"adduser" keeps failing on me

apt-get · 12-29-2010, 04:16 PM

Grr. Just installed Slack, can't get adduser to work. I go through all the steps and it just spits:

Code:

 
useradd: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.
- Error running useradd command -- account not created!
(cmd: /usr/sbin/useradd -d /home/jack -m   -g users -G audio,cdrom,floppy,plugdev,video,power,netdev -s /bin/bash jack)

Please help? I don't feel like being stuck as root forever :/

thegeek · 12-29-2010, 04:37 PM

use the command sudo lsof /etc/passwd to find out which processes are using the password file...

LSOF is a list of open files ...

guanx · 12-29-2010, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by apt-get

Grr. Just installed Slack, can't get adduser to work. I go through all the steps and it just spits:

Code:

 
useradd: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.
- Error running useradd command -- account not created!
(cmd: /usr/sbin/useradd -d /home/jack -m   -g users -G audio,cdrom,floppy,plugdev,video,power,netdev -s /bin/bash jack)

Please help? I don't feel like being stuck as root forever :/

Tried to run adduser as a normal user. Got the same error.

apt-get · 12-29-2010, 06:03 PM

I'm logged in as root though. And lsof didn't give me any output.

EDIT: I just tried to run netconfig too and it told me that i have a read-only filesystem...?

apt-get · 12-29-2010, 07:00 PM

Sorry for the double post, but I just noticed something else...it says I'm logged in as:

root@(none):/#

None? I named the computer Slackware-PC1 :P

willysr · 12-29-2010, 07:20 PM

try running netconfig

apt-get · 12-29-2010, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willysr

try running netconfig

I did

It gave me:

/sbin/netconfig: line 269: cannot create temp file for here-document: Read-only file system
cat: /var/log/setup/tmp/SeThost: Read-only file system
/sbin/netconfig: line 275: /var/log/setup/tmp/SeThost: Read-only file system

gnashley · 12-30-2010, 02:25 AM

You have some problem with your filesystem, as your root partition is not being re-mounted 'rw' during bootup. Try booting with the install CD and run fdisk on your root '/' partition.

Ramurd · 12-30-2010, 07:37 AM

fdisk!?!?!?

It does sound like a filesystem issue; for some reason it is not being remounted rw, I go with you on that Gnash; but I doubt you could fix that with fdisk; I'd rather run fsck (FileSystemChecK)

I'd go in this order:
Run "mount" without parameters; expecting:
/dev/root on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,barrier=1,data=ordered)
... other filesystems (rw)

- But in your case I think /dev/root has "ro" instead of "rw".

next to check if your /dev/root is indeed the /dev/root you'd expect (sda1 or so):
ls -l /dev/root
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root <date time> /dev/root -> sda1

See if there are any messages in dmesg about your filesystem, probably why it could not mount rw:
dmesg | grep sda

EDIT: remounting happens in /etc/rc.d/rc.S, is that file exectutable or even there? (would cause some mess like this if it's not)
-> you can try to manually run the remount and see if there's a filesystem error preventing you to remount rw:

Code:

/sbin/mount -w -v -n -o remount /

(code graciously stolen from rc.S)

if all is correct or as expected , perform an fsck. The preferred method of performing an fsck is by booting with tha cd/dvd:
log in and perform your fsck:
fsck /dev/sda1

NB: sda1 is the partition that contains the root filesystem, it may be different in your case (not quite common though).

gnashley · 12-30-2010, 10:33 AM

Yes, of course I meant fsck and not fdisk! I was a bit sidetracked...

tallship · 12-31-2010, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnashley

Yes, of course I meant fsck and not fdisk! I was a bit sidetracked...

and perhaps...

Code:

# cat /etc/fstab
...
# cat /etc/mtab

for quick status.