[CentOS] OT: vmware server not accepting root password?

Sorry for the OT question; I'm hoping someone else has a similar setup
and ran into this same problem?

For some reason, not sure what I changed, my vmware server is no
longer accepting the root login for the management console or web mui
interface.  I'm certain the password is correct, and I've even reset
root's password to make sure.  VMware seems to be running ok, I can
access my virtual machines just fine, as well as start and stop the
vmware service.

The host OS is centos 4.5 x86-64, nothing special, just a bare bones
server install.

Any ideas on resetting what vmware considers the root password, or
re-syncing it somehow?

Thanks-
Gordon

These are the only log entries I could find corresponding to my login attempts:

[root at incognito log]# tail secure
Jun 22 23:48:26 incognito xinetd[4086]: START: vmware-authd pid=7377
from=10.51.51.6
Jun 22 23:48:26 incognito vmware-authd[7377]: PAM unable to
dlopen(/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpam.so.0/security/pam_unix2.so)
Jun 22 23:48:26 incognito vmware-authd[7377]: PAM [dlerror:
/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpam.so.0/security/pam_unix2.so: cannot open
shared object file: No such file or directory]
Jun 22 23:48:26 incognito vmware-authd[7377]: PAM adding faulty
module: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpam.so.0/security/pam_unix2.so
Jun 22 23:48:26 incognito vmware-authd[7377]: PAM unable to
dlopen(/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpam.so.0/security/pam_unix_auth.so)
Jun 22 23:48:26 incognito vmware-authd[7377]: PAM [dlerror:
/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpam.so.0/security/pam_unix_auth.so: symbol
pam_syslog, version LIBPAM_EXTENSION_1.0 not defined in file
libpam.so.0 with link time reference]
Jun 22 23:48:26 incognito vmware-authd[7377]: PAM adding faulty
module: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpam.so.0/security/pam_unix_auth.so
Jun 22 23:48:26 incognito vmware-authd[7377]: PAM unable to
dlopen(/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpam.so.0/security/pam_unix_acct.so)
Jun 22 23:48:26 incognito vmware-authd[7377]: PAM [dlerror:
/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpam.so.0/security/pam_unix_acct.so: symbol
pam_syslog, version LIBPAM_EXTENSION_1.0 not defined in file
libpam.so.0 with link time reference]
Jun 22 23:48:26 incognito vmware-authd[7377]: PAM adding faulty
module: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpam.so.0/security/pam_unix_acct.so