Bug#1118454: gdm3: GDM3 49 fails startup with: unix_chkpwd[2062]: could not obtain user info (gdm-greeter)

[Frederik Himpe]

Package: gdm3
Version: 49.1-1
Severity: important
X-Debbugs-Cc: frederik at frehi.be

Dear Maintainer,

I upgraded to gdm 49.1 from Experimental, and now GDM3 fails to start: it just
hangs.

In the logs I found this error:
unix_chkpwd[2062]: could not obtain user info (gdm-greeter)

I found this similar bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm3/+bug/2121017

I do have libnss-systemd 258.1-1 installed and /etc/nsswitch.conf contains
passwd:         files systemd
group:          files systemd




-- System Information:
Debian Release: forky/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (400, 'unstable'), (250, 'stable'), (160, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 6.16.12+deb14+1-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_IE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_IE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_IE:en
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages gdm3 depends on:
ii  accountsservice                       23.13.9-8
ii  alacritty [x-terminal-emulator]       0.15.1-4
ii  dbus [default-dbus-system-bus]        1.16.2-2
ii  dbus-bin                              1.16.2-2
ii  dbus-broker [dbus-system-bus]         37-2
ii  dbus-daemon                           1.16.2-2
ii  dconf-cli                             0.49.0-1
ii  dconf-gsettings-backend               0.49.0-1
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]                 1.5.91
ii  gir1.2-gdm-1.0                        49.1-1
ii  gnome-session [x-session-manager]     49.1-1
ii  gnome-session-bin                     49.1-1
ii  gnome-session-common                  49.1-1
ii  gnome-settings-daemon                 48.1-2
ii  gnome-shell                           49.1-1
ii  gnome-terminal [x-terminal-emulator]  3.58.0-1
ii  gsettings-desktop-schemas             49.1-1
ii  libaccountsservice0                   23.13.9-8
ii  libaudit1                             1:4.1.2-1
ii  libc6                                 2.41-12
ii  libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0                   2.44.3+dfsg-3
ii  libgdm1                               49.1-1
ii  libglib2.0-0t64                       2.86.0-6
ii  libglib2.0-bin                        2.86.0-6
ii  libgtk-3-0t64                         3.24.51-1
ii  libgudev-1.0-0                        238-7
ii  libjson-glib-1.0-0                    1.10.8+ds-1
ii  libkeyutils1                          1.6.3-6
ii  libnss-systemd                        258.1-1
ii  libpam-modules                        1.7.0-5
ii  libpam-runtime                        1.7.0-5
ii  libpam-systemd [logind]               258.1-1
ii  libpam0g                              1.7.0-5
ii  librsvg2-common                       2.60.0+dfsg-1+b1
ii  libselinux1                           3.8.1-1
ii  libsystemd0                           258.1-1
ii  libx11-6                              2:1.8.12-1
ii  libxau6                               1:1.0.11-1
ii  libxcb1                               1.17.0-2+b1
ii  libxdmcp6                             1:1.1.5-1
ii  polkitd                               126-2
ii  procps                                2:4.0.4-9
ii  ptyxis [x-terminal-emulator]          49.1-1
ii  systemd [systemd-sysusers]            258.1-1
ii  systemd-sysv                          258.1-1
ii  ucf                                   3.0052
ii  x11-common                            1:7.7+25
ii  x11-xserver-utils                     7.7+11

Versions of packages gdm3 recommends:
ii  at-spi2-core                       2.58.1-1
ii  desktop-base                       14.0.0~pre2
ii  gnome-session [x-session-manager]  49.1-1
ii  x11-xkb-utils                      7.7+9
ii  xserver-xephyr                     2:21.1.18-2
ii  xserver-xorg                       1:7.7+25
ii  zenity                             4.1.99-1

Versions of packages gdm3 suggests:
ii  libpam-fprintd        1.94.5-2
ii  libpam-gnome-keyring  48.0-4
pn  libpam-pkcs11         <none>
pn  libpam-sss            <none>
ii  orca                  49.1-1

-- debconf information:
  gdm3/daemon_name: /usr/sbin/gdm3
* shared/default-x-display-manager: lightdm