problem with RH ES 4

[itai weisman]

Hi people,
I have installed a brand new linux machine, that runs Red Hat Enteprise Server 4, with kernel version of 2.6.9-5.ELsmp.
i have the following problems: I can't login with telnet with user root.
commenting the first line in /etc/pam.d/login does not work, the way it used to work on RH 3 machines.

[Stuart Browne]

I do'nt have a RH4 system here, so can you paste the content of '/etc/pam.d/login' into a post for us please?

[itai weisman]

[root@dns2 pam.d]# cat login
#%PAM-1.0
#auth required pam_securetty.so
auth required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
auth required pam_nologin.so
account required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
password required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
pam_selinux.so close should be the first session rule
session required pam_selinux.so close
session required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
session optional pam_console.so
pam_selinux.so open should be the last session rule
session required pam_selinux.so multiple open

[Ivan Ferreira]

You sould not use telnet and worst with root.

I think the telnet is built/hardcoded to verify the securettys file on this version, or to not allow root logins at all. If you have the telnet-server source, check the spec file.

You can try configuring the /etc/securettys file just in case.

Is better if you use secure shell instead telnet.

[Gopi Sekar]

alright your problem is simple. you have to add the tty entry (most likely it is /dev/pts/1, /dev/pts/2 etc...) in /etc/securetty file which controls what are the tty sessions where root is allowed to login.

by default root is allowed only in consoles (/dev/tty1 to 12). so better add pts entries and you should be fine.

but as suggested, avoid telnet and use ssh

Hope this helps,
Gopi