RE: Sudden problem with root password

[Pollywog <pollywog@shadypond.com>]

On 02-Jun-99 David Gaudine wrote:
> I just telnetted to my potato system and tried to su to root.
> (I know I should be using ssh, but it's my ssh problem that
> I was trying to fix, thanks Brad.)  I got the message
>    su: incorrect password
> Surely I didn't forget my own root password, but just in case,
> I went physically to the system which already had a window
> logged in as root, and changed the root password.
> I still can't SU using either the old or new password.
> I hope somebody can tell me what's wrong before the next
> power failure.  (i.e. while I'm still logged in and don't have to
> work from a rescue disk.)

I had this problem yesterday after doing an apt-get upgrade.
Check /bin/su and see if the suid bit is set for root.

--
Andrew