passwd problem

[Stephen Eastman <stephen_eastman%yahoo.com@localhost>]

I am running netbsd 5.0.2 diskless (NFS) on a sun ultra 5. When I try to add a 
password to the root account, I get the following error:

passwd: in prompt_echo_off(): tcgetattr(): Inappropriate ioctl for device
Unable to change auth token conversation failure

I am wondering if this is a permissions problem.

TIA
stephen