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simonhiggs

Member

Registered: 2015-02-16

Posts: 12

[SOLVED]shadow.service failure after removing ntp

After removing the package ntp...

:: List failed units
● shadow.service loaded failed failed Verify integrity of password and group files

$ systemctl status shadow.service 
× shadow.service - Verify integrity of password and group files
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/shadow.service; static)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2021-09-16 00:00:06 BST; 4h 46min ago
TriggeredBy: ● shadow.timer
   Main PID: 63404 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
        CPU: 21ms

Sep 16 00:00:06 macmini2 systemd[1]: Started Verify integrity of password and group files.
Sep 16 00:00:06 macmini2 sh[63406]: user 'ntp': directory '/var/lib/ntp' does not exist
Sep 16 00:00:06 macmini2 sh[63406]: pwck: no changes
Sep 16 00:00:06 macmini2 systemd[1]: shadow.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Sep 16 00:00:06 macmini2 systemd[1]: shadow.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Is it safe to remove the user ntp, or should the reference to /var/lib/ntp be changed?

Thanks, Simon.

Last edited by simonhiggs (2021-09-17 07:52:56)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,000

Re: [SOLVED]shadow.service failure after removing ntp

As a safety measure if there are any files owned by the ntp user or group they should be removed or reowned before removing the user.  This stops files potentially becoming owned by an unrelated system user when the UID / GID is reused.

find / -user ntp -o -group ntp

Last edited by loqs (2021-09-16 12:10:31)

simonhiggs

Member

Registered: 2015-02-16

Posts: 12

Re: [SOLVED]shadow.service failure after removing ntp

Thanks (again) loqs