both systems have /etc/securetty with the word console (no ") in it.

There is no "error" message when I login as root. I don't remember exactly but something like "invalid ..."

Tuan

[mobidyc]

Hello,

do you have any special characters in your password?

i've seen a similar problem with passwd containing *$@ chars which was misspelled on the console.

--
Regards
Cedrick Gaillard

[Tuan Nguyen]

No. as of now it does not have any special symbols.

[mobidyc]

no idea of what is wrong

but do you have syslog messages?

[Patrick Wallek]

The exact message you receive when attempting to login would help.

If nothing else, attempt to login at the console, write the message down on a piece of paper, then come back and post it here.

[Tuan Nguyen]

Hi,
The message is "login incorrect".

I found this in syslog.log

Nov 9 07:46:31 hprptest bootpd[26703]: Option 43: Client specified unacceptable option length (90 octets)
Nov 9 07:49:19 hprptest bootpd[26703]: Option 43: Client specified unacceptable option length (90 octets)

my password is 8 characters, no special, just text and number.

Thanks
TUan

[Tim Nelson]

Please restate exactly what you have in /etc/securetty

It must only contain the word console

nothing else

[mobidyc]

Hello,

ask you questions and wait for an answer and still ask for questions is very annoying.

i've taken a look at the login man-page (http://nixdoc.net/man-pages/HP-UX/login.1.html) where all the login proces is detailed.

i've also seen that there is a descriptif for all login error message.

please take a look at this doc and post your impress.

since your error message indicates that eser name and password cannot be matched,
try to enter your password in the login field, just for see if the characters typed are the correct characters.
also, if you can, try to move the /etc/securetty to securetty.save.

i 'don't know how to help you more for now.

--
Regards,
Cedrick Gaillard

[Tuan Nguyen]

Gentlemen,

It is the /etc/securetty file as you all told me all along.

# cat /etc/securetty
console
#

# wc -m < /etc/securetty
9
#

There was a space trailing "console" which I did not see it with my eyes. I cleaned it out and retyped the word console and it works.

Thank you very much for all your help. I appreciate that so much.

Tuan

PS. Points will be assigned shortly.

[Tuan Nguyen]

Thank you for all your help

Tuan