Arch Linux

webcapcha

Member

Registered: 2019-02-14

Posts: 167

PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

[lex@home-desktop ~]$ systemctl status user@975.service
● user@975.service - User Manager for UID 975
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/user@.service; static)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2020-12-07 08:31:44 EET; 6h ago
       Docs: man:user@.service(5)
    Process: 897 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user (code=exited, status=224/PAM)
   Main PID: 897 (code=exited, status=224/PAM)

Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 975...
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[897]: pam_systemd_home(systemd-user:account): systemd-homed is not available: Unit dbus-org.freedesktop.home1.service not found.
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[897]: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[897]: user@975.service: Failed to set up PAM session: Operation not permitted
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[897]: user@975.service: Failed at step PAM spawning /usr/lib/systemd/systemd: Operation not permitted
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[1]: user@975.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=224/PAM
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[1]: user@975.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[1]: Failed to start User Manager for UID 975.

According to /etc/passwd

sddm:x:975:975:Simple Desktop Display Manager:/var/lib/sddm:/sbin/nologin

By the way, I don't use systemd-homed

---

Ukrainian

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 77,678

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

Since sddm seeks to use a systemd sysuser, it should™ not have an entry in /etc/passwd (nor /etc/shadow)
Why is that there?

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

webcapcha

Member

Registered: 2019-02-14

Posts: 167

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

Ah, it should be result of

sudo pwck -r /etc/shadow

I run that check month ago, when I messed up with user management.

So it good to manually delete that line from shadow file?

Last edited by webcapcha (2020-12-07 15:17:50)

---

Ukrainian

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,729

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

That's what sysusers does. You're thinking of dynamic users, which SDDM does not use.

webcapcha

Member

Registered: 2019-02-14

Posts: 167

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

I removed sddm "user" from /etc/passwd

Now if I try to perform

sudo systemctl status user@975.service

[lex@home-desktop ~]$ sudo systemctl status user@975.service
● user@975.service - User Manager for UID 975
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/user@.service; static)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2020-12-07 08:31:44 EET; 8h ago
       Docs: man:user@.service(5)
    Process: 897 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user (code=exited, status=224/PAM)
   Main PID: 897 (code=exited, status=224/PAM)

Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 975...
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[897]: pam_systemd_home(systemd-user:account): systemd-homed is not available: Unit dbus-org.freedesktop.home1.service not found.
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[897]: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[897]: user@975.service: Failed to set up PAM session: Operation not permitted
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[897]: user@975.service: Failed at step PAM spawning /usr/lib/systemd/systemd: Operation not permitted
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[1]: user@975.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=224/PAM
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[1]: user@975.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 07 08:31:44 home-desktop systemd[1]: Failed to start User Manager for UID 975.
Dec 07 17:25:44 home-desktop systemd[1]: Dependency failed for User Manager for UID 975.
Dec 07 17:25:44 home-desktop systemd[1]: user@975.service: Job user@975.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.

---

Ukrainian

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,729

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

I removed sddm "user" from /etc/passwd

That wasn't very smart. Reinstall sddm to restore it.

webcapcha

Member

Registered: 2019-02-14

Posts: 167

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

wow I counted on *not have an entry in /etc/passwd*

---

Ukrainian

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 77,678

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

No, psot #4 was addressed at me.
For clarification, is the original condition refelctive of a disfunction or just something you found in the logs?

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

webcapcha

Member

Registered: 2019-02-14

Posts: 167

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

I would say both.
First, record in the logs
Second, when I shutting down pc it hangs with user@975 error, until systemd kill it

---

Ukrainian

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 77,678

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 6#p1942226 ?

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

webcapcha

Member

Registered: 2019-02-14

Posts: 167

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

not sure why I should mask a problem, than try to fix it.
I have service which is constantly failing. Solution is to fix service and not to hack systemd

---

Ukrainian

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 77,678

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

The question/notion was whether you face the same issue, not any kind of instrcution on how to deal with it.

