Hey,
I know this has been asked a million times, but it hasn't provided a resolution for me. I'm new, and ignorant with terminology, but I'm eager to learn.

THE POINT
I wanna be able to allow people to create a webspace on my server. FTP/Web Account, and email. I'm using a php form, posting to a cgi script.

...

system ("/usr/bin/sudo -u bob /usr/sbin/adduser $userid -c '$f_name $l_name' -p $password");


I have "bob" in the sudoers file as "bob ALL=(ALL) ALL"

I keep getting adduser: unable to lock password file. Can someone please tell me what that is and why I'm getting it and how to resolve it. I deleted the .lock files too. I'm going nuts.

Thanks
Kareem

My guess (and it's more a guess here than anything else) is that bob needs to be authenticated before changing the file. (I don't see how you are typing in a password here) And because that authentication uses the password file, you cannot lock it to then change it.

That's my guess at least.

-G

ok so how would I go about doing that? https?

Thanks
Kareem

Try setting NOPASSWD: ALL
or NOPASSWD: adduser

That should work. Also: You really need to change the ALL=ALL to something a little more secure. Protect the root. Always remember that.

-G

I've just encountered this same problem after upgrading a RH 7.2 box to FC1

The problem was the password lock files (obviously) but also quite literally.

I did the following:
and then repeated it for:
group.lock
gshadow.lock
shadow.lock

after doing this, i could add and remove users again.

Still no luck...


# sudoers file.
#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# See the sudoers man page for the details on how to write a sudoers file.
#

# Host alias specification

# User alias specification

# Cmnd alias specification

# Defaults specification

# User privilege specification
root ALL = (ALL) ALL
apache ALL = (ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/adduser


i tried adduser and /usr/sbin/adduser

either way it says the same.. "adduser: unable to lo
ck password file"


I searched and deleted any .lock files. I don't have any..

system ("/usr/bin/sudo -u apache /usr/sbin/adduser $userid -p $password");


i've been taking out flags to minimize errors.. no luck..

any ideas?


Kareem

Hey I got it to work..

yay

now if i can only get sendmail working correctly.. lol

thanks
kareem

hey,
i´d like to know how you did it...
i´m having the same problem you had!
thank you in advance...
by the way, i´m using rh9...

Hi khamdy

Could you be so kind and tell us what was involved in resolving this issue.

regards

Lawton

I had same problem, the problem is with lock files
check for /etc/.*lock

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