On Wed, May 09, 2001 at 01:06:46PM -0700, Matt Bell wrote:
> I have a netbsd-1.5 NIS server which is working fine that also serves two
> other netbsd NIS clients without any problems. I also have a redhat
> linux-7.1  box that i want to set up as a NIS client. So i go ahead and
> configure it by setting the propper nisdomain, server hostname etc... yet
> it doesnt work. I try a ypwhich to make sure im connected and it returns
> the hostname of the server. I then try a ypcat on one of the keys like
> passwd.byname and it spits out all of its contents like it is supposed to
> do. The only thing that i can see that could be wrong is that linux has
> that shadow passwd file that is in a differnt format then the BSD's
> master.passwd. I guess what i am trying to say is that has anyone set
> something up like this before and if so how did you do it?

Try editting /etc/nsswitch.conf on the Linux box.

There should be some lines in there for controlling database access. See
the manual page for nsswitch.conf for more details.

You might want lines (or similar) that read:

passwd: files nis
shadow: files nis
group: files nis

In this case, the Linux box will use the local password file and 
then NIS for passwords. Similarly for shadow and group information.

best wishes,
-- 
Chris