[arch-general] Problems with shadow service

[Andy Pieters]

On Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 10:28 PM Peter Nabbefeld <peter.nabbefeld at gmx.de> wrote:
>
>
> Hello,
>
> because of a performance problem I've checked services and noticed this
> line:
> ● shadow.service
>                     loaded failed failed    Verify integrity of password
> and group files
>
>
> So I checked this service and got this output:
>
> $ systemctl status shadow
> ● shadow.service - Verify integrity of password and group files
>     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/shadow.service; static;
> vendor preset: disabled)
>     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2018-12-12 06:59:27
> CET; 14h ago
>    Process: 561 ExecStart=/bin/sh -c /usr/bin/pwck -r || r=1;
> /usr/bin/grpck -r && exit $r (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
>   Main PID: 561 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
>
> Dez 12 06:59:24 tuchola systemd[1]: Started Verify integrity of password
> and group files.
> Dez 12 06:59:26 tuchola sh[561]: Benutzer »ceph«: Verzeichnis
> »/run/ceph« existiert nicht.
> Dez 12 06:59:26 tuchola sh[561]: pwck: Keine Änderungen
> Dez 12 06:59:27 tuchola systemd[1]: shadow.service: Main process exited,
> code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
> Dez 12 06:59:27 tuchola systemd[1]: shadow.service: Failed with result
> 'exit-code'.
>
>
> As system seems to run without problems (other than performance), I've
> got two questions:
>
> 1. Do I need the shadow service? Why?
>
> 2. Why does it fail? User "ceph" is defined, but /run/ceph does not
> exist as its home directory - why? Seems there's a problem in the
> installation of ceph-libs or any or its dependants (like libvirt).
> Probably the user is created only if whole ceph is installed, too?
>
> Kind regards
>
> Peter
Create the directory /run/ceph and pwck will be happy

If you don't want this service whining, just disabled it, systemctl
--disable --now shadow.service

People love to be overly dramatic but this shadow service is a fairly
recent addition and we all got along fine without it.

A missing home directory is not going to make your system slow or
leave it open for attack.