Well, I have news good and bad.  First, your instructions were very clear,
precise and easy to follow.  BUT, it didn't work.

[ken@Archiver ~]$ su -
Password: 
[root@Archiver ~]# grep backuppc /etc/passwd
backuppc:x:495:490:backuppc:/var/lib/BackupPC:/sbin/nologin
[root@Archiver ~]# chsh backuppc
Changing shell for backuppc.
New shell [/sbin/nologin]: /bin/bash
Shell changed.
[root@Archiver ~]# grep backuppc /etc/passwd
backuppc:x:495:490:backuppc:/var/lib/BackupPC:/bin/bash
[root@Archiver ~]# su backuppc
bash-3.2$               <== This doesn't look as expected
bash-3.2$ ssh-keygen -t rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/var/lib/BackupPC/.ssh/id_rsa): 
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): 
Enter same passphrase again: 
open /var/lib/BackupPC/.ssh/id_rsa failed: Permission denied.
Saving the key failed: /var/lib/BackupPC/.ssh/id_rsa.
bash-3.2$ exit
[root@Archiver ~]# cd /var/lib/BackupPC
[root@Archiver BackupPC]# ls -al
total 56
drwxr-x---  6 backuppc root     4096 2008-10-12 18:48 .
drwxr-xr-x 31 root     root     4096 2008-09-18 15:50 ..
drwxr-x---  2 backuppc root     4096 2008-08-11 12:25 cpool
drwxr-x---  2 backuppc root     4096 2008-08-11 12:25 pc
drwxr-x---  2 backuppc root     4096 2008-08-11 12:25 pool
drwxr-x---  2 backuppc root     4096 2008-08-11 12:25 trash
[root@Archiver BackupPC]#

Obviously, I was not 'backuppc' since backuppc owns this directory.  -ken

-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Goryachev [mailto:mailinglists AT websitemanagers.com DOT au] 
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2008 7:32 PM
To: General list for user discussion,questions and support
Subject: Re: [BackupPC-users] Almost working

You should login as root, and then use:
su - backuppc
This will "switch" to the backuppc user even if the user doesn't have
any password set.
If that doesn't work try this:
grep backuppc /etc/passwd
If the very end of the line doesn't refer to /bin/bash or /bin/sh or
something similar (ie, it is blank or it points to /bin/false or
/bin/nologin) then do this:
chsh backuppc
and enter "/bin/bash"
Then you should be able to "su - backuppc"

Hope this helps.


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