Bug#294282: tomcat4 gives su auth error when a start is attempted with '/etc/init.d/tomcat4 start'

[Jack Curry]

Package: tomcat4
Version: 4.1.31-2
Severity: grave
Justification: renders package unusable

When tomcat4 is started, it gives a brief password prompt, which then times out.  The output looks like this:

Starting Tomcat 4.1 servlet engine using Java from /usr/share/j2sdk1.5-sun: Password: su: Authentication failure
Sorry.

Gives the same error with SDK 1.4, or when started from a root login shell.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.10
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages tomcat4 depends on:
ii  adduser                   3.59           Add and remove users and groups
ii  apache-utils              1.3.33-3       utility programs for webservers
ii  eclipse-javac [java-compi 2.1.3-4        Eclipse Java compiler and ant plug
ii  gij-3.3 [java-virtual-mac 1:3.3.5-8      The GNU Java bytecode interpreter
ii  j2re1.4 [java-virtual-mac 1.4.0.99beta-1 Blackdown Java(TM) 2 Runtime Envir
ii  libtomcat4-java           4.1.31-2       Java Servlet engine -- core librar
ii  sun-j2sdk1.5 [java-compil 1.5.0+update01 Java(TM) 2 SDK, Standard Edition, 
ii  sun-j2sdk1.5debian [java- 0.18           Debian specific parts of Java(TM) 

-- no debconf information