Catfish, plocate & updatedb broken - TW (XFCE)

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1

Hi there,

I’m not sure when, but I used Catfish on my laptop this morning and it will not update the database (plocate.db). I’m presented with a useless error message that’s not worth posting.

I tried to update it manually with sudo updatedb and get unknown group nobody. I see there is a bug that’s somewhat along the same line.

I haven’t used catfish for a couple of weeks on the laptop but I noticed since the last update I performed on 02/16/2026, apparmor was updated, of which, I know nothing. My desktop, running SELinux is working fine.

Would anyone here know how to troubleshoot or be able to advise on posting more helpful information?

Many thanks.

2

This was addressed on the factory ML. I ran into the issue too. The package changed from a cron job to a systemd service. To trigger a manual update, do
sudo systemctl start plocate-updatedb

3

Ah, I missed it on the list. Probably because the issue didn’t affect me at the time on my Desktop. Thanks so much for the tip.

As well as the above command you provided, I can update plocate.db via Catfish with my Desktop but not on my Laptop. The Desktop is using SELinux and the laptop Apparmor.

Any idea how I can address it in Catfish without reverting to an older plocate package, or is it a matter of leaving well alone until it’s fixed?

Thanks again.

4

I would report a bug on Catfish ( unless you can find the config that sets the update command ). And for now I would do the latter.

5

No luck finding the command (or the config) so I’ll sit tight. I wish I could reproduce it on my other PCs, but I can’t. Although, possibly coincidentally, it only happens on the machine with Apparmor. Oh, well.

Thanks for you rime.

6

That is where the culprit lies. What I did not try is temporarily turning off apparmor.

7

I turned off Apparmor using sudo systemctl stop apparmor.service with no luck.

8

I installed catfish and tried it. Works fine here.

9

After disabling apparmor or not? Catfish works fine for me except when you try to refresh the database. Were you able to refresh it from with the GUI?

10

Nope. That does not. But, the systemd service updates every day, and I mostly use locate in CLI

11

Me too, most of the time - but I get lazy. You’re using apparmor and plasma correct?

I think I’ll just leave it because I have no idea where to file the “bug.” I just need to enable the updater sudo systemctl enable plocate-updatedb.timer (currently disabled by default on this laptop), correct?

With plasma you have the fancy baloo search anyway if I’m not mistaken. Maybe I should treat myself and move to KDE or GNOME but I’m not sure this old laptop will handle them well.

Thanks again.

12

Something is odd with the apparmor profile:

> sudo updatedb
Unknown group nobody
> sudo strace -e trace=openat,socket,connect updatedb
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/glibc-hwcaps/x86-64-v3/libzstd.so.1.5.7", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libstdc++.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libm.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libgcc_s.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib64/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/updatedb.conf", O_RDONLY) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/var/lib/plocate/plocate.db", O_RDONLY) = 3
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/nsswitch.conf", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 EACCES (Permission denied)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/etc/nsswitch.conf", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 EACCES (Permission denied)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/group", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 EACCES (Permission denied)
Unknown group nobody
+++ exited with 1 +++
> sudo aa-complain updatedb
> sudo updatedb
# works fine now

I run updatedb manually whenever I know I need an updated index

13

Bug report for those wanting to track it.

14

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