Redhat caught in a login loop!

[SelbyGlenn]

Hi there,

I have a dual boot OS: Redhat 7.3 and Slackware 8.0. The lilo is on the Redhat partition. Slackware boots fine. Redhat was working fine and now all of a sudden whenever I try to log into Redhat (default is text mode) it loops round straight back into the login screen. If I use an incorrect user name or password it will tell the login is incorrect (as expected). So it is definitely logging me in but it's kicking me straight back out again. It's happening with all logins.

Please help!
Glenn
BEng A+ MCSE CCA

 

[pupu]

Something probably happend to your shell. Try to boot RedHat into single-user mode or using boot cd with rescue option and examine logs.

 

[SelbyGlenn]

I'm very new to Redhat. Can someone please tell which log file I need to look in to find this login fault. I have over 60 log files!

Cheers, Glenn
BEng A+ MCSE CCA

 

[Morsing]

60 log files?!?

Look in /var/log/messages or do a 'last'

Cheers Henrik Morsing
IBM Certified AIX 4.3 Systems Administration

 

[HeyZuess]

holy smokes! 60 log files???

go to /var/log and check either messages or secure.

the log files with a number appended to the end have been rotated and are older as the number increases.

 

[SelbyGlenn]

Aha! Now I'm getting somewhere. Secure reports the following:

redhatpc sshd[828]: Server listening on 0.0.0.0 port 22

redhatpc login: pam_ldap: ldap_simple_bind Can't contact LDAP server

redhatpc login: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info.

Now I must confess I have been messing around a lot with this server. It is on a test rig but I would really like to fix the fault instead of reblasting it (that's cheating!!) I do recall selecting something to do with LDAP which is no doubt the cause. Question is how do I stop the server trying to authenticate with an LDAP server that does not exist!!

Any help in pointing me in the right diection would be great! I hate letting these things beat me!

Thanks in advance,



Glenn
BEng A+ MCSE CCA

 

[marsd]

Sounds like filesystem corruption or a
corrput binary. Usually when you cannot authenticate either passwd or shadow has been corrupted. Why is up to you to figure
out, could be innocent , but then again..

Boot to single user mode and check to and
restore a backup copy of your passwd and shadow files, sync and then reboot and see if you can login.

 

[marsd]

Nevermind, I just read your entry after posting mine at the same time.

You will need to change your pam settings back to the default auth type.
man pam.

Next time do not mess with your auth settings.