Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.

Juszr · 2014-04-23 09:31:54

I noticed during boot of this:

# systemctl status -l shadow
● shadow.service - Verify integrity of password and group files
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/shadow.service; static)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2014-04-23 12:28:32 IDT; 2s ago
  Process: 1017 ExecStart=/usr/bin/pwck -r (code=exited, status=2)
 Main PID: 1017 (code=exited, status=2)

Apr 23 12:28:32 Host pwck[1017]: user 'mysql': directory '/home/mysql' does not exist
Apr 23 12:28:32 Host pwck[1017]: pwck: no changes
Apr 23 12:28:32 Host systemd[1]: shadow.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
Apr 23 12:28:32 Host systemd[1]: Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.
Apr 23 12:28:32 Host systemd[1]: Unit shadow.service entered failed state.

How can i fix it?

Last edited by Juszr (2014-04-23 09:32:09)

Jeroen)Mathon · 2014-04-23 09:40:27

How do you edit your passwords and groups do you use the gpasswd and passwd command or do you edit the file directly?

bpeary · 2014-04-23 20:20:46

[Solved] -- thanks hokasch

I too am newly receiving this message, and have made no changes to users, groups, or passwords for at least a year.

shadow.service - Verify integrity of password and group files
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/shadow.service; static)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2014-04-23 16:01:13 EDT; 7min ago
  Process: 300 ExecStart=/usr/bin/pwck -r (code=exited, status=2)
 Main PID: 300 (code=exited, status=2)

Apr 23 16:01:13 arch pwck[300]: user 'avahi': no group 84
Apr 23 16:01:13 arch pwck[300]: user 'ntp': no group 87
Apr 23 16:01:13 arch pwck[300]: pwck: no changes
Apr 23 16:01:13 arch systemd[1]: shadow.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
Apr 23 16:01:13 arch systemd[1]: Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.
Apr 23 16:01:13 arch systemd[1]: Unit shadow.service entered failed state.

Is it simply a matter of adding these to /etc/group?

Last edited by bpeary (2014-04-23 22:47:30)

berbae · 2014-04-23 20:37:56

Re-installing the packages causing the check errors should correct the problems by creating the missing users and groups.
For mysql it is mariadb.

hokasch · 2014-04-23 20:38:39

Juszr - the message is pretty clear, no? If you want to use mysql with the db in /home/mysql, fix the user/home dir, if you do not then just delete the user. mariadb package puts it in /var/lib/mysql

bpeary - shadow service is new, that is why you are receiving that message only now. simply reinstalling ntp & avahi should be the easiest way to fix it.

AFAIK the only way arch packages would make shadow. service fail was this:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 2#p1171272

Don't overwrite your group file with a .pacnew one without merging them.

Last edited by hokasch (2014-04-24 00:03:52)

Gregosky · 2014-07-05 14:05:57

In my case reinstalling ntp cleared that error out. I was running clean install (3rd of July 2014) and in some point after installing ntpd service I started seeing that error message.

doru001 · 2014-08-16 10:32:05

Reinstalling avahi did not correct the error.

/etc $ sudo pwck
user 'addeduser': no group 1001
user 'avahi': no group 84
pwck: no changes
/etc $ sudo grep avahi passwd* group*
passwd:avahi:x:84:84:avahi:/:/bin/false
passwd-:avahi:x:84:84:avahi:/:/bin/false
group:avahi:x:85:
group-:avahi:x:85:
group.bak:avahi:x:84:

What happens if I change avahi:x:85 to avahi:x:84 in /etc/group? Is anything messed up?
After the last update, I used passwd.pacnew, group.pacnew, shadow.pacnew and gshadow.pacnew for a short time, and then I moved them to *.bak's and reverted to the old ones. I don't know what is this mess.
Worse, even the group of an added user is missing. The system is working smoothly.

yogimiom · 2014-08-18 14:35:36

doru001 wrote:

Reinstalling avahi did not correct the error.

Same for me here, as well as for polkitd. In fact there are no groups for those two :

# grep avahi passwd* group*
passwd:avahi:x:84:84:avahi:/:/bin/false
passwd-:avahi:x:84:84:avahi:/:/bin/false

# grep polkitd passwd* group*
passwd:polkitd:x:102:102:Policy Kit Daemon:/:/bin/false
passwd-:polkitd:x:102:102:Policy Kit Daemon:/:/bin/false

I know I messed up merging the .pacnew files
Would creating the groups with groupadd solve the problem ? Something like this :

# groupadd -g 84 avahi
# groupadd -g 102 polkitd

Or am I missing something important here ?

Last edited by yogimiom (2014-08-18 14:37:05)

andreagi · 2014-09-06 06:29:29

Even if the first post is several months ago and the previous 3 weeks ago, I'd like to share how I solved this problem using a command of the shadow package:

# grpck

I had some groups duplicated due to a merge of the shadow.pacnew file.

Last edited by andreagi (2014-09-06 06:38:18)

colinkeenan · 2014-09-29 13:30:51

`sudo grpck` - Worked for me! Thanks. I normally don't bother with pacnew files, but when I do, I let pacmatic handle them. I made the mistake of telling it to replace shadow because I didn't know what it was and so knew I had not edited it. I then had to boot into another Arch install I luckily had on another drive in my computer and revert shadow to an older version. That's when I started getting this error, and `grpck` knew exactly how to fix it.

splurben · 2014-10-06 01:12:27

colinkeenan wrote:

`sudo grpck` - Worked for me! Thanks. I normally don't bother with pacnew files, but when I do, I let pacmatic handle them. I made the mistake of telling it to replace shadow because I didn't know what it was and so knew I had not edited it. I then had to boot into another Arch install I luckily had on another drive in my computer and revert shadow to an older version. That's when I started getting this error, and `grpck` knew exactly how to fix it.

This worked perfectly for me. I have the habit of manually editing my /etc/passwd and /etc/group files on testing computers.

I guess it's time for me to adopt preferred methods, or at least run grpck after manually editing. Have a look at pwck as well.

Last edited by splurben (2014-10-06 01:18:28)

colinkeenan · 2014-10-06 02:16:13

> Have a look at `pwck` as well.

Thanks for that too. I did need to run that because it found several duplicate entries as well as one that shouldn't have been in there anymore. All I had to do was answer yes to everything to fix it.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-04-23 09:31:54

Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.

#2 2014-04-23 09:40:27

Re: Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.

#3 2014-04-23 20:20:46

Re: Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.

#4 2014-04-23 20:37:56

Re: Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.

#5 2014-04-23 20:38:39

Re: Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.

#6 2014-07-05 14:05:57

Re: Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.

#7 2014-08-16 10:32:05

Re: Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.

#8 2014-08-18 14:35:36

Re: Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.

#9 2014-09-06 06:29:29

Re: Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.

#10 2014-09-29 13:30:51

Re: Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.

#11 2014-10-06 01:12:27

Re: Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.

#12 2014-10-06 02:16:13

Re: Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files.

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