Linux group problem

Hi,

I have a Linux usergroup problem that I can't find any solution on the web for. It first came into mind when I tried to update the slocate db "$updatedb" and it produced an error "could not find the group slocate inetc-group file. bane error: this is a result of the group missing or a corruptedetc-group file" I checkedetc-group file and slocate group is there. Then I run $grpck to check the integrity ofetc-group and it produced no error.

Then I tried to do another group-related operation by trying to change group ownership of a file by "$chown user:usergroup file1", and it also failed with an error "chown 'user:usergroup' invalid group". I also doublecheck that group "usergroup" is also inetc-group file.

Another symptom is when I do "ls -l", for each listed file it shows the user owner of the file but it only shows the numeric id of group owner of the file. For example for file1 owned by user "root" and group "root", in "ls -l" it shows file1 as owned by user "root" and group 0 ("root" group has id 0).

So it appears that Linux doesn't read theetc-group properly, or maybe there's something else that I miss?

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Regards, Johny