[gentoo-user] Help! with a pam upgrade, lockout, etc.

[Jayson Smith]

Hi,

     I'm running Gentoo. As part of an unrelated package upgrade, PAM got
upgraded. Ever since, or sometime afterward, anything requiring a username
and password fails. My POP3 server fails, I can't even log in as root! If I
try to log in at the console, it takes the username, which can be a real or 
a non-existent user, and doesn't ask for a
password, but instead waits three seconds or whatever, and tells me the
login is incorrect. Thank Goodness, I do have exactly one console window
logged in as Root, so I'm not totally locked out. I had upgraded PAM in the
recent past. Could it be that I need a reboot? Only reason I don't do this
is...
     My ISP blocks port 25, so I have to manually run a redirector program
to forward another port to port 25 on my Linux system. I don't know how to
get this to run automatically at startup, easily. And wouldn't you know it,
I have a Mailman list going which I really don't need to have down, as it's
pretty important. So, if I reboot and am still locked out, then I'm screwed.
If I can't log in as root, then I can't start redir. No redir, no SMTP, no
Mailman, unhappy list members. Any thoughts? I'd love to think a reboot
would solve the problem, but don't want to chance a total lockout. I don't
assume there's a way to say to a system, "I am the almighty God of this
system, and you *will* let me in as root!"
     One other thing. I'm blind, and use Speakup with a speech synthesizer. 
Obviously I don't listen to the stuff that goes on during an emerge. So, if 
it told me anything important I must do in order to avoid this situation, I 
missed it. Usually when this happens it beeps a bunch of times, but I don't 
remember hearing any beeps.
Thanks for any help.
Jayson