[Hampshire] ubuntu server 10.04 annoyance(s)

hi all,

Not my cup of tea by any means but i'm tasked with setting up an ubuntu 10.04LTS server.

Two major irritations :

1) user password has a maximum of 8 characters, i've tried to change this with passwd but it wont let me. (IMHO this is absolutely ridiculous and should NEVER EVER be allowed on a production server).

2) I don't like UFW and so i've disabled it. Instead, what works for me (usually) is to place a script in /etc/network/if-pre-up.d - now, i've got this to work as usual BUT : something seems to had several rules, namely opening port 53 and 67 and some other crap (I find this ultra annoying).

I've disabled apparmor, one thing to note - this is a default 'full install'. I'm assuming the password issue may be something to do with PAM.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated as right now i'm hugely un-impressed indeed.

Many thanks

Isaac.