[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#634475: dbus: Fails to install if messagebus user already present.

[Peter Chubb]

>>>>> "Simon" == Simon McVittie <smcv at debian.org> writes:

Simon> On Tue, 19 Jul 2011 at 09:54:02 +1000, Peter Chubb wrote:
>> Package: dbus Version: 1.4.12-4
>> 
>> I did a routine apt-get upgrade, and found that dbus failed to
>> install.
>> 
>> Setting up dbus (1.4.12-4) ...  adduser: The user `messagebus'
>> already exists. Exiting.  dpkg: error processing dbus
>> (--configure):

Simon> Hmm, this isn't meant to be an error, because of the way in
Simon> which we run adduser (using --system should mean that creating
Simon> a user that already exists is "successful"). It's also meant to
Simon> be silent, because we use the --quiet option:

Simon>     adduser --system \ --quiet \ --home "$MESSAGEHOME" \
Simon> --no-create-home \ --disabled-password \ --group "$MESSAGEUSER"


Simon> This works for me, with adduser 3.113 (I can run that command,
Simon> with variables substituted, and it returns 0 without output) so
Simon> something is probably different in your setup.


Simon> Does the adduser call in your /var/lib/dpkg/info/dbus.postinst
Simon> match the command I quoted above?

Yes.

Simon> Did you already have dbus installed, or was it newly installed
Simon> during the upgrade? If it was already installed, which version?
Simon> (/var/log/apt/ or /var/log/aptitude* might tell you)

it was an upgrade.

>> Versions of packages dbus depends on: ii adduser 3.113 add and
>> remove users and groups

Simon> Did you report this bug from the system where dbus failed? If
Simon> not, what version of adduser does that system have? Do you have
Simon> an older copy of adduser installed, perhaps in /usr/local or
Simon> something?

Yes I did.

Simon> Do you use NIS, LDAP or something to obtain users and groups,
Simon> or do you just use the normal passwd/shadow/group/gshadow
Simon> files?

This is on the NIS master.

Simon> If you have enough backups of /etc/passwd to be able to answer
Simon> these questions: what were the messagebus user's home
Simon> directory, numeric UID, and primary group ID before the
Simon> upgrade? What was the messagebus group's numeric GID?  Did you
Simon> have any other users or groups whose numeric UID/GID collided
Simon> with messagebus?

In the backup from two days ago:

: wombat ; grep messagebus passwd group
passwd:messagebus:x:110:107::/var/run/dbus:/bin/false
group:messagebus:x:107:
 wombat ; grep 110 passwd
messagebus:x:110:107::/var/run/dbus:/bin/false
: wombat ; grep 107 group
messagebus:x:107:


I think the issue I have is that because of legacy accounts,
LAST_SYSTEM_UID is 99 in /etc/adduser.conf, and for some reason the
account was already existing with a higher UID than that.

Peter C
--
Dr Peter Chubb  http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au  peterc AT gelato.unsw.edu.au
http://www.ertos.nicta.com.au           ERTOS within National ICT Australia