> 
> This is probably another of my difficult 
> "How the hell can you fix this!" problems, still here goes
> 
> I can't seem to chage the master.passwd file using the system calls.
> but I can edit the master.passwd file directly.

DON'T DO THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

> Problem this meens that I can't set any passwdord on my system, or add a user
> using vipw.
> 
> I can vipw, and after editing :w writes the /etc/ptmp file, but on :q it 
> asks me if I want to edit the passwd file again, 
> If i say no, it responds with the message:
> 
> vipw: /etc/master.passwd unchanged

What happens if you do a :wq (not that that will make much differnce)?

> same when I type passwd and enter a passwd twice, it exits with
> 
> passwd: /etc/master.passwd unchanged.
> 
> Any Ideas?

All I can guess is that somehow your master.passwd has gotten corrupted.
Maybe get a new copy out of etc12. Also, there are _db files which contain
the actual, hashed entries. Try deleting them (in single user, w/r mode),
and then doing a vipw.

> I also get more trying to more a directory file which looks WIERD! 
> It prints a whole lot of control characters instead of saying 
> more: foobar is a directory	, or similar.
> 
> I suspected a corrupted filesystem, but fsck didn't mpick anything up when 
> I ran fsck -a -t.

NetBSD does that. It's kinda annoying, but the i386 & mac68k's I use
all do it.

Take care,

Bill