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From: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu (Bill Paul)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Help: 2.0.5 died. (Sig 11 on login)
Date: 30 Nov 1995 15:45:32 GMT
Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research
Lines: 63
Message-ID: <49kjis$eis@sol.ctr.columbia.edu>
References: <MATHEZER.95Nov29084849@feisal.newera.ab.ca> <30BCE8A5.2781E494@FreeBSD.org> <Pine.HPP.3.91.951129164659.9439B-100000@feisal.newera.ab.ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host: startide.ctr.columbia.edu
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
Daring to challenge the will of the almighty Leviam00se, Stephen Mathezer
(mathezer@newera.ab.ca) had the courage to say:
: On Wed, 29 Nov 1995, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
: > I would first check that my /usr/libexec/ld.so is correct, and all the
: > shared libraries in /usr/lib as well. /usr/bin/login is dynamically
: > linked!
: > --
: > Jordan
: >
: The thing is, I can boot single user and run login no problem. I tried
: removing an excessively long line from the NIS group file but this didn't
: change anything.
: I still tend to suspect NIS because the FreeBSD machine crashed on the
: same day we tried to move our NIS master.
: I am still unsure where to look however
: -Steve
The NIS code in getgrent.c in 2.0.5 was very sensitive to badly formatted
entries in the group map. (The getpwent code as a little sensntive too,
though not quite as much as getgrent.)
Check for the following common errors:
- Blank lines in the passwd.by{name|uid} and group.by{name|gid} and
netgroup maps. Blank lines are a no-no.
- Badly formatted netgroup entries, i.e. missing parentheses, too few
colons (not enough fields), etc. (This shouldn't affect you if you
don't use netgroups.)
- Badly formatted lines in the same set of maps. Pay careful attention
to the group maps: watch out for things like noe enough colons (a group
entry has four fields, therefore there should be three colons as
separators), missing commas in the group membership lists, spaces in
the membership lists, or an excessive number of members (I think there's
a limit of 1024 members per group).
- Check that the magic '+' entry in /etc/group looks like +::: and that
it appears at the end of the file.
- Usernames in the passwd.* maps that are too long. The limit is supposed to
be 8 characters: with 2.0.5, a name longer than that can result in a
buffer overrun. 2.1 is somewhat less sensitive to this. 2.2 won't care
at all (I did away with the buffer copying).
(It is interesting to note that of all the OSes I admin, only AIX has
correctly identfied the presence of a 9 character username in my NIS
maps and warned me about it.)
Hope this helps.
-Bill
--
=============================================================================
-Bill Paul (212) 854-6020 | System Manager
Work: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu | Center for Telecommunications Research
Home: wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu | Columbia University, New York City
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