"cannot find password database", boot failure

[kaiyue]

Hi,

My machine is getting an error in booting and keeps automatically
rebooting. The error message: "cannot find password database".

This is after I had a system crash and had to manually fsck the root
partition.

I have no idea where this "password database" is. Online search, including
on this forum, turned up nothing. I tried to play with /etc/passwd. That
did not help either.

At this point, I can get in the system through the rescue disk. But I can
not start it through regular boot.

I am running FC10, 2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686.PAE

I am wondering if there is a way of repairing this "password
database", which I guess may be the only way of getting the system back to normal.
Any advices or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Kai

[Rubberman]

The password database is actually several files in /etc - passwd, shadow, group. The file /etc/shadow contains the actual encrypted passwords and has to have permissions set to 420 (-r---w----).

It is likely that the crash damaged the /etc directory and/or some of the files in it. If the password files have been munged, then other necessary system files in /etc are also likely fubar and you might need to do a reinstall of your system. So, boot up a rescue cd and backup your data before you do anything else.