As the title says /etc/security/limits.conf is missing or somewhere else
I use to configure the user-group “audio” for running the DAW Ardour.
Any idea where limits.conf (or the new equivalent ) is located ?
thanks
Maybe open a windowed terminal (or whatever you prefer) as root user and switch to / directory, then
# find . -name limits* -ls
(here, on Leap 15.6, it’s in /etc/security)
/usr/etc/security/limits.conf
Which if you want to edit, like any of the defaults in /usr/etc, you should copy the file to it’s location in /etc/ and edit that.
The files in /usr/etc are the default and are used if there isn’t a user managed file in /etc. And like all files in /usr are owned by the package that crated them and can be overwritten by package updates.
@hui
I almost said : Champion 
well you found the place !
When you want to run the DAW Ardour you had to change limits.conf or add in limitsd a file called 99realtime.conf either containing
@audio - rtprio 99
@audio - nice -15
@audio - memlock unlimited
then add “audio” to the specific user.
that seamed to be ok for “all” linux versions. I guess with pipewire things must have changed.
by the way when you add the modified files … then " you can not login into your system’
I even tried it with run level 3 => could not login into root
cheers
That is not the best way to go. In /etc/security/limits.conf you put only a snippet with the changed configs, in this case:
@audio - rtprio 99
@audio - nice -15
@audio - memlock unlimited
Did you add the user to the audio group? Or did you add audio to the user ? The latter would explain why you cannot login
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I added “audio” in yast-user and group management to the specific user.
I thought “audio” is a group ?
OK, that is OK. I was asking since I recently saw a person adding audio at his user entry line in /etc/password. Can you show output of groups
I’ve been adding entries to /etc/security/limits.d/99-audio.conf PAMs reads these entries.
Remark.
That should be
# find . -name 'limits*' -ls
It may be unlikely in this particular case that you have any file in directory / that answers to the pattern limits*, but one should always escape so that it becomes a good practice before one falls into this trap.
And it is also good to show good examples to other members here that are not so used to contemplating things like"Ok, I should maybe escape this, but in this case I can spare me typing two characters".
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You need to figure out what, provides the /etc/security/ directory:
> rpm --query --whatprovides /etc/security
pam-1.7.1-160000.2.2.x86_64
>
Listing the RPM “pam” package doesn’t indicate any file named “/etc/security/limits.conf’ – also nothing in ‘/usr/etc/security/’ …
But, the man (8) page “pam_limits” indicates:
By default limits are taken from the /etc/security/limits.conf config file or, if that one is not present, the file /usr/etc/security/limits.conf. Then individual *.conf files from the /etc/security/limits.d/ and /usr/etc/security/limits.d directories are read.
N.B.: Please note the move away from ‘/etc/’ to ‘/usr/etc/’ – the Linux Standards documents provide more information … 
> rpm --query --whatprovides /usr/etc/security/limits.conf
pam-extra-1.7.1-160000.2.2.x86_64
>
> rpm --query --whatprovides /usr/etc/security/limits.d
pam-extra-1.7.1-160000.2.2.x86_64
pipewire-1.4.6-160000.2.2.x86_64
>
1 Like
@knurpht
…a new install => groups are : users and audio
that’s all I have done so far.
Another problem I am encountering is a very long login time
hitting return in grub to to the user account => 2 minutes 16 senconds
from login screen to user account => 13 seconds ok
so now I will add the entries in usr/etc/seurity …see what happens
@knurpht
…reboot …system hangs at splash screen …crtl alt backsp login screen …hangs
crtl alt f1 run level 3 can not login as root => “Error in service module”
what happened ?
@dcurtisfra
thanks …I will look into it …but as described above just the minor change spells disaster
Boot from an install USB, hit Ctrl+Alt+F2, mount the partition with the OS on it, remove the limits.conf you created, reboot the system
The file BTW needs to be something like/etc/security/limits.d/90-rt-audio.conf .
=> yes 99-realtime.conf
ok …as you said … cd /usr/etc/security/limits.d
nothing in the directory ! With my addition there should have been 2 files in the directory
I did not say that. Here you go:
sudo mkdir /etc/security/limits.d
sudo echo -e @audio - rtprio 99\n@audio - nice -15\n@audio - memlock unlimited >/etc/security/limits.d/99-realtime.conf
@knurpht
and everyone who had replied :
There is always a solution or better, explanation of the weird behaviour
Faulty raid disk
Tested it with plenty of reboots , that was it !
Thank you all for your help