Bug#1111066: systemd: systemd-sysusers fails on WSL1, breaking upgrades

[Luca Boccassi]

Control: tags -1 wontfix
Control: close -1

On Thu, 14 Aug 2025 17:47:24 +0800 Aron Xu <aron at debian.org> wrote:
> Package: systemd
> Version: 257.7-1
> Severity: important
> 
> I'm trying to upgrade from bookworm to trixie on WSL1, and it wasn't
> smooth because dh_installsysusers is now default to inject calls of
> systemd-sysusers when debian/package.sysusers exist. But apparently
> the command always fail on WSL1:
> 
> $ sudo systemd-sysusers
> Failed to take /etc/passwd lock: Invalid argument
> 
> After doing some hand craft magics the upgrade worked otherwise.
> 
> Please note that WSL1 is not running a real Linux kernel, but this
> will help users who has limited access to real Linux installations
> (VM/WSL2 or hardware) under certain circumstance.

This is a bug a in WSL1. WSL1 is not supported upstream anymore, please
use WSL2 or remove the instance and recreate it instead of upgrading it
as a workaround.