Long time no see answers to this problem. I have it in a newer distribution:
Linux xxx 3.0.0-14-generic #23-Ubuntu SMP Mon Nov 21 20:28:43 UTC 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux I was changing the main group of my login with "usermod -g newgroup user". Later, I did erase the old group. The operation apparently finished well. But after restarting, my login does have only the newgroup, I lost my root privileges so modifications from the session have been impossible. I tried starting from recovery mode, and couldn't add group to my login because couldn't lock file /etc/passwd. Checking I found this bug, and could check in my system the existence of -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1929 2012-01-07 20:28 /etc/passwd -rw------- 1 root root 1928 2012-01-07 20:20 /etc/passwd- -rw-r----- 1 root shadow 1279 2012-01-07 17:48 /etc/shadow -rw------- 1 root root 1250 2012-01-05 23:27 /etc/shadow- I tried erasing such *- files aka passwd- and shadow-, from recovery session as root, only got message telling me the files are read only. Any workarounds ? cheers. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/432964 Title: System crash in guest session locks /etc/passwd forever To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/adduser/+bug/432964/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
