New users unable to set passwd

[Jarod King]

Ok, I know there's gotta be a simple answer to this.  We put a whole
bunch of users into the password file, with no password set.  When the
user tries to set their password initially, this is what happens:

> Old SMB password:
> New SMB password:
> Retype new SMB password:
> machine 127.0.0.1 rejected the password change: Error was : The specified password is invalid.
> Failed to change password for slwhite   

In the above example, nothing was typed for the old smb password, just
<enter>.  If root sets an initial password, though, the user is able to
change it without problem.  Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

jarod