PAM error message what does it mean?

Feb 28 17:31:25 ernie ftpd[18380]: open_pam_conf: stat(/etc/pam.conf)
failed: No such file or directory
Feb 28 17:33:01 ernie ftpd[18383]: open_pam_conf: stat(/etc/pam.conf)
failed: No such file or directory


Is this the symptom of PAM not installed? or the config file is missing?

As it says, the config file is missing, either because PAM is not installed at all or for some other reason. Basically, your ftp server was configured to use PAM (usually a compile-time option), but it fails on runtime because it doesn't find the pam's configuration file in the predefined location. You should check through the package manager of your distribution, whether PAM is installed and (re)install it. It might also be the case that only an example configuration file is provided from the distribution's package (i.e. at /etc/pam.conf.sample) and you have to create pam.conf on your own.

Thanks friend!

Dude, if i want ftpd to use MD5 for passwords then how can i make the PAM config file for ftpd to use the MD5 module?

You could use the "md5" argument to pam_unix.so module or use pam_pwdfile.so module that always uses encryption with the crypt library (usually md5). For example, you could put this in your pam.conf:

[code:1]
ftp auth required pam_pwdfile.so pwdfile /etc/ftpaccounts
ftp account required pam_permit.so
[/code:1]

/etc/ftpaccounts is the file that would contain all the accounts of the ftp users in the format
[code:1]
user1:hash1
user2:hash2
[/code:1]


This allows you to have seperate from the system (virtual) user accounts.

For detailed information regarding PAM's syntax you can refer here

thanks dude!