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

webcapcha

Member

Registered: 2019-02-14

Posts: 167

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

fantastically, I was doing reboot in order to film how it is actually looks like during shutdown/reboot, btw It's nothing important, just error about user@975 service, and before that I launched system update (previous update was yesterday)

So update was 17 packages, here is from pacman.log

[2020-12-07T18:34:42+0200] [ALPM] upgraded pam (1.5.0-1 -> 1.5.0-2)
[2020-12-07T18:34:42+0200] [ALPM] upgraded bind (9.16.8-3 -> 9.16.9-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:42+0200] [ALPM] upgraded gstreamer (1.18.1-1 -> 1.18.2-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:42+0200] [ALPM] upgraded mesa (20.2.3-1 -> 20.3.0-2)
[2020-12-07T18:34:42+0200] [ALPM] upgraded gst-plugins-base-libs (1.18.1-1 -> 1.18.2-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:42+0200] [ALPM] upgraded gst-plugins-base (1.18.1-1 -> 1.18.2-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:42+0200] [ALPM] upgraded htop (3.0.2-1 -> 3.0.3-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:42+0200] [ALPM] upgraded lib32-mesa (20.2.3-1 -> 20.3.0-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:42+0200] [ALPM] upgraded mlt (6.22.1-6 -> 6.24.0-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:43+0200] [ALPM] upgraded noto-fonts (20190926-4 -> 20201206-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:43+0200] [ALPM] upgraded opencl-mesa (20.2.3-1 -> 20.3.0-2)
[2020-12-07T18:34:43+0200] [ALPM] upgraded poppler (20.12.0-1 -> 20.12.1-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:43+0200] [ALPM] upgraded poppler-glib (20.12.0-1 -> 20.12.1-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:43+0200] [ALPM] upgraded poppler-qt5 (20.12.0-1 -> 20.12.1-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:43+0200] [ALPM] upgraded python-importlib-metadata (2.0.0-3 -> 3.1.1-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:43+0200] [ALPM] upgraded python-pygments (2.7.2-3 -> 2.7.3-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:43+0200] [ALPM] upgraded reflector (2020.12-1 -> 2020.12.7.1-1)
[2020-12-07T18:34:43+0200] [ALPM] transaction completed

And now, error has gone.

[lex@home-desktop ~]$ systemctl status user@975.service
● user@975.service - User Manager for UID 975
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/user@.service; static)
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:user@.service(5)

Dec 07 18:36:55 home-desktop systemd[621]: pulseaudio.socket: Succeeded.
Dec 07 18:36:55 home-desktop systemd[621]: Closed Sound System.
Dec 07 18:36:55 home-desktop systemd[621]: Removed slice User Application Slice.
Dec 07 18:36:55 home-desktop systemd[621]: Reached target Shutdown.
Dec 07 18:36:55 home-desktop systemd[621]: systemd-exit.service: Succeeded.
Dec 07 18:36:55 home-desktop systemd[621]: Finished Exit the Session.
Dec 07 18:36:55 home-desktop systemd[621]: Reached target Exit the Session.
Dec 07 18:36:55 home-desktop systemd[622]: pam_warn(systemd-user:setcred): function=[pam_sm_setcred] flags=0x8004 service=[systemd-user] terminal=[] user=[sddm] ruser=[<unknown>] rhost=[<unknown>]
Dec 07 18:36:55 home-desktop systemd[1]: user@975.service: Succeeded.
Dec 07 18:36:55 home-desktop systemd[1]: Stopped User Manager for UID 975.

So it's either update fix an error, or reinstalling sddm fix it. Who knows?

---

Ukrainian

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 77,678

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

pam update is https://github.com/linux-pam/linux-pam/ … d4eb.patch - it talks about root, but sddm will have an empty password hash…
You could try to downgrade it to see whether it's the cause (would be an interesting find if this is the same problem as the other thread)

Otherwise if it was in /etc/shadow and you removed that entry it might have been expired.
Do you have a backup of that file to inspect it?

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

webcapcha

Member

Registered: 2019-02-14

Posts: 167

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

I deleted line from /etc/shadow

Yes I have backup of /etc/passwd, I open up it, and there is a new line sddm:!*:18603::::::
Looks like it turned up after I reinstall sddm.

As I said before, I admit that I messed up with shadow and passwd file couple month ago. But error appeared only couple days ago.

Last edited by webcapcha (2020-12-07 17:13:09)

---

Ukrainian

webcapcha

Member

Registered: 2019-02-14

Posts: 167

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

Not sure why I can't edit topic as SOLVED

---

Ukrainian

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 77,678

Re: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info

You need to edit your original post.

The sddm account is now locked and got a vastly different UID.
Please nb. that /etc/passed != /etc/shadow

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc