Otdfbt

I cannot for whatever reason connect/login either via FTP client or command line to my FTP server. I'm using Webmin and ProFTPd. I have setup a user, with a simple password as part of the ftp group with /sbin/nologin as the shell path. Logs only say "FTP connection opened" and "FTP connection closed". The passive ports I've specified are open on the firewall.

It's as if the password isn't right, but it is. Here's my proftpd.conf file:

# This is the ProFTPD configuration file
# $Id: proftpd.conf,v 1.1 2004/02/26 17:54:30 thias Exp $

DefaultRoot ~
ServerName "ProFTPD server"
ServerIdent on "FTP Server ready."
ServerAdmin root@localhost
ServerType standalone
#ServerType inetd
DefaultServer off
AccessGrantMsg "User %u logged in."
#DisplayConnect /etc/ftpissue
#DisplayLogin /etc/ftpmotd
#DisplayGoAway /etc/ftpgoaway
DeferWelcome off

# Use this to excude users from the chroot
DefaultRoot ~ !adm

# Use pam to authenticate (default) and be authoritative
AuthPAMConfig proftpd
AuthOrder mod_auth_pam.c* mod_auth_unix.c

# Do not perform ident nor DNS lookups (hangs when the port is filtered)
IdentLookups off
UseReverseDNS off

# Port 21 is the standard FTP port.
Port 21

# Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new dirs and files
# from being group and world writable.
Umask 022

# Default to show dot files in directory listings
ListOptions "-a"

# See Configuration.html for these (here are the default values)
#MultilineRFC2228 off
#RootLogin off
#LoginPasswordPrompt on
#MaxLoginAttempts 3
#MaxClientsPerHost none
#AllowForeignAddress off # For FXP

# Allow to resume not only the downloads but the uploads too
AllowRetrieveRestart on
AllowStoreRestart on

# To prevent DoS attacks, set the maximum number of child processes
# to 30. If you need to allow more than 30 concurrent connections
# at once, simply increase this value. Note that this ONLY works
# in standalone mode, in inetd mode you should use an inetd server
# that allows you to limit maximum number of processes per service
# (such as xinetd)
MaxInstances 20

# Set the user and group that the server normally runs at.
User ftp
Group ftp

# Disable sendfile by default since it breaks displaying the download speeds in
# ftptop and ftpwho
UseSendfile no

# This is where we want to put the pid file
ScoreboardFile /var/run/proftpd.score

# Normally, we want users to do a few things.
<Global>
 AllowOverwrite yes
 <Limit ALL SITE_CHMOD>
 AllowAll
 </Limit>
PassivePorts 64000 64321
RequireValidShell off
</Global>

# Define the log formats
LogFormat default "%h %l %u %t "%r" %s %b"
LogFormat auth "%v [%P] %h %t "%r" %s"

# TLS
# Explained at http://www.castaglia.org/proftpd/modules/mod_tls.html
#TLSEngine on
#TLSRequired on
#TLSRSACertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/proftpd.pem
#TLSRSACertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/proftpd.pem
#TLSCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!DES
#TLSOptions NoCertRequest
#TLSVerifyClient off
##TLSRenegotiate ctrl 3600 data 512000 required off timeout 300
#TLSLog /var/log/proftpd/tls.log

# SQL authentication Dynamic Shared Object (DSO) loading
# See README.DSO and howto/DSO.html for more details.
#<IfModule mod_dso.c>
# LoadModule mod_sql.c
# LoadModule mod_sql_mysql.c
# LoadModule mod_sql_postgres.c
#</IfModule>

# A basic anonymous configuration, with an upload directory.
#<Anonymous ~ftp>
# User ftp
# Group ftp
# AccessGrantMsg "Anonymous login ok, restrictions apply."
#
# # We want clients to be able to login with "anonymous" as well as "ftp"
# UserAlias anonymous ftp
#
# # Limit the maximum number of anonymous logins
# MaxClients 10 "Sorry, max %m users -- try again later"
#
# # Put the user into /pub right after login
# #DefaultChdir /pub
#
# # We want 'welcome.msg' displayed at login, '.message' displayed in
# # each newly chdired directory and tell users to read README* files. 
# DisplayLogin /welcome.msg
# DisplayFirstChdir .message
# DisplayReadme README*
#
# # Some more cosmetic and not vital stuff
# DirFakeUser on ftp
# DirFakeGroup on ftp
#
# # Limit WRITE everywhere in the anonymous chroot
# <Limit WRITE SITE_CHMOD>
# DenyAll
# </Limit>
#
# # An upload directory that allows storing files but not retrieving
# # or creating directories.
# <Directory uploads/*>
# AllowOverwrite no
# <Limit READ>
# DenyAll
# </Limit>
#
# <Limit STOR>
# AllowAll
# </Limit>
# </Directory>
#
# # Don't write anonymous accesses to the system wtmp file (good idea!)
# WtmpLog off
#
# # Logging for the anonymous transfers
# ExtendedLog /var/log/proftpd/access.log WRITE,READ default
# ExtendedLog /var/log/proftpd/auth.log AUTH auth
#
#</Anonymous>

Enter in shell as root

vi /etc/passwd

find your username, and on the end of line see:
/bin/false

change to:

/bin/bash

and solve it!

(or any one displayed in: vi /etc/shells)

Now ftp is working in your own user.

I guess my hint was not good enough. :-) The shell /sbin/nologin is NOT contained in the /etc/shells file. Thus the account is treated as disabled by proftpd.

I search hours for an answer but can't find any...
The mistake consist in "user" FTP. I make 4 or 5 users but no one works. Finally, I try with my username in Ubuntu. To find this write in Terminal:
$ whoami
The answer is your user for FTP.
For me answer is "mircea". I put this in user box and after that my password and works. It was so simple...

I think that listing invalid shells like /sbin/nologin as valid ones is not the proper way to go (they have been removed on purpose), and neither is allowing the FTP users to log in to the system when they should not be allowed to do so.

IMHO the best way to go is to simply configure ProFTPD not to require a valid shell for the FTP users.

Simply add the directive RequireValidShell off to section in your proftpd.conf and reload/restart ProFTPD.

<Global>
...
RequireValidShell off
</Global>

In case you are using PAM authentication in your ProFTPD (you probably are since it's on by default), you might also need to disable the requirement for valid shell in PAM settings.
In my case, I had to comment out the below line from my ProFTPD's PAM config file (/etc/pam.d/proftpd)

#auth required pam_shells.so