Arch Linux

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Locking root account causes account to expire

If I lock the root account using passwd -l root, PAM prevents me from adding users or groups, saying that root's account has expired. This wouldn't be so bad, except that PAM continues to prevent me from adding users/groups even after I unlock the root account and create a new password for it. What is causing this, and how can I fix it so that I'm able to install hal, dbus, etc. and administer users and groups again?

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: Locking root account causes account to expire

Okay, found a workaround... Using usermod instead of passwd should apparently work. For anyone having problems with this: first, use passwd --unlock to unlock the root account, and then usermod --lock to lock its password.

tigrmesh

IRC Op

From: Florida, US

Registered: 2007-12-11

Posts: 794

Re: Locking root account causes account to expire

Please mark this thread as solved.  That way others whose root account has expired after locking it can find help.  Thanks