cannot change password for an ordinary user

[Chuck Swiger]

On Apr 13, 2017, at 2:35 PM, Anton Shterenlikht <mexas at bris.ac.uk> wrote:
> [ ... ]
> I decided to check first, and got:
> 
> # pwd_mkdb -C /etc/passwd
> pwd_mkdb: corrupted entry
> pwd_mkdb: at line #3
> pwd_mkdb: /etc/passwd: Inappropriate file type or format
> 
> 
> Should I be worried?

Yes.  Run vipw and fix line 3.

> And how can change my ordinary user's password?
> 
> I can change the root password fine, tried and checked.

root is usually the first entry; it's likely that fixing line 3 will let you change the user's password.

Regards.
-- 
-Chuck