I am trying to set up a FTP server that authenticates against an LDAP server. This part is done and works. My server is VsFTPd on Ubuntu Server 11.04. But I have to create the home directories for my LDAP users. I am trying to user the pam_mkhomedir module but it is not working: when I add its line to the /etc/pam.d/vsftpd file, my users can not login anymore to the FTP server. The problem is that I have very few information on what is wrong. VsFTPd just responds 530: login incorrect and I could not find a way to get debug or error messages from pam_mkhomedir. Here are my different configuration files. The /etc/pam.d/vsftpd file: auth required pam_listfile.so item=user sense=deny file=/etc/ftpusers onerr=succeed auth required pam_ldap.so account required pam_ldap.so password required pam_ldap.so session optional pam_mkhomedir.so skel=/home/skel debug The /etc/vsftpd.conf file: listen=YES anonymous_enable=NO local_enable=YES write_enable=YES dirmessage_enable=YES use_localtime=YES xferlog_enable=YES connect_from_port_20=YES pam_service_name=vsftpd rsa_cert_file=/etc/ssl/private/vsftpd.pem guest_enable=YES session_support=YES log_ftp_protocol=YES tcp_wrappers=YES Permissions on /home and /home/skel: root@ftp:/home# ls -al total 16 drwxrwxrwx 4 root root 4096 2011-10-11 21:19 . drwxr-xr-x 21 root root 4096 2011-09-27 13:32 .. drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4096 2011-10-11 19:34 skel drwxrwxrwx 5 foo foo 4096 2011-10-11 21:11 foo root@ftp:/home# ls -al skel/ total 16 drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4096 2011-10-11 19:34 . drwxrwxrwx 4 root root 4096 2011-10-11 21:19 .. -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3352 2011-10-11 19:34 .bashrc -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 675 2011-10-11 19:34 .profile Yes, I know, permissions are not properly set but security is not the issue here: I first need to get it to work. So, to recapitulate: without pam_mkhomedir my LDAP users can login, but they cannot do anything because they are in an empty chrooted jail. If I add pam_mkhomedir, they cannot login anymore. If anyone has an idea why, or know how to get more information from logs, I would be very grateful, thanks.