chsh: PAM authentication failed

i want to change default shell env

and run chsh -s /bin/zsh as root user,

but a error message appeared: chsh: PAM authentication failed.

i find this thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1702833

but the answer did not solve my problem

any help would be appreciated

this is the content of /etc/pam.d/chsh

#
# The PAM configuration file for the Shadow `chsh' service
#

# This will not allow a user to change their shell unless
# their current one is listed in /etc/shells. This keeps
# accounts with special shells from changing them.
auth       required   pam_shells.so

# This allows root to change user shell without being
# prompted for a password
auth            sufficient      pam_rootok.so

# The standard Unix authentication modules, used with
# NIS (man nsswitch) as well as normal /etc/passwd and
# /etc/shadow entries.
@include common-auth
@include common-account
@include common-session

this is the content of /etc/shells

# /etc/shells: valid login shells
/bin/sh
/bin/dash
/bin/bash
/bin/rbash
/usr/bin/tmux
/usr/bin/screen
/bin/zsh
/usr/bin/zsh

i find that i used to run chsh -s zsh this will change first line of /etc/passwd as

root:x:0:0:root:/root:zsh

and chsh will ask for password whaterver you try

i just edit /etc/passwd file manually, and everything is ok.

stupid mistake and thanks for your replies

Solution 1:

Check your /etc/shells file and add /bin/zsh to file if this line does not exists.

Solution 2:

Check your /etc/passwd. In my case I had specified an invalid shell with chsh previously and that's what was causing the problem.

I changed it from zsh as the shell to /bin/zsh and that made the problem go away for me.