After nearly three days sweating on this im now stuck. Read out. I want apache to authenticate access solely via mysql. The new mod-authn-dbd is reputed to be buggy, and the old mod-auth-apache2-mysql is absent in debian etch. So it appears im gpoing with pam. Oddly, access works when it matchs a /etc/passwd user, which I dont want!. Everything else fails to login, and presents a new login prompt, except where a mysql entry matches, in which case the PAM log (mysql) says: entry user pid host ts AUTHENTICATION SUCCESS test 6193 (unknown) 2008-02-28 10:14:24 yet the browser gets: 401 Authorization Required This server could not verify that you are authorized to access the document requested. Either you supplied the wrong credentials (e.g., bad password), or your browser doesn't understand how to supply the credentials required. and var/log/apache/error.log gets PAM: user 'ee' - invalid account: User not known to the underlying authentication module and /var/log/auth.log gets Feb 28 11:16:21 solarbus1 apache2: pam_mysql - SELECT solarbus.spacepersons.password FROM so larbus.spacepersons WHERE solarbus.spacepersons.username = 'ee' Feb 28 11:16:21 solarbus1 apache2: pam_mysql - pam_mysql_sql_log() called. Feb 28 11:16:21 solarbus1 apache2: pam_mysql - pam_mysql_format_string() called Feb 28 11:16:21 solarbus1 apache2: pam_mysql - pam_mysql_quick_escape() called. Feb 28 11:16:21 solarbus1 last message repeated 8 times Feb 28 11:16:21 solarbus1 apache2: pam_mysql - INSERT INTO pamlog (entry, user, host, pid, t s) VALUES ('AUTHENTICATION SUCCESS', 'ee', '(unknown)', '6193', NOW()) Feb 28 11:16:21 solarbus1 apache2: pam_mysql - pam_mysql_sql_log() returning 0. Feb 28 11:16:21 solarbus1 apache2: pam_mysql - pam_mysql_check_passwd() returning 0. Feb 28 11:16:21 solarbus1 apache2: pam_mysql - pam_sm_authenticate() returning 0. Feb 28 11:16:21 solarbus1 apache2: (pam_unix) could not identify user (from getpwnam(ee)) Feb 28 11:16:21 solarbus1 apache2: pam_mysql - pam_mysql_release_ctx() called. Feb 28 11:16:21 solarbus1 apache2: pam_mysql - pam_mysql_destroy_ctx() called. Feb 28 11:16:21 solarbus1 apache2: pam_mysql - pam_mysql_close_db() called. Looks like pam_mysql is oking it but pam_unix is being authoritative. Dont know enough about pam to know why Any clues appreciated. Peter Heres my /etc/pam.d/apache2 auth require pam_mysql.so verbose=1 user=peter passwd=xxxxx host=127.0.0.1 db=solarb us table=solarbus.spacepersons usercolumn=solarbus.spacepersons.username passwdcolumn=sola rbus.spacepersons.password crypt=0 sqllog=true logtable=pamlog logmsgcolumn=entry logusercol umn=user logpidcolumn=pid loghostcolumn=host logtimecolumn=ts and /var/www/.htaccess AuthPAM_Enabled on AuthPAM_FallThrough off AuthType Basic AuthName "Intranet" AuthUserFile /dev/null AuthBasicAuthoritative Off require valid-user _______________________________________________ Pam-list mailing list Pam-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/pam-list