Arch Linux

ComicSansMS

Member

Registered: 2025-09-08

Posts: 6

Error in post-transaction hook

I got an error message in the recent update that I do not understand:

:: Running post-transaction hooks...
( 1/13) Creating system user accounts...
( 2/13) Creating temporary files...
( 3/13) Updating udev hardware database...
( 4/13) Reloading system manager configuration...
( 5/13) Reloading user manager configuration...
user@60578.service is not active, cannot reload.
error: command failed to execute correctly

According to the pacman.log this seems to have occurred during the 30-systemd-daemon-reload-user.hook:

[ALPM] running '30-systemd-daemon-reload-system.hook'...
[ALPM] running '30-systemd-daemon-reload-user.hook'...
[ALPM-SCRIPTLET] user@60578.service is not active, cannot reload.
[ALPM] running '30-update-mime-database.hook'...
[ALPM] running '35-systemd-restart-marked.hook'..

But I am stuck tracing it further from here. Any advice how to debug this?

Last edited by ComicSansMS (2026-02-05 11:08:36)

xerxes_

Member

Registered: 2018-04-29

Posts: 1,002

Re: Error in post-transaction hook

According to file /usr/share/doc/systemd/UIDS-GIDS.md which belong to systemd package 60578 UID/GID is in range of 60578…60705 which apply to "Dynamic greeter users". What greeter do you use? Or how do you start X server or Wayland and to what DE? Did you change something in /etc/nsswitch.conf file?

Last edited by xerxes_ (2026-02-05 11:25:19)

ComicSansMS

Member

Registered: 2025-09-08

Posts: 6

Re: Error in post-transaction hook

According to file /usr/share/doc/systemd/UIDS-GIDS.md which belong to systemd package 60578 UID/GID is in range of 60578…60705 which apply to "Dynamic greeter users".

Thanks! I did not know about this file, that is very useful. Is there a way to query systemd for the service that was assigned to this id on my system?

What greeter do you use? Or how do you start X server or Wayland and to what DE?

I use gdm as greeter and X as display server. I have several DEs installed to select from gdm, but I am mainly using Gnome and Cinnamon these days.

Did you change something in /etc/nsswitch.conf file?

Nope, never touched that file.

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 72,876

Re: Error in post-transaction hook

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 6#p2264906 ?

---

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

ComicSansMS

Member

Registered: 2025-09-08

Posts: 6

Re: Error in post-transaction hook

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 6#p2264906 ?

I don't have an entry for pam_sss, and I also don't see anything in that file that strikes me as problematic.

Here are the contents of the /etc/pam.d/system-auth:

#%PAM-1.0

auth       required                    pam_faillock.so      preauth
# Optionally use requisite above if you do not want to prompt for the password
# on locked accounts.
-auth      [success=2 default=ignore]  pam_systemd_home.so
auth       [success=1 default=bad]     pam_unix.so          try_first_pass nullok
auth       [default=die]               pam_faillock.so      authfail
auth       optional                    pam_permit.so
auth       required                    pam_env.so
auth       required                    pam_faillock.so      authsucc
# If you drop the above call to pam_faillock.so the lock will be done also
# on non-consecutive authentication failures.

-account   [success=1 default=ignore]  pam_systemd_home.so
account    required                    pam_unix.so
account    optional                    pam_permit.so
account    required                    pam_time.so

-password  [success=1 default=ignore]  pam_systemd_home.so
password   required                    pam_unix.so          try_first_pass nullok shadow
password   optional                    pam_permit.so

-session   optional                    pam_systemd_home.so
session    required                    pam_limits.so
session    required                    pam_unix.so
session    optional                    pam_permit.so

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 72,876

Re: Error in post-transaction hook

Sorry, wrong post in that mega-thread.
The common issue is https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 5#p2263495
(But this also completely breaks GDM)

In doubt please post your complete system journal for the boot:

sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

so we cah check what's up w/ the service.

---

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

xerxes_

Member

Registered: 2018-04-29

Posts: 1,002

Re: Error in post-transaction hook

@ComicSansMS

You can try:

systemctl status user@60578.service
systemctl list-dependencies user@60578.service
systemctl cat user@60578.service

but I don't know how much it will tell you.