pam_ccreds and Fedora

[W. Michael Petullo]

I have been using Fedora Core's pam_ccreds package to allow my laptop to
authenticate users even when it is disconnected from my network's LDAP
server[1].  Recently, logging in to my computer when disconnected began to
fail.

It seems that I was incorrectly relying on nscd to cache information for
long periods of time.  Bug 150748 fixed nscd, but made it difficult to
abuse it in the way I require.

After doing some research, I found nss_updatedb, a utility that maintains
a local cache of network directory user and group information.  However,
nss_updatedb is not included in Fedora Core.

What is the preferred way to use pam_ccreds on Fedora?  Is anyone else
using this PAM module?  Is nss_updatedb a prerequisite and, if so, will it
be packaged for Fedora?

I think disconnected authentication is an important feature for Fedora and
would like to help work on it.

[1]  See the thread that starts at:
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2004-May/msg00368.html

--
Mike