After last update (4.0.3-22.02 -> 4.0.3-23.08) this is impossible to use dot (".") in the username (john.rambo). This breaks backward compatibility and makes troubles for sites where the policy for login names allow dots since RHEL2. See the bug #89205 for references (this a second same issue for RHEL3, see the bug #108614 - this has been resolved in the previous updates for RHEL3). The problem is in shadow-4.0.3-goodname.patch where new patch replaced old patch completly. I'm attaching fixed patch and my personal rebuild for RHEL3 can be found at: ftp://ftp.pslib.cz/pub/users/Milan.Kerslager/RHEL-3/stable/ ftp://ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/people/milan_kerslager/RHEL-3/stable/
Created attachment 115470 [details] Extended goodname patch to allow dots in usernames
This seems to be better to use patch from shadow-utils-4.0.3-41.1.src.rpm (RHEL4 package) where the rest of the original goodname patch has been restored too). My build uses it.
Bug 159034 has already been filed about this issue ...
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 159034 ***