For the strangest reason when i changed my internet/network settings (host name, dhcp, gateway, etc.) whenever i try to logon as root iI was given an invalid password error, but the awkward thing is that I can logon as another user and when asked for root password to run certain apps it works. I thought perhaps the problem was with GNOME Desktop Manager so I uninstalled it but I still have the same problem. Now when I login with the shell as another user I can use su to login as root and use Xterm, but I really don't want to go through all of that just to login as root. If you can provide any sort of help please reply. If it's of any help I'm running Mandrake Linux for i586.


ps: I've already tried passwd

Can you change the root password after you su?


Are you always online?

Yep, I've tried passwd logged on as root and as another user. And yes I'm ALWAYS online.

is it possible you've been hacked?
do you use tripwire or have you figerprinted your config files?
just a stab...I think it sounds funny that it would occur when you change routes to the net...

i highly doubt it because i just installed linux

can you go down to single user mode?
as su
/sbin/init 1

if so can you passwd here?

i've already tried passwd every way I can. I don't think the problem is with the password because I can use su root after logging in as another user.

Try this:
edit /etc/inittab
id:5:initdefault
to
id:3:initdefault

reboot and you'll boot to a login prompt, login as root and type: startx

It will probably have something to do with the hostname change and xauthority, and gdm. I always boot into runlevel 3, so I dont use the GUI login.

It sounds to me more like something has changed the login.defs file - which says which consoles the root user is allowed to login from...

Normally it allows local logins, but will deny any attempt to login from say, a telnet session, which won't come in on one of the console ttys...

I think login.defs just sits in /etc - but it might be in a subdir under there somewhere - have a look for it and open it up - on *most* distros it's fairly well commented - so you can find the line I'm talking about pretty easily....

Bry

the runlevel thing doesn't work. I found login.defs but I have no idea what to edit so here is its contents:
# *REQUIRED*
# Directory where mailboxes reside, _or_ name of file, relative to the
# home directory. If you _do_ define both, MAIL_DIR takes precedence.
# QMAIL_DIR is for Qmail
#
#QMAIL_DIR Maildir
MAIL_DIR /var/spool/mail
#MAIL_FILE .mail

# Password aging controls:
#
# PASS_MAX_DAYS Maximum number of days a password may be used.
# PASS_MIN_DAYS Minimum number of days allowed between password changes.
# PASS_MIN_LEN Minimum acceptable password length.
# PASS_WARN_AGE Number of days warning given before a password expires.
#
PASS_MAX_DAYS 60
PASS_MIN_DAYS 0
PASS_MIN_LEN 5
PASS_WARN_AGE 7

#
# Min/max values for automatic uid selection in useradd
#
UID_MIN 500
UID_MAX 60000

#
# Min/max values for automatic gid selection in groupadd
#
GID_MIN 500
GID_MAX 60000

#
# If defined, this command is run when removing a user.
# It should remove any at/cron/print jobs etc. owned by
# the user to be removed (passed as the first argument).
#
#USERDEL_CMD /usr/sbin/userdel_local

#
# If useradd should create home directories for users by default
# On RH systems, we do. This option is ORed with the -m flag on
# useradd command line.
#
CREATE_HOME yes




maybe you can tell me what I should change

AAAAHHHHHHHHH! It was so simple. It was the security levels as L33t H4x0R said. I had to lower them to standard. While it has solved my login problem it has produced a new one. I'm running apache httpd and I want to raise the security but allow me to login from my new host name. Does anyone know what file(s) the Control Center security level edits?