When setting up my new web server I had a problem when installing vsftpd on Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS. After doing the sudo apt-get install vsftpd and enabling login for local users, I got a “Server 530 login incorrect error” when trying to connect with a local user. The settings for disabling anonymous login and allowing local users where set in /etc/vsftpd.conf.
[cc lang=”bash”]anonymous_enable=NO
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES[/cc]
But the ftp server still refused to let me login with any of the users on the system. I tried remove and reinstall, but the problem persisted. Finally I found a thread where others had the same problem. And here’s how to fix the problem.
[cc lang=”bash”]
sudo apt-get remove vsftpd
sudo rm /etc/pam.d/vsftpd
sudo apt-get install vsftpd
[/cc]

This fixed the problem for me. The only reason for me to have an ftp server on my machine is to do automatic updates of WordPress. The machine is behind a firewall so port 21 is not open to the world. For file upload I use sftp.