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mapuo

Member

Registered: 2026-03-05

Posts: 4

[SOLVED] Can't login with homed user

Hello, I need help to understand why I cannot login with my homed user.
I've created a homed user on my last laptop upgrade and fortunetly I have a normal user as well so I now have access to my system.
But I cannot login after I've updated the packages last night.
When I'm logged in with the normal user I try to activate the homed user and it says:

$ homectl activate mapuo
? Please enter password for user mapuo: •••••••••               
Operation on home mapuo failed: Failed to execute operation: Value too large for defined data type

I've added the debug (SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL=debug) in front of the command and at the end it says:

/run/systemd/userdb/io.systemd.Home: Received message: {"parameters":{"record":{"binding":{"67af2bdd858e420fa935b57f98556ef1":{"blobDirectory":"/var/cache/systemd/home/mapuo","fileSystemType":"btrfs","gid":60472,"homeDirectory":"/home/mapuo","imagePath":"/home/mapuo.homedir","storage":"subvolume","uid":60472}},"blobManifest":{"avatar":"df64347ac76f16ff3b55a433ff778408cd9b5b0b68e9e88d6d3d7c838cc2cf82"},"disposition":"regular","emailAddress":"[SPAM]","lastChangeUSec":1772740639205872,"lastPasswordChangeUSec":1763668495554029,"memberOf":["docker","i2c","input","uucp","wheel"],"perMachine":[{"matchMachineId":"67af2bdd858e420fa935b57f98556ef1","storage":"subvolume"}],"realName":"[NAME]","shell":"/usr/bin/bash","signature":[{"data":"[DATA]","key":"[KEY]"}],"userName":"mapuo","status":{"67af2bdd858e420fa935b57f98556ef1":{"goodAuthenticationCounter":684,"lastGoodAuthenticationUSec":1772734982503558,"rateLimitBeginUSec":1772788150206700,"rateLimitCount":1,"badAuthenticationCounter":1320,"lastBadAuthenticationUSec":1772788150221158,"state":"inactive","service":"io.systemd.Home","useFallback":true,"fallbackShell":"/usr/bin/systemd-home-fallback-shell","fallbackHomeDirectory":"/","diskSize":1023133351936,"diskFree":758172704768,"diskCeiling":5497558138880,"diskFloor":5242880,"signedLocally":true,"fileSystemType":"btrfs"}}},"incomplete":true}}
/run/systemd/userdb/io.systemd.Home: Changing state awaiting-reply → processing-reply
/run/systemd/userdb/io.systemd.Home: Changing state processing-reply → idle-client
? Please enter password for user mapuo: •••••••••               
Sent message type=method_call sender=n/a destination=org.freedesktop.home1 path=/org/freedesktop/home1 interface=org.freedesktop.home1.Manager member=ActivateHome cookie=3 reply_cookie=0 signature=ss error-name=n/a error-message=n/a
Got message type=error sender=:1.4 destination=:1.233 path=n/a interface=n/a member=n/a  cookie=170 reply_cookie=3 signature=s error-name=System.Error.EOVERFLOW error-message=Failed to execute operation: Value too large for defined data type
Operation on home mapuo failed: Failed to execute operation: Value too large for defined data type
Bus n/a: changing state RUNNING → CLOSED

I don't understand what is wrong here. Is it from some of the new packages, like systemd or kernel?
How to fix my system so I can login with my main account there?

Any help is appreciated.

Last edited by mapuo (2026-03-06 10:03:33)

mithrial

Member

Registered: 2017-03-05

Posts: 149

Re: [SOLVED] Can't login with homed user

You might open a GitHub issue for systemd if the error persists. I've found https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/38941

mapuo

Member

Registered: 2026-03-05

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] Can't login with homed user

You might open a GitHub issue for systemd if the error persists. I've found https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/38941

Thank you!

Ok, my googling skills are deteriorating

I was able to activate the user by chown-ing the .identity file back to the owner of the directory.