Passwd changes problem

[jayaprakash.j at polaris.co.in]

Hi everyone
Forgive us if this quetion is already answered.
My problem is whenever we are trying to add a password using
smbpasswd command we encounter the following errors.
# smbpasswd
New SMB password:
Retype new SMB password:
getsmbfilepwent: malformed password entry (passwd too short)
Failed to find entry for user root.
Failed to change password entry for root

Thanx in Advance
JP