Bug#885061: systemd-timesyncd.service fails to start if static user is removed, but group is retained

[Martin Dickopp]

Package: systemd
Version: 236-1
Severity: normal

Hi,

Following the instructions in /usr/share/doc/systemd/NEWS.Debian.gz

  DynamicUser=yes has been enabled for systemd-journal-upload.service,
  systemd-journal-gatewayd.service and systemd-timesyncd.service.
  This means we no longer need to statically allocate a systemd-journal-upload,
  systemd-journal-gateway and systemd-timesync user and you can now safely
  remove those system users.

I removed the static systemd-timesync user and rebooted the system, after
which systemd-timesyncd.service failed to start.

When I removed the static systemd-timesync group as well, and rebooted
again, systemd-timesyncd.service worked fine.

(I don't use systemd-journal-{upload,gatewayd}.service, so I don't know if
this applies to these services as well.)

Best regards,
Martin


-- Package-specific info:

-- System Information:
Debian Release: buster/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (200, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.13.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/12 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=C (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages systemd depends on:
ii  adduser         3.116
ii  libacl1         2.2.52-3+b1
ii  libapparmor1    2.11.1-4
ii  libaudit1       1:2.8.2-1
ii  libblkid1       2.30.2-0.1
ii  libc6           2.25-3
ii  libcap2         1:2.25-1.2
ii  libcryptsetup4  2:1.7.5-1
ii  libgcrypt20     1.8.1-4
ii  libgpg-error0   1.27-5
ii  libidn11        1.33-2.1
ii  libip4tc0       1.6.1-2+b1
ii  libkmod2        24-1
ii  liblz4-1        0.0~r131-2+b1
ii  liblzma5        5.2.2-1.3
ii  libmount1       2.30.2-0.1
ii  libpam0g        1.1.8-3.6
ii  libseccomp2     2.3.1-2.1
ii  libselinux1     2.7-2
ii  libsystemd0     236-1
ii  mount           2.30.2-0.1
ii  procps          2:3.3.12-3
ii  util-linux      2.30.2-0.1

Versions of packages systemd recommends:
ii  dbus            1.12.2-1
ii  libpam-systemd  236-1

Versions of packages systemd suggests:
ii  policykit-1        0.105-18
ii  systemd-container  236-1

Versions of packages systemd is related to:
pn  dracut           <none>
ii  initramfs-tools  0.130
ii  udev             236-1

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/systemd/logind.conf changed [not included]

-- no debconf information