CentOS - Sep 2011 - passwd problem with new vps

greetings,

I am setting up Centos 6 i686 remotely, on a new VPS.

A problem I have is that I cannot set password for new users. I have
created one with

useradd -m new_user

but when I type 

passwd new_user

this is the result:

[root at vps ~]# passwd new_user
Changing password for user new_user
New password: 
Retype new password: 
passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
[root at vps ~]# tail /var/log/secure

Sep 27 17:30:30 vps passwd: pam_cracklib(passwd:chauthtok):
pam_get_authtok_verify returned error: Failed preliminary check by password
service

but I have no clue what the check I've failed is, or if it's a console
problem (locales, weird control characters) or maybe a selinux thing?

For the record, if I enter a weak password on purpose, e.g. "amok",
everything works, meaning that I get an explanation like "password
refused because it's too short", or something like that. But when I
try longer passwords, with or without non alphanumeric characters, I
get this error.

what else should I check, or fix?

TIA,
Marco

When you login to your vps, are you authenticating the connection via
password or certificate?

On 9/28/11, Marco Fioretti <mfioretti at nexaima.net>
wrote:
> greetings,
>
> I am setting up Centos 6 i686 remotely, on a new VPS.
>
> A problem I have is that I cannot set password for new users. I have
> created one with
>
> useradd -m new_user
>
> but when I type
>
> passwd new_user
>
> this is the result:
>
> [root at vps ~]# passwd new_user
> Changing password for user new_user
> New password:
> Retype new password:
> passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
> [root at vps ~]# tail /var/log/secure
>
> Sep 27 17:30:30 vps passwd: pam_cracklib(passwd:chauthtok):
> pam_get_authtok_verify returned error: Failed preliminary check by password
> service
>
> but I have no clue what the check I've failed is, or if it's a
console
> problem (locales, weird control characters) or maybe a selinux thing?
>
> For the record, if I enter a weak password on purpose, e.g.
"amok",
> everything works, meaning that I get an explanation like "password
> refused because it's too short", or something like that. But when
I
> try longer passwords, with or without non alphanumeric characters, I
> get this error.
>
> what else should I check, or fix?
>
> TIA,
> Marco
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>

-- 
 If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me on +61 478 241
896.

Regards,
Christopher Hawker

On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 18:37:52 PM +0200, Marco Fioretti
wrote:
> greetings,
> 
> I am setting up Centos 6 i686 remotely, on a new VPS.
> A problem I have is that I cannot set password for new users.
I solved this, so to speak, reinstalling from scratch. I had likely
installed conflicting security related packages and/or misconfigured
them.

Marco