Slow login for some users

[RJA]

Have an HPUX 11.11 server where a couple of user ids experience a long delay waiting for the password prompt after typing in their user id. Also, as root, if we try to su to those ids, it also takes much longer than normal for that to complete. Any ideas. Thank you.

[Dino_4]

Are the user home-dirs locally or nfs-mounted?

Is there an 'special' entry in one of the startfiles (.profile or .?shrc of these users?

[Steven Schweda]

> [...] long delay [...]

Define "long".

> [...] after typing in their user id.

Typing into what? A Telnet session? SSH?
Workstation keyboard?

Is the problem with specific users, or with
specific remote computers?

One common source for similar problems is a
failure in DNS, when the server tries to do a
reverse (address-to-name) look-up on the
remote system which is connecting.

> [...] in one of the startfiles [...]

These don't get read between the "login:"
and "Password:" prompts.

> Also, as root, if we try to su to those ids
> [...]

_That_ part could be something in a user's
shell start-up script files. Adding
something like "set -x" might show you where
the delay happens.

[leelangco_1]

check your password file;

[RJA]

problem was that a lock file existed in the /tcb/files/auth/n directory for those user ids. the files were of the form x12345-t . removing the -t files fixed the issue.