[Bug 523896] Re: useradd: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

[Steve Langasek]

It's been suggested that this might be a duplicate of bug 432964, which
is described as "system crash in guest session locks /etc/passwd
forever".  Can the submitters of this bug and duplicates confirm whether
they've used Ubuntu guest sessions on the affected system, and whether
they saw crashes when doing so?

Nicolas, you comment in the other bug that we shouldn't clear locks on
boot because they indicate something has gone wrong and shouldn't be
ignored.  While that's true, the trail on bugs like this is likely to be
quite cold, and knowing the lock is there gives us only a slim chance of
finding the cause.  Since updates to these files are atomic and the lock
files are used only to prevent two updates in parallel clobbering one
another, there should be no file corruption and removing the locks
should be safe - so I am inclined to say we should remove the locks at
boot.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/523896

Title:
  useradd: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

Status in “shadow” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: postfix

  Ubuntu 9.10, via Update Manager.

  SOLUTION:

  Look for /etc/group.lock, /etc/passwd.lock and /etc/shadow.lock files
  and remove them.

  Be careful to only remove the files ending in 'lock' or else you might
  damage your system.

  Please do not add comments just containing "Me too", instead please provide any information that could indicate why the files were locked:
   * the list of locked files:
      ls /etc/passwd.lock /etc/shadow.lock /etc/group.lock /etc/gshadow.lock

   * check the /var/log/auth.log for any message that could indicate the
  failure of any other tool (prior to the failure which reported the
  locked file)

   * any abnormal operation on the machine (reset, shutdown while the
  computer is still running)

  ProblemType: Package
  Architecture: i386
  Date: Thu Feb 18 09:49:47 2010
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
  ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
  NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
  Package: postfix 2.6.5-3
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-19.56-generic
  SourcePackage: postfix
  Title: package postfix 2.6.5-3 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
  Uname: Linux 2.6.31-19-generic i686

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