what things can cause yppasswd failure?

[Jin Guojun [NCS]]

We have experience very strange problem on using NIS over FreeBSD 4.x and 5.x.
Some uses can change passwd where other users cannot.

case 1:    Use FreeBSD 5.1 as NIS server -- NIS client is a FreeBSD 4.9 host
I can change my passwd any time and any where, and most people cannot.
If I change my home directory to anywhere else in the master.passwd file,
re-make in /var/yp directory, then I cannot change my passwd any more.
It causes yppasswdd dying on signal 11, which most users encountered.

case 2: Use FreeBSD 4.10-BETA as NIS server -- same NIS client
I have no problem to change passwd, other users do. Failure will not
kill yppasswdd, but it returns following error:

passwd: failed to change NIS password: RPC: Server can't decode arguments

After this message I still can change my passwd.  Also, changing my home
directory in /var/yp/master.passwd and re-making DO NOT AFFECT
me to change passwd.

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Does any one know what could cause such weird NIS problem?
It seems not ENV related problem (may be). Is there some known
NIS issues?

    -Jin