Errors when su:ing

[janne.jokitalo at dnainternet.net]

Hello list,

a while (might be even from Dapper dist-upgrade) ago I 
started seeing weird errors when issuing a `su` command:
  
user at machine~$ su - anotheruser
Password:
configuration error - unknown item 'QUOTAS_ENAB' (notify 
administrator)
configuration error - unknown item 'NOLOGIN_STR' (notify 
administrator)
configuration error - unknown item 'ENV_HZ' (notify 
administrator)
configuration error - unknown item 'CHFN_AUTH' (notify 
administrator)
configuration error - unknown item 'CLOSE_SESSIONS' 
(notify administrator)

...or when I log in in one of the virtual terminals ( 
Ctrl+Alt+F[1-6]).

Browsed the web for a bit, and saw a mention [1] that the 
same errors had occurred in debian development.

Looks like that this belongs to some `shadow` changes, 
since the errors cleared after issuing the same commands 
as described here [2].

So, my question is, how to find out how this happened? If 
it indeed started while Dapper dist-upgrade, 
didn't/doesn't upgrading the packages replace correct conf 
files? Please note that I'm not here to judge, but to help 
find a possible bug, or just learning more about 
unix[-like |-]systems. :)


[1] 
http://bugs.donarmstrong.com/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=344103
[2] 
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2005/10/msg01533.html

Thanks in advance!


-- 
Jaska