accounts-daemon: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directo

gtarch · 2026-03-03 09:06:04

I upgraded today and my logs are poluted by this message:

Mar 03 09:55:26 host-50q systemd[1]: Starting Accounts Service...
Mar 03 09:55:26 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directory
Mar 03 09:55:26 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: couldn't list homed users: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Could not activate remote peer 'org.freedesktop.home1': activation request failed: unknown unit
Mar 03 09:55:26 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: started daemon version 25.34.0
Mar 03 09:55:26 host-50q systemd[1]: Started Accounts Service.
Mar 03 09:55:47 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directory
Mar 03 09:55:47 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: couldn't list homed users: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Could not activate remote peer 'org.freedesktop.home1': activation request failed: unknown unit
Mar 03 09:56:36 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directory
Mar 03 09:56:36 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: couldn't list homed users: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Could not activate remote peer 'org.freedesktop.home1': activation request failed: unknown unit
Mar 03 10:01:13 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directory
Mar 03 10:01:13 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: couldn't list homed users: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Could not activate remote peer 'org.freedesktop.home1': activation request failed: unknown unit
Mar 03 10:19:04 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directory
Mar 03 10:19:04 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: couldn't list homed users: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Could not activate remote peer 'org.freedesktop.home1': activation request failed: unknown unit
Mar 03 10:21:14 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directory
Mar 03 10:21:14 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: couldn't list homed users: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Could not activate remote peer 'org.freedesktop.home1': activation request failed: unknown unit
Mar 03 10:32:04 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directory
Mar 03 10:32:04 host-50q accounts-daemon[939]: couldn't list homed users: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Could not activate remote peer 'org.freedesktop.home1': activation request failed: unknown unit

Any ideas what's going on there? Is it a bug?

Lone_Wolf · 2026-03-03 10:59:41

$ pacman -F accounts-daemon
extra/accountsservice 25.34.76-2
    usr/lib/accounts-daemon
$

It appears systemd-homed support in accountsservice has been disabled on purpose by the arch devs, see 25.34.76-2: Turn off homed again

Do you need systemd-homed functionality on your system ?
Please post the output of pacman -Qi accountsservice .

Moderator Note
moving to System Administration

gtarch · 2026-03-03 11:06:26

Lone_Wolf wrote:

Do you need systemd-homed functionality on your system ?
Please post the output of pacman -Qi accountsservice .

No, I don't need systemd-homed. I guess it's enabled by default, because I haven't set it up myself.

Name            : accountsservice
Version         : 25.34.76-2
Description     : D-Bus interface for user account query and manipulation
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/accountsservice/accountsservice
Licenses        : GPL-3.0-or-later
Groups          : None
Provides        : libaccountsservice.so=0-64
Depends On      : glib2  glibc  json-c  libgcc  libxcrypt  polkit  shadow  systemd  libcrypt.so=2-64  libglib-2.0.so=0-64  libgobject-2.0.so=0-64
                  libgio-2.0.so=0-64  libsystemd.so=0-64
Optional Deps   : None
Required By     : xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin
Optional For    : lightdm
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Installed Size  : 1027.82 KiB
Packager        : Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) <heftig@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Mon 02 Mar 2026 04:25:53 EET
Install Date    : Tue 03 Mar 2026 09:53:09 EET
Install Reason  : Installed as a dependency for another package
Install Script  : No
Validated By    : Signature

Lone_Wolf · 2026-03-04 14:05:08

It does look like it could be an upstream bug.

The only reference to homed in accountsservice meson_options.txt is

option('create_homed', type: 'boolean', value: false, description: 'Use systemd-homed to create new user accounts')

That option is indeed false in a clean chroot build.

Maybe it needs a second option : use systemd-homed to query user info default=false

To verify if systemd-homed is active on your system run

$ find /etc/systemd -type l -exec test -f {} \; -print

and post the output.

Moderator Note:
when seeing homed in the error output I chose system administration.
After looking at this in depth I now feel Pacman & Package Upgrade Issues is the correct forum for this.
Moving to Pacman & Package Upgrade Issues.

gtarch · 2026-03-04 14:10:46

/etc/systemd/user/sockets.target.wants/p11-kit-server.socket
/etc/systemd/user/sockets.target.wants/pipewire.socket
/etc/systemd/user/sockets.target.wants/pipewire-pulse.socket
/etc/systemd/user/sockets.target.wants/gnome-keyring-daemon.socket
/etc/systemd/user/pipewire-session-manager.service
/etc/systemd/user/pipewire.service.wants/wireplumber.service
/etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/getty@tty1.service
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/remote-fs.target
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/systemd-networkd.service
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/sshd.service
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/cups.service
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/cups.path
/etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/systemd-userdbd.socket
/etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/systemd-networkd.socket
/etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/systemd-networkd-varlink.socket
/etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/systemd-resolved-varlink.socket
/etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/systemd-resolved-monitor.socket
/etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/cups.socket
/etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.network1.service
/etc/systemd/system/sysinit.target.wants/systemd-network-generator.service
/etc/systemd/system/sysinit.target.wants/systemd-resolved.service
/etc/systemd/system/sysinit.target.wants/systemd-timesyncd.service
/etc/systemd/system/network-online.target.wants/systemd-networkd-wait-online.service
/etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.resolve1.service
/etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service
/etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.bluez.service
/etc/systemd/system/bluetooth.target.wants/bluetooth.service
/etc/systemd/system/printer.target.wants/cups.service
/etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.timesync1.service
/etc/systemd/system/timers.target.wants/snapper-timeline.timer
/etc/systemd/system/timers.target.wants/snapper-cleanup.timer

