After Update: no login/gdm (could not obtain user info (gdm-greeter)

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hello everyone,

this morning, I updated (sudo zypper dup) my Tumbleweed. After that, the display manager (gdm) did not start successfully anymore; actually, I think it is stuck in limbo somewhere when trying to start. I get a blinking prompt on a black screen.

I think the relevant part from journalctl -r --system is:

Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo systemd[1]: Started Pass systemd-coredump journal entries to relevant user for potential DrKonqi handling.
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo systemd[1]: Started Process Core Dump (PID 309663/UID 0).
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo systemd-coredump[309663]: Process 309655 (gnome-session-i) of user 60588 terminated abnormally with signal 5/TRAP, processing...
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo gdm-launch-environment][309628]: pam_kwallet5(gdm-launch-environment:session): pam_kwallet5: open_session called without kwallet5_key
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo gdm-launch-environment][309628]: pam_kwallet5(gdm-launch-environment:session): pam_kwallet5: pam_sm_open_session
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo gdm-launch-environment][309628]: pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session opened for user gdm-greeter(uid=60588) by (uid=0)
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo systemd[1]: Started Session c79 of User gdm-greeter.
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo systemd[1]: Failed to start User Manager for UID 60588.
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo systemd[1]: user@60588.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo systemd[1]: user@60588.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=224/PAM
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo (systemd)[309635]: user@60588.service: Failed at step PAM spawning /usr/lib/systemd/systemd: Operation not permitted
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo (systemd)[309635]: user@60588.service: Failed to set up PAM session: Operation not permitted
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo (systemd)[309635]: PAM failed: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo unix_chkpwd[309636]: could not obtain user info (gdm-greeter)
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 60588...
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo systemd[1]: Finished User Runtime Directory /run/user/60588.
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo systemd-logind[1764]: New session c79 of user gdm-greeter.
Oct 20 17:37:34 wendigo systemd[1]: Starting User Runtime Directory /run/user/60588...

I managed to log into gnome changing the default-displaymanager to sddm with the command sudo update-alternatives --config default-displaymanager but I’d prefer to be back on gdm.

This could be related to No graphical login after GNOME 49 update

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And have you tried the workaround, that is renaming /etc/nsswitch.conf?
(Or editing it if your system has special provisions there?)

3

No, I have a working system now. /etc/nsswitch.confhas contents that mostly seem legit, deleting it doesn’t seem like a legitimate fix.

I just found https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/factory@lists.opensuse.org/thread/A7SX5DWWK42VXYM3WTTJJQFV3FD7B5HE/#KLNRVOKLCDH6HQSHRWC2CC4LUTMZBFRY (processing now …)

And I seems I have to monitor: 1250513 – [Build 20250924] Upgrades from 15.x seem to get the config for gdm / dynamic user generation wrong

4

Move it to bak:
mv /etc/nsswitch.conf /etc/nsswitch.conf.bak

You can revert it…

Otherwise you have to add…

5

So, I’m back to GDM now. I diffed the /etc/nsswitch.conf and /usr/etc/nsswitch.conf files and updated the group and shadow lines to:

group:      compat [SUCCESS=merge] systemd
shadow:     compat systemd

Looks like the changes in my /etc/nsswitch.conf are from nss-mdns(I suspect I use that via Avahi) and there’s some usage of nis but that may not be relevant anymore.

The post in https://lists.opensuse.org is definitely most helpful.

Thanks a lot @OrsoBruno and @Sauerland for answering!

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