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

[Steve Langasek]

This has turned up on the radar again because whoopsie tries to call
adduser on upgrade to 12.04, and many users are finding their
/etc/passwd locked.  We should update shadow to clear lock on boot.

** Also affects: shadow (Ubuntu Precise)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Also affects: shadow (Ubuntu Quantal)
   Importance: Medium
     Assignee: Canonical Foundations Team (canonical-foundations)
       Status: Confirmed

** Changed in: shadow (Ubuntu Precise)
       Status: New => Triaged

** Changed in: shadow (Ubuntu Precise)
   Importance: Undecided => High

** Changed in: shadow (Ubuntu Quantal)
       Status: Confirmed => Triaged

** Changed in: shadow (Ubuntu Quantal)
   Importance: Medium => High

** Changed in: shadow (Ubuntu Precise)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Canonical Foundations Team (canonical-foundations)

** Changed in: shadow (Ubuntu Precise)
    Milestone: None => ubuntu-12.04.1

** Tags added: rls-p-tracking

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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:
  Triaged
Status in “shadow” source package in Precise:
  Triaged
Status in “shadow” source package in Quantal:
  Triaged

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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