mapuo · 2026-03-05 19:22:19

Disregard! Not related to the issue.

Sorry to bardge in, but after update today I cannot login to my homed user. I'm not sure if this is related or not. I'm looking for advice.
What I see in the logs is:

мар 05 20:28:18 - systemd-homework[8499]: Failed to move identity file into place: Value too large for defined data type
мар 05 20:28:18 - systemd-homed[1278]: Activation failed: Value too large for defined data type

And when I try to activate the account I get this:

$ 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

Any advice on that?

Last edited by mapuo (2026-03-06 14:28:58)

LuxFerre · 2026-03-10 13:40:22

I disabled systemd-homed and still get the messages in the first post.

Lone_Wolf wrote:

$ find /etc/systemd -type l -exec test -f {} \; -print

/etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.timesync1.service
/etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/getty@tty1.service
/etc/systemd/system/timers.target.wants/paccache.timer
/etc/systemd/system/timers.target.wants/reflector.timer
/etc/systemd/system/timers.target.wants/fstrim.timer
/etc/systemd/system/graphical.target.wants/udisks2.service
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/seatd.service
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/NetworkManager.service
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/auditd.service
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/apparmor.service
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/firewalld.service
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/remote-fs.target
/etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.fedoraproject.FirewallD1.service
/etc/systemd/system/network-online.target.wants/NetworkManager-wait-online.service
/etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/systemd-userdbd.socket
/etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service
/etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.nm-dispatcher.service
/etc/systemd/system/sysinit.target.wants/systemd-timesyncd.service
/etc/systemd/user/pipewire-session-manager.service
/etc/systemd/user/graphical-session-pre.target.wants/xdg-user-dirs.service
/etc/systemd/user/pipewire.service.wants/wireplumber.service
/etc/systemd/user/sockets.target.wants/pipewire.socket
/etc/systemd/user/sockets.target.wants/gnome-keyring-daemon.socket
/etc/systemd/user/sockets.target.wants/p11-kit-server.socket
/etc/systemd/user/sockets.target.wants/pipewire-pulse.socket

Lone_Wolf · 2026-03-11 13:33:53

@gtarch : nothing suspicious in your services. It seems 25.34.76 is the first version with any homed support.
I suggest you create an issue for upstream at https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/accounts … e/-/issues

@LuxFerre : can you try without apparmor ?

/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/apparmor.service

seth · 2026-03-11 15:39:22

https://www.openwall.com/tcb/ - noise, so is the homed stuff
Funny thing is that https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/accounts … /issues/95 is completely undocumented, if there're config options to control this behavior, they're buried in the source code - and unlikely to be stable.

The official "documentation" simply links https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop … 00132.html

But it also looks like the access and warning are unconditional, https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/accounts … heads#L360

twelveeighty · 2026-03-11 16:48:20

The way daemon.c's entry_generator_fgetpwent function is written it will ALWAYS attempt to read /etc/tcb/ and enumerate its contents if present. If not present, it logs "Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directory" as "warning" (through glib's g_warning).

The "couldn't list homed users" spam is also logged at warning level, when the dbus "org.freedesktop.home1.Manager/ListHomes" call fails, presumably because the "create_homed" option is now turned off, so there isn't one. I don't know why accountsservice would attempt to call that when "create_homed" isn't turned on.

You should be able to suppress these warnings by adding a "LogLevelMax=3" entry to the accounts-daemon.service unit with a drop-in file - see systemd Service logging levels to have it only log errors, not warnings.

Arch Linux

#1 2026-03-03 09:06:04

accounts-daemon: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directo

#2 2026-03-03 10:59:41

Re: accounts-daemon: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directo

#3 2026-03-03 11:06:26

Re: accounts-daemon: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directo

#4 2026-03-04 14:05:08

Re: accounts-daemon: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directo

#5 2026-03-04 14:10:46

Re: accounts-daemon: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directo

#6 2026-03-05 19:22:19

Re: accounts-daemon: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directo

#7 2026-03-10 13:40:22

Re: accounts-daemon: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directo

#8 2026-03-11 13:33:53

Re: accounts-daemon: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directo

#9 2026-03-11 15:39:22

Re: accounts-daemon: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directo

#10 2026-03-11 16:48:20

Re: accounts-daemon: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No such file or directo

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