Permission on / were 754 instead of 755. I have no idea why. Fixing the permissions instantly made "su" work OK.
Other suggestions included:
check the permissions on: /bin, /usr/bin, /etc, ...
run /usr/sbin/pwck to check the format of the passwd file
try pkgchk on the file
"cat -v -t -e /etc/passwd" to check for spaces after the shell name in /etc/passwd
THANKS! and a tip o' the hat to:
Casper Dik <casper@holland.sun.com>
Derrick Cole - Information Patriot <derrick.cole@ssds.com>
Glenn.Satchell@uniq.com.au (Glenn Satchell - Uniq Professional Services)
"Daniel J Blander - Sr. Systems Engineer for ACS" <Daniel.Blander@acsacs.com>
"Harding, Marshall D. II" <mharding@wvu.edu>
"Letchford Ian" <i.letchford@worc.ac.uk>
mrs@cadem.mc.xerox.com (Mike Salehi)
"Jim Meritt" <jmeritt@smtpinet.aspensys.com>
holzb@vkm.com (Bill Holzapfel)
--Bruce <bhami@hesp.es.xerox.com> 310-333-3538
fax: 310-333-6897
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