[SOLVED]shadow.service failed & gnome-session generates errors

stefanotis · 2015-06-15 06:59:42

Fellow Archers,

I have been trying to find the root of an error in my arch system that was reported to me during the last days. Apparently shadow.service fails during the boot process.

# systemctl status shadow.service gives the following information

● shadow.service - Verify integrity of password and group files
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/shadow.service; static; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: inactive (dead)

trying to restart with # systemctl restart shadow.service gives the following output

Job for shadow.service failed. See "systemctl status shadow.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.

So here's the debug information:

# systemctl status shadow.service

● shadow.service - Verify integrity of password and group files
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/shadow.service; static; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mo 2015-06-15 08:53:54 CEST; 39s ago
  Process: 2135 ExecStart=/usr/bin/pwck -r (code=exited, status=2)
 Main PID: 2135 (code=exited, status=2)

Well that did not give me much, so I tried # journalctl -xe and this is the point where I'm getting confused. I see no error messages regarding the shadow.service. But gnome-session (I am running gnome 3.16 on my Arch installation) is giving me errors every 5 (!) seconds:

Jun 15 08:47:48 *** gnome-session[894]: 2015-06-15 08:47:48,191 [   ServiceCon] INFO : Client service not available, connection was refused.
Jun 15 08:47:48 *** gnome-session[894]: 2015-06-15 08:47:48,191 [         main] DEBUG: Switched application state to: NOT_CONNECTED

I've been trying to figure out what exactly is happening, but I am helpless. I have the feeling these two weird errors are somehow connected, but I do not know if and how. Is there anyone who could assist me finding the root of this error(s)?

Thanks in advance!

Last edited by stefanotis (2015-06-15 07:43:57)

jasonwryan · 2015-06-15 07:02:24

The error tells you what is failing (pwck): run it and read the output.

Not a Sysadmin issue, moving to NC...

stefanotis · 2015-06-15 07:33:51

The error tells you what is failing (pwck): run it and read the output.

Thanks for the info. running pwck -r gave me necessary information: a user on my system had no home directory. Once that was created, pwck -r executed smoothly and shadow.service started again. Thank you very much!

However, the error

Jun 15 08:47:48 *** gnome-session[894]: 2015-06-15 08:47:48,191 [   ServiceCon] INFO : Client service not available, connection was refused.
Jun 15 08:47:48 *** gnome-session[894]: 2015-06-15 08:47:48,191 [         main] DEBUG: Switched application state to: NOT_CONNECTED

still persists. what is that error?

jasonwryan · 2015-06-15 07:35:30

No idea: but it is not related to your shadow file, so you really should mark this as solved and start a new thread with more information about the gnome-session issue.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-06-15 06:59:42

[SOLVED]shadow.service failed & gnome-session generates errors

#2 2015-06-15 07:02:24

Re: [SOLVED]shadow.service failed & gnome-session generates errors

#3 2015-06-15 07:33:51

Re: [SOLVED]shadow.service failed & gnome-session generates errors

#4 2015-06-15 07:35:30

Re: [SOLVED]shadow.service failed & gnome-session generates errors

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