Try removing /etc/ptmp.

I am guessing it was left there from a previously failed useradd command.

("man pw_lock" helped, locky guess on my part.)

Cheers,

Ben

On Sat, Jul 10, 2004 at 09:27:51AM -0400, Glenn Jarvis wrote:
> I'm slowly getting used to how to enter commands and I've printed out 
> some of the man pages. I did encounter a problem and I'm not sure how to 
> correct it. I logged in as root and tried to useradd, but it gives me 
> this...
> 
> useradd: can't obtain pw_lock: File exists
> 
> I tried rebooting,logging back in as root and tried again with the same 
> result. Your guidance would be greatly appreciated. So far, this seems 
> to be the only problem I'm having so far.
> I get the same warning/error from userdel.