[Bug 1863228] Re: loginctl list-sessions shows ghost sessions that are never completely closed

[Launchpad Bug Tracker]

[Expired for systemd (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60
days.]

** Changed in: systemd (Ubuntu)
       Status: Incomplete => Expired

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Title:
  loginctl list-sessions shows ghost sessions that are never completely
  closed

Status in systemd package in Ubuntu:
  Expired

Bug description:
  I setup a new VPS with ubuntu 18.04.4, including virtualmin/usermin.
  In auth.log I see a lot of

      su[12936]: Successful su for domain by root
      su[12936]: + ??? root:domain 
      systemd-logind[148]: New session c315 of user domain .
      su[12936]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user domain by (uid=0)
      su[12936]: pam_unix(su:session): session closed for user domain 

  in syslog, I see a lot of

      systemd[1]: Started Session c314 of user domain.
      systemd[1]: Started Session c315 of user domain.

  domain is the user of my virtual server defined in the VPS. c314/c315
  increased by 1 each time, every 5 minutes (see explanation below).
  When running `loginctl list-sessions` those sessions number grow as
  "active=yes" and "state=closing" and never disappear from the list.

  a random session as an example:

      loginctl session-status c315
      c315 - domain (1000)
                 Since: Sat 2020-02-08 20:27:08 UTC; 23h ago
                Leader: 12936
                   TTY: ???
                Remote: user root
               Service: su; type tty; class user
                 State: closing
                  Unit: session-c315.scope

  I did a simple test: logged in with ssh, logged out (exit) and re-
  logged in. I saw 2 sessions in loginctl list-sessions and the previous
  one, which I obviously closed, never disappeared from the list.

  as a "bonus": Virtualmin apparently open/close a session for the
  virtual server user to do its stuff causing the number of ghost
  sessions to grow forever...

  I posted this question in server fault,  askubuntu, ubuntuforums and
  virtualmin - no one knew what to tell me. I have no idea what/where to
  look for... Please advice :) Thanks in advance.

  FWIW: Someone from virtualmin forum told me that he had a similar
  problem with debian 9 and it was fixed in debian 10.

  After a boot I see this, maybe related?

  Feb 13 06:39:48 domain systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 1000...
  Feb 13 06:39:48 domain systemd[636]: Failed to create /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user at 1000.service/init.scope control group: Permission denied
  Feb 13 06:39:48 domain systemd[636]: Failed to allocate manager object: Permission denied
  Feb 13 06:39:48 domain systemd[1]: user at 1000.service: Failed with result 'protocol'.
  Feb 13 06:39:48 domain systemd[1]: Failed to start User Manager for UID 1000

  lsb_release -a; uname -a; grep 1000 /etc/passwd
  No LSB modules are available.
  Distributor ID: Ubuntu
  Description: Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS
  Release: 18.04
  Codename: bionic
  Linux domain.com 4.15.0 #1 SMP Mon Dec 9 19:36:21 MSK 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
  domain:x:1000:1000::/home/domain:/bin/bash

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