Originally posted here by owensleftfoot
/etc/pam.d/authconfig is just the pam permissions file for running the authconfig program. The actual program is /usr/bin/authconfig or /usr/bin/authconfig-gtk for the x version.
You are correct but I think i mention pam because I was picking up on his not being able to boot to X but still get to level3. Sometimes there are PAM issues specifically with run level5.