adduser creates expired system user

[Petri Lehtinen]

Binary package hint: postgresql-common

This is the error message:

Setting up postgresql-common (106ubuntu1) ...
Your account has expired; please contact your system administrator
chfn: PAM authentication failed
adduser: `/usr/bin/chfn -f PostgreSQL administrator postgres' returned error code 1. Exiting.
dpkg: error processing postgresql-common (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of postgresql-8.4:
 postgresql-8.4 depends on postgresql-common (>= 104~); however:
  Package postgresql-common is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing postgresql-8.4 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of postgresql:
 postgresql depends on postgresql-8.4; however:
  Package postgresql-8.4 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing postgresql (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

I've seen this before. May not be postgresql-specific.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: postgresql-common 106ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-29.58-generic-pae 2.6.32.28+drm33.13
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-29-generic-pae i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Mar 15 10:02:59 2011
ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: postgresql-common
Title: package postgresql-common 106ubuntu1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

"Your account has expired; please contact your system administrator chfn: PAM authentication failed"

Looks like you changed the local system "postgres" user to have an expired account. That doesn't happen in the default setup, so I assume this is a local change?

[Petri Lehtinen (petri)]

No. My system didn't have the "postgres" user before installation. I can reproduce this problem like this:

    apt-get purge --auto-remove postgresql*; deluser postgres; apt-get install postgresql

The error message is exactly the same. Invoking apt-get -f install finishes the installation properly.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Can you please give me the output of

  sudo passwd -S postgres
  grep postgres /etc/passwd

after installation, and the following command as well?

  sudo adduser --debug --system systest

After this, please do

  sudo deluser --remove-home systest

to clean up again.

[Petri Lehtinen (petri)]

Right after the installation has failed:

$ sudo passwd -S postgres
postgres L 03/15/2011 0 99999 7 -1

$ grep postgres /etc/passwd
postgres:x:113:130::/var/lib/postgresql:/bin/bash

$ sudo adduser --debug --system systest
Selecting UID from range 100 to 999 ...
Adding system user `systest' (UID 129) ...
Adding new user `systest' (UID 129) with group `nogroup' ...
/usr/sbin/useradd -d /home/systest -g nogroup -s /bin/false -u 129 systest
/usr/sbin/usermod -p * systest
/usr/bin/chage -M 99999 systest
Creating home directory `/home/systest' ...

$ sudo deluser --remove-home systest
Looking for files to backup/remove ...
Removing files ...
Removing user `systest' ...
Warning: group `nogroup' has no more members.
Done.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Hm, this all looks fine. I never saw this before, can't reproduce, and have no other explanation what's wrong with your system then, I'm afraid. Setting back to New, and assigning to adduser.

[Petri Lehtinen (petri)]

I had a look at postgresql-common's postinst, and tried to invoke the same command it uses to add the user (just changed the user name):

$ sudo adduser --system --quiet --home /var/lib/postgresql --no-create-home --shell /bin/bash --group --gecos "PostgreSQL administrator" testuser
Your account has expired; please contact your system administrator
chfn: PAM authentication failed
adduser: `/usr/bin/chfn -f PostgreSQL administrator testuser' returned error code 1. Exiting.

If I remove the --gecos option, it works fine:

$ sudo adduser --system --quiet --home /var/lib/postgresql --no-create-home --shell /bin/bash --group testuser
$ echo $?
0

If I run the chfn command manually, it fails:

$ sudo /usr/bin/chfn -f "PostgreSQL administrator" testuser
Your account has expired; please contact your system administrator
chfn: PAM authentication failed

So I think this might be a problem in passwd rather than adduser.

[Petri Lehtinen (petri)]

For some reason, my root user account was expired. After running "sudo chage -E -1 root", everything works again.