Bug 7564

Summary:	login: input in flex scanner failed
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	Eric Bourque <ericb>
Component:	util-linux	Assignee:	Crutcher Dunnavant <crutcher>
Status:	CLOSED WORKSFORME	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	6.1
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	i386
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2000-02-04 00:24:23 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Eric Bourque 1999-12-03 19:37:15 UTC

After rebooting a RH6.1 system which has been working fine for several
months, I suddenly can not log in as any user but root. There is no
/etc/nologin file, I have updated initscripts, and most other packages
which have errata associated with them. The error I get when logging in as
non-root user on a console is:

"input in flex scanner failed"

If I log in as root and su (or su -) to the other account, all works well,
so it seems to not be an authentication problem.

Comment 1 Jeff Johnson 1999-12-03 19:50:59 UTC

The message is not from login, but rather from /lib/security/pam_console.so,
a PAM helper module used by /bin/login.

You most likely have a damaged configuration. The simplest fix is
to reinstall the pam package (pam-0.68-7 in Red Hat 6.1) using
	rpm -U --force pam-0.68-7.*.rpm
and see whether that corrects the problem. If not, you'll have to examine
your PAM configuration in /etc/pam.d/*. Look for random file corruption
that can occur when a machine is rebooted after a crash or from a sudden
power down.

Comment 2 Elliot Lee 2000-02-04 00:24:59 UTC

No response from reporter - assumed resolved.