OpenSSH 2.5.2p2 grief

["Luigi Fabio" <lfabio@ve.nettuno.it>]

Hello everybody,
I am having some issues with openssh. I have two identical machines 
with 2.2r2 installed. Both have openssl 0.9.6 installed in shared lib 
mode.
The problem is as follows: I installed on both openssh 2.5.2p2 (via 
tarball, bear with me, I can't stand packages). On one, it runs 
without a hitch and has been doing so for about a month now. On the 
second, all messages are identical to the first... but it fails to 
auth with passwords, i.e. it rejects the correct passwords with a 
Failed password <etc> in auth.log. I have been trying to figure out 
what's wrong - at least what's different between the two 
installations - for about two days now and can't find any reason for 
the different behaviour. Any ideas/suggestions would be much 
appreciated. 

Thanks.


Regards,
Luigi Fabio - lfabio@ve.nettuno.it