SunOS 4.1.3_U1 yppasswdd trouble

I received a single reply on this (quoted below) that led my attention

to the GCOS field in general; as it turned out, someone (else:-) had

added a few users with 8-bit characters in the GCOS field, which

definitely is a no-no, at least on SunOS 4.x systems. Changing all

occurrences of these solved the problem right away. This could be a

good reason to use the 'nogecos' option to yppasswdd as show below,

although this in itself was not the cause of the problem.

Thanks to Ed Miller <ed.j.miller1@jsc.nasa.gov> who wrote:

> hi,

> here is how we do it in the /etc/rc.local on sun os 4.1.4 server

> /usr/etc/rpc.yppasswdd /var/yp/src/passwd -nogecos -m passwd

> DIR=/var/yp; echo -n ' yppasswdd'

>

> you can find good explanation in section 3.4 of the sun-managers faq

> cheers,

>

> Ed Miller

--- Original posting ---

On Thu, 1 Oct 1998, Carsten B. Knudsen wrote:

> Hi all,

>

> I am having a small (!?) problem with a yppasswdd running on our

> SunOS 4.1.3U1 NIS server. When logged on as root on the local machine

> and trying to change a user's NIS passwd, the following happens:

>

> # passwd jl

> Changing NIS password for jl on danbo.

> Old password:

> New password:

> Retype new password:

> RPC: Server can't decode arguments

> passwd couldn't change entry (rpc call failed)

>

> The really tricky thing is that this only happens with some users,

> while for other users, it works perfectly OK. I checked the master

> passwd file with 'pwck' and, except for some obsolete user accounts not

> having a home directory, it doesn't complain.

>

> The machine is an IPX running vanila 4.1.3_U1 rev B:

>

> # showrev

>

> *************** showrev version 1.17 *****************

> * Hostname: "sparc1"

> * Hostid: "57203127"

> * Kernel Arch: "sun4c"

> * Application Arch: "sun4"

> * Kernel Revision:

> 4.1.3_U1 (OSY_IPX) #3: Mon Sep 15 10:24:31 METDST 1997

> * Release: 4.1.3_U1 Version B

>

> Any hints or advice will be appreciated; I will summarize any replies.

>

> TIA

> /Carsten

---------------------------------------------------------------;-)-

  Carsten B. Knudsen Email: cbk@terma.dk

  TERMA Elektronik A/S Phone: +45 8622 2000

  Hovmarken 4-6 Fax: +45 8622 2799

  DK-8520 Lystrup, Denmark (@home:cbk@iname.com)

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[3797 byte] By [CodeProf.com] at [2007-12-25 11:33:00]