[Bug 790538] Re: pam update causes cron to stop working with "Module is unknown" error

[ichudov]

On Wed, Jun 01, 2011 at 05:11:15PM -0000, Peter Odding wrote:
> I appreciate that the problem has already been solved (I'm glad) but am
> still considering whether to nominate this as the biggest fuck-up since
> the Debian SSH/SSL key fiasco. 

This is a bigger fuq-up than the SSH key fiasco. The SSH key fiasco
did not actually break anything, and it also had nothing to do with
Ubuntu, as such.

> If this truly affects every server Ubuntu install out there using
> unattended upgrades (it affected my three servers running Ubuntu
> 10.04 with unattended upgrades), this bug just broke thousands of
> backup cron jobs all over the world and the worst thing is it
> requires manual intervention from a sysadmin to get it going again
> :-S.

It it worse than you are describing. Many servers, mine included, run
everything, application-wise, from cron jobs. 

I personally run five distinct categories of things:

1) My application stuff that makes money for me
2) System updates
3) Reboots
4) Backups
5) Problem detection and notification

from cron jobs. When cron stopped working, my apps would not run, the
automatic updates stopped, reboots stopped, and my notification system
stopped as well. So, problems that are self repairing normally, would
not self repair. 

What this means is that not only my stuff stopped working, but also
self repair stopped, and I did not know about this problem since my
notification and problem detection system ceased to work, as well. 

IOW, I was completely and totally screwed.

The only thing where I lucked out, is that my main webserver that
serves algebra.com, only does system updates on Sundays. If that one
went down, I would have lost hundreds of $$$. 

I am aware that "stuff happens", and I appreciate a quick fix, but
this was a truly momentous error. 

i

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/790538

Title:
  pam update causes cron to stop working with "Module is unknown" error

Status in “pam” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in “pam” source package in Lucid:
  Fix Released
Status in “pam” source package in Maverick:
  Fix Released
Status in “pam” source package in Natty:
  Fix Released
Status in “pam” source package in Hardy:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  Upgrading libpam-modules from 1.1.1-4ubuntu1 to 1.1.1-4ubuntu2.2, cron stopped working, just gives a log message "Module is unknown". This happened during unattended-upgrades this night, so there might be a lot of people who didn't realize that yet.
  Downgrading to 1.1.1-4ubuntu1 fixes this.
  Ubuntu 10.10 amd64, almost vanilla, fresh, minimum install + java (ppa) + postgresql9 (ppa).