Arch Linux

djipey

Member

Registered: 2011-07-30

Posts: 156

Can't boot after upgrade {group,passwd,gshadow,shadow}.pacnew [solved]

Hi,

This morning I saw that a few upgrades were available:

core/dbus                  1.10.16-1   1 -> 2
core/libutil-linux         2.29.2-1    1 -> 2
core/util-linux            2.29.2-1    1 -> 2
community/freecad          0.16-8      8 -> 9

==> Mise à jour des logiciels (nouvelle version) :
core/filesystem            2016.12-2   -> 2017.03-2
extra/cups                 2.2.2-2     -> 2.2.3-1
extra/libcups              2.2.2-2     -> 2.2.3-1
extra/libwps               0.4.5-1     -> 0.4.6-1
community/docker           1:17.03.0-1 -> 1:17.03.1-1
community/python2-pytz     2016.10-2   -> 2017.2-1
community/python-texttable 0.8.7-2     -> 0.8.8-1

I started the upgrade process, and pacman told me a few pacnew files were available (group, passwd, gshadow and shadow). As I never modified these files, I simply replaced them with the pacnew files. And now, I can't boot anymore.

I can't even get to the login manager. I don't have access to a tty.

Could you help me figure out what went wrong ? And please explain to me what I should have done, so I won't make this mistake again.

Last edited by djipey (2017-04-01 11:49:41)

ua4000

Member

Registered: 2015-10-14

Posts: 420

Re: Can't boot after upgrade {group,passwd,gshadow,shadow}.pacnew [solved]

As I never modified these files, I simply replaced them with the pacnew files. And now, I can't boot anymore.

That was a bad idea, these files contains your user + group setting.

I suggest you boot from a live-cd and replace theses files with your latest backup.

Last edited by ua4000 (2017-04-01 10:27:57)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,742

Re: Can't boot after upgrade {group,passwd,gshadow,shadow}.pacnew [solved]

If you haven't done any modification (which is borderline impossible, you created an user at some point didn't you? Which edits that file even if you didn't do it "directly") and a simple replacement would be safe you wouldn't  have any .pacnew files. However these files in particular are ones were you should absolutely be careful. They contain your login user (and login password) and many users needed by daemons and services installed into your system and you just wiped them all with the barebones file that's part of the filesystems package. Not entirely sure how you would go about this, you might want to boot into an ISO chroot in reinstall all packages you had installed that mention having a group/user here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/De … D_Database (and dbus and util-linux since they were changed so that their groups are created in the packages as opposed to the filesystem package which lead to the issue) and then recreate your own user with the same UID / GID

Last edited by V1del (2017-04-01 10:32:46)

djipey

Member

Registered: 2011-07-30

Posts: 156

Re: Can't boot after upgrade {group,passwd,gshadow,shadow}.pacnew [solved]

And if I have a backup of these files, is it safe to simply replace these files with the backup files ?

Docbroke

Member

From: India

Registered: 2015-06-13

Posts: 1,433

Re: Can't boot after upgrade {group,passwd,gshadow,shadow}.pacnew [solved]

Yes.
It can't harm you anymore.

---

Arch is home!
https://github.com/Docbroke

djipey

Member

Registered: 2011-07-30

Posts: 156

Re: Can't boot after upgrade {group,passwd,gshadow,shadow}.pacnew [solved]

Ok, replacing the pacnew files with my backup files solved the issue.

God bless backups. Hopefully I backup every week. Never underestimate the power of backups !

Thanks guys !