My shop box has no users!

[gene heskett]

Greetings;

I tried to synchronize my usernum between this machine, and the shop 
machine, which amanda also backs up.  By modifying everything in /etc to 
renumber the user gene from 1000 to 500 like it is here on this pclos box.
That did not gain me write perms in /home/gene on the shop box, so I 
reverted everything.

I can ssh into this machine as 'gene', using my usual passwd, but the 
prompt is:
root at shop:/var# logout <-i did a ctrl+d
I have no name!@shop:~$ whoami
whoami: cannot find name for user ID 1000

Yet I exist in both the original /etc/passwd, /etc/group as 1000:1000

Similarly, I can su - backup (user id 34 in both files):
root at shop:~# su - backup
X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication.
expr: syntax error
$ 
getting the $ prompt only, and
$ whoami
whoami: cannot find name for user ID 34
$ 

And of course amanda failed to backup anything from shop.coyote.den last 
night, but did generate:
$ cd /var/log/amanda/amandad
$ ls -l |wc -l 
168030
debug files in the /var/log/amanda/amandad directory, all of which are 
minor variations of:

$ cat amandad.20110203093718.debug (hit enter twice to get output)
1296743838.829167: amandad: pid 2511 ruid 34 euid 34 version 2.6.1p1: start 
at Thu Feb  3 09:37:18 2011
1296743838.829604: amandad: critical (fatal): current userid 34 not found 
in password database
/usr/lib/amanda/libamanda-2.6.1p1.so(+0x1c350)[0x843350]
/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0(g_logv+0x1fa)[0x3ebbea]
/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0(g_log+0x26)[0x3ec056]
/usr/lib/amanda/libamanda-2.6.1p1.so(check_running_as+0x24b)[0x85975b]
amandad(main+0xe1)[0x8049d11]
/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe6)[0x4a0bd6]
amandad[0x8049a91]

That particular file was from an amcheck run on this machine as I was 
installing the late last night snapshot of 3.2.1 this morning.

In about 13 years of running linux, I have never seen anything like this, 
where a user contained in the passwd and group files can login, then sudo -
i to root ok, do anything root can do, then 'su - username' and wander 
around and almost get something done, but cannot find out who the heck he 
is!

And, I just found that X is indeed running, in --failsafe mode, and that 
there is still an unkillable copy of amandad running.  It should have timed 
out and given up 13 hours ago.  Reboot in progress...  That did kill it.

I'd hate to have to re-install this box, as I haven't done any 'practice' 
restores and here are at least 100 new gcode files I've written that would 
be lost forever if I can't amrecover them.

Whatthe????  I just noticed that the emailed report says the shop dle's are 
missing, but that is NOT listed on the printed report, they are not even 
reported!  As I look at the printout first thing in the morning, only half 
awake, that I would consider an important BUG, at least to me.

That however is a separate item.

Has anyone else ever encountered this, or am I doomed to do a re-install & 
then fight to recover the important stuffs from a halted backup regimen so 
what I need doesn't fall off the end of my 30 day schedule as I am 
scheduled to leave on a trip that may take a week or more, to the UP of 
Michigan as soon as the roads are again passable across the north shore of 
Lake Michigan.  It is not a trip I have any enthusiasm about at all.

Thanks all, for any insight on this.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
<http://tinyurl.com/ddg5bz>
Remember: While root can do most everything, there are certain
privileges that only a partner can grant.
	-- Telsa Gwynne