Before you install this package, you may want to have a look at the Shadow hint. It discusses how you can make your system more secure regarding passwords, such as how to enable the more secure MD5 passwords and how to get the most out of this Shadow package. The Shadow hint can be found at . Prepare Shadow to be compiled: ./configure --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib \     --enable-shared Continue with compiling the package: make Install the package: make install Shadow uses two files to configure authentication settings for the system. Install those config files: cp etc/{limits,login.access} /etc /var/spool/mail is the old location of the user mailboxes. The location that is used nowadays is /var/mail. Issue the following command to modify the mailbox location: sed 's%/var/spool/mail%/var/mail%' \     etc/login.defs.linux > /etc/login.defs According to the manpage of vipw, a vigr symlink should exist. Because the shadow installation procedure doesn't create this symlink, it must be created manually: ln -s vipw /usr/sbin/vigr The vipw link is currently pointing to a non-existing file. Since this file isn't needed here, remove it: rm /bin/vipw Move the sg program to the /usr/bin directory: mv /bin/sg /usr/bin Move Shadow's dynamic libraries to a more appropriate location: mv /usr/lib/lib{shadow,misc}.so.0* /lib The libraries have been moved, but some packages expect to find them in them in the /usr/lib directory. To account for this, create the following symlinks: ln -sf ../../lib/libshadow.so.0 /usr/lib/libshadow.so && ln -sf ../../lib/libmisc.so.0 /usr/lib/libmisc.so Sh-utils and Shadow Password Suite each install a unique groups program. If you wish, you may remove the groups program installed by the Shadow Password Suite: rm /bin/groups