su and chsh never work

[matt garman <garman@uiuc.edu>]

Hello:

I just installed potato via the floppy+ftp method.

For some odd reason, I cannot "su" to root as a normal user, it
always says I have the wrong password.  But I can switch to a     
different virtual terminal and login as root with the same password,
no problem.

Also, as a user I tried to change my shell with "chsh" and when
it behaves the same as su, i.e. it always says wrong password for
my username.  I can login with this password just fine, though.

I tried both commands several times slowly, so I cannot be typing
two different passwords incorrectly.

Any hints?

Thanks,
Matt