# Some pam_acct_mgmt procedure error



## oleg_skat (Feb 2, 2013)

Hi to all!

We are talking about 9.1 FreeBSD system
Got the message in the log - 


```
pam_acct_mgmt: authentication error
```

What`s wrong?
How to watch what files are associated with the *pam_acct_mgmt* procedure?


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## No_root_user_ (May 26, 2018)

Typically that means a wrong password was supplied. I am currently running into this issue with my root account. Have you been able to find out a fix yet?


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## leebrown66 (May 26, 2018)

Please read the Topics about unsupported FreeBSD versions


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## No_root_user_ (May 26, 2018)

leebrown66 said:


> Please read the Topics about unsupported FreeBSD versions




I am using freeBSD11


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## leebrown66 (May 27, 2018)

Sorry didn't realize this was 2013 thread you were answering to.


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## ShelLuser (May 27, 2018)

No_root_user_ said:


> Typically that means a wrong password was supplied. I am currently running into this issue with my root account. Have you been able to find out a fix yet?


Please note that this thread is nearly 5 years old, so it's not very likely that the OP is still active on the forums today, also considering their low post count. Another problem, as demonstrated by leebrown66, is that reviving such ancient threads usually serves no purpose, the best you get is confusing people over it.

That's why it's usually a better idea to start a new thread. Also because _a lot_ of things have changed within 5 years, making it very unlikely that the cause of the problem was the same (though that's always possible of course).

SO back to the question.

The problem with both questions is that they don't provide enough information to go on. You get an error message, but when doing what?  You say you're having issues with your root account, but when? How?

So, some questions:

Are you trying to log on using the console and then end up seeing this? Or are you trying to log on as root remotely (which would be an extremely *bad* idea)? Or do these messages show up when doing something else?

You mentioned passwords: did you try changing yours? If so: what happened? Also: do you use any customized setup, did you change any PAM configuration options or....

Next stop: single user mode. Assuming you get these errors when you try to log on, what happens if you go into single user mode, remount the root system readonly (`# mount -uw /`) and then try changing the password using passwd?  On that subject: does /etc contain files such as passwd.master?

Finally: have you upgraded your FreeBSD environment recently, and if so: how?

(edit): Finally, the error message was found in "the log". What logfile? I'll assume /var/log/messages but could you please paste the _entire_ entry? This will also tell us what program or facility actually triggered this, making it easier to find a possible cause.


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## No_root_user_ (May 28, 2018)

I deeply apologize for grave digging on old posts. My messages log only tells me pam_act_mgmt auth failure, I dropped down to single user and recovery shell many times, I then ran mount -u -o rw / from within a recovery shell(which struck me as incredibly odd because root password worked fine), mount -a, and changed the root password. Still unable to login to multi user mode with root account, still no fix. I ended up doing a fresh install as I could not diagnose the issue to it.


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