problem with CDE login

[Luc Monnens]

Hi all,

I am configuring an L3000 server (hp-ux 11.0).
I have been running an L2000 server (also hp-ux 11.0) fine for the last 2 years and am using that as an example to configure the new one.

When I try to login to the L3000 with CDE, I get a "Login failed, try again" popup. I try again and it succeeds.
Yes, I typed my userID and password in correctly at both attemps.
This happens EVERY time: first time fails, second time ok AND it is the same for ALL users except root.
Main difference: root is local and all others use LDAP and have NFS mounted home directories.

I checked al config files on both servers. They are the same.
I checked the logs and they do not give me anything, except maybe the following in ~HOME/.dt/errorlog: "*** ERROR(4): dtwm : PID number: date Invalid Integer -- middle *** [81]", but I have no clue what that could mean.

Why does it ALWAYS fail at the first attempt and is it ALWAYS ok on the second?

Any help is much appreciated.

Kind regards,


Luc Monnens
Systems Manage

[Alex Glennie]

the timestamp on the errorlog ... is it relevant ?

could you post a copy of your pam.conf file ?

what happens if you create a local user but stick with ldap authentication ?

Patch level & O/S ?

anything in the syslog at the time of login failures ?

Can you telnet OK into the box and also try a failsafe session as opposed to a full blown CDE session .... any differences ?

Shell involved, local history file or one located in /tmp ?

anything in $HOME/.dt/startlog ? tried ttracing the login process ?

is there a $HOME/.dt/paminfo_:0 created/timestamped ? Oh and are users sharing the same $HOME's at all ?

....just a few ideas to narrow this down a bit.

did you bounce/restart dtlogin after setting up ldap ?

[Zeev Schultz]

Ok.All these users can access the system
using LDAP?
1)check /etc/nsswitch.conf (passwd line) that it contains ldap.
2)check /usr/lib/security/ that it contains libpam_ldap.Also check /etc/pam.conf to have
ldap enabled for all services (authentication,account management,session,password).
3)I think that syslog should contain entries from pam (ldap etc) if login fails.Though I might be wrong (I saw that in Linux).

Zeev

[David_246]

HI Luc,

Try to mount the local FS of a user first by cd into his homedir. Then on another terminal login using his name. If the same problem occurs mentioning NFS is not applicable anymore. maybe a tusc -p could help. You can see the differences of first login attempt and second.

Regs David

[Luc Monnens]

Hi all,

Thank you for your answers, most of which I had tried already.

I had another look at my hosts file and noticed the nameserver address was incomplete.
After correcting that, I got in fine (every time).
So sorry for wasting your time, but I just kept looking over it.

I only got that ERROR message in the .dt/errorlog once (timestamped at the fist time I got in succesfully without retry), but I'll keep an eye open for it.
If anybody has any idea, what it might mean or what it might be caused by, please feel free ....

Thank you once more.

Kind regards,


Luc Monnens

[Luc Monnens]

Sorry forgot to close.