'id' failing

[Vram]

On Thu, 2005-12-01 at 20:55 -0500, David A. Cobb wrote:
> I have needed to tear my system down and start over from the CD a
> couple of times now.  Up until now, it has been successful to save
> my /etc/passwd, /etc/group, and /etc/shadow files so I don't lose my
> (human) accounts.  
> 



Why are you saving this stuff???

You are starting over

Just Wondering?

Vram



> This latest time, when I login as "root" everything is fine.  But when
> I assume my normal persona, the bash prompt tells me "I don't have a
> name!"  If I 'ls' my home directory, it shows my (correct) UID#, but
> not my logname.  However, it does find my correct home directory and
> was able to log me in.  The value of environment var "USER" is set
> correctly.  However, if I type 'id' I only get numbers, no names for
> me or for any groups.  Similarly, 'groups' lists only numbers.  If I
> 'finger' my logname, from my own account it fails (no such user) -- if
> I 'finger' from 'root' it succeeds.  
> 
> No great surprise, I get permission problems in several places.  
> 
> Just before this particular disaster overtook me, I was beginning to
> set up 'pam'.  Is it likely that libpam is preventing me from
> retrieving my info correctly?  I could tear it out, of course, but I'm
> a little nervous that I'll make things worse.
> 
> Can anyone suggest where I should look?
> 
> TIA
> -- 
> David A. Cobb, Software Engineer, Public Access Advocate
> "By God's Grace, I am a Christian man; by my actions a great sinner." -- The Way of a Pilgrim: R.French, Tr.
> Free at last!  Free at last!  Using Linux, I'm FREE at last!
> Life is too short to tolerate crappy software!
> 
>