pam_env can't open /etc/default/locale

[Christian Holtje]

Binary package hint: libpam-modules

Hello!

I just upgraded to Gutsy and am getting these messages in my log:
Oct 22 06:25:06 gerf su[22091]: pam_env(su:session): Unable to open env file: /etc/default/locale: No such file or directory
Oct 22 06:28:45 gerf su[22423]: pam_env(su:session): Unable to open env file: /etc/default/locale: No such file or directory
Oct 22 06:28:45 gerf su[22427]: pam_env(su:session): Unable to open env file: /etc/default/locale: No such file or directory
Oct 22 06:28:45 gerf su[22429]: pam_env(su:session): Unable to open env file: /etc/default/locale: No such file or directory

This is probably due to these lines in the /etc/pam.d/* files:
# grep /etc/default/locale /etc/pam.d/*
/etc/pam.d/login:# locale variables are also kept into /etc/default/locale in etch
/etc/pam.d/login:session required pam_env.so readenv=1 envfile=/etc/default/locale
/etc/pam.d/ssh:# /etc/default/locale, so read that as well.
/etc/pam.d/ssh:auth required pam_env.so envfile=/etc/default/locale
/etc/pam.d/su:# locale variables are also kept into /etc/default/locale in etch
/etc/pam.d/su:session required pam_env.so readenv=1 envfile=/etc/default/locale

I have a Feisty box and it has the same lines in the /etc/pam.d/* directories.

I have touched the /etc/default/locale file for the moment as a work around.

Ciao!

[Nicolas Nobelis (nobelis)]

Hello,

In my Debian box, this file is generated by the command update-locale from the package belocs-locales-bin.

I tried to use this command in gutsy : the file was successfully created, but it was empty :

$ cat /etc/default/locale
# File generated by update-locale

Regards

[Peter Antoniac (pan1nx)]

On the hardy, I just checked and this solves the problem:
1. You have the belocs-locales-bin installed (deboostrap?)
2. You run update-local that will rebuild the file there as Nocolas said. So, we can close this?

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

If you have to run the command by hand to get rid of the error messages, then I think we still have a bug here.

[Martin G Miller (mgmiller)]

I have a hardy to intrepid update and I also had this error message. /etc/default/locale did not exist. I ran sudo update-locale and that seems to have fixed it. At least it created the file. But As the last poster stated, we shold not have to run this command by hand.

[Peter Antoniac (pan1nx)]

I agree that this is supposed to be fixed. Perhaps a postinst in the package to call the update-locale will fix this issue.

[Peter Antoniac (pan1nx)]

As it has enought info, I moved it to Triaged...

[Peter Antoniac (pan1nx)]

Is this bug still causing problems?

[Peter Antoniac (pan1nx)]

From debian perspective, here are some comments:
> This is part of the PAM configuration of each package. For example, from /etc/pam.d/login:
>
> session required pam_env.so readenv=1 envfile=/etc/default/locale
>
> > * I can't find who/what might be responsible for the /etc/default/locale
> > disappearance
>
> Maybe you selected "None" as your default locale? (See #515099)

Cheers,
Peter

[Shahar Or (mightyiam)]

I can't even remember where I got this message.

[Christian Holtje (docwhat)]

Peter: Since I don't have the system(s) around in a state that I can check that anymore, I can't answer your question.

You should be able to reproduce the problem by downgrading the pam packages, removing the /etc/default/locale, and then upgrading. But I haven't tested that.

You can't expect users to be able to help out with bugs like this when they are over 3 years old. :-/

[Forest (foresto)]

In response to Shahar Or in comment #9, I'm currently getting this meesage in /var/log/auth.log on a Karmic virtual machine at linode.com. The log message (with fake hostname and pids) is:

Feb 22 21:18:09 myhostname sshd[1234567]: pam_env(sshd:setcred): Unable to open env file: /etc/default/locale: No such file or directory

[Robert Pendell (shinji257)]

I can confirm that. I ran update-locale manually which put an file containing only one comment.

[Xavier Robin (jti-533g)]

Same problem here on a freshly installed Ubuntu 10.04 virtual server (present before anything was upgraded). The message is displayed in /var/log/auth.log The update-locale command created the file and solved the issue. Here is the output of the 'locale' command:

$ locale
LANG=fr_CH.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="fr_CH.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="fr_CH.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="fr_CH.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="fr_CH.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="fr_CH.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="fr_CH.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="fr_CH.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="fr_CH.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="fr_CH.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="fr_CH.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="fr_CH.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="fr_CH.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

[Martitza (martitzam)]

I confirm this issue still exists with Karmic and Lucid through 10.04.

[gco (gcostes)]

Same here on Ubuntu Server 10.04.1
The message is displayed in /var/log/auth.log for every ssh connection attempts
Resolved by running update-locale

[Tom van Leeuwen (tom-vleeuwen)]

Same here running Ubuntu Server 10.10.
The message is displayed in /var/log/auth.log for every ssh connection attempts
Resolved by running update-locale

[Ben Johnson (a03-6eo-chg)]

Again, same here on Ubuntu Server 10.04.

Like the others, fixed by executing the "update-locale" command, which creates the file /etc/default/locale. This file appears not to exist out-of-the-box.

The contents of this file are:

# File generated by update-locale

[Steffan Jacobs (steffanjacobs)]

So, this affected me on my 10.04 server. I have now fixed it manually with update-locale. Does this problem still exist in 11.10 / 12.04 ?

[Jens (jens-launchpad-net)]

Yes. Just installed 12.04 and still get this error message.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

I believe it's a bug in sudo's PAM configuration. Specifically, /etc/pam.d/sudo should use "session" for pam_env module, rather than "auth".

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package sudo - 1.8.9p5-1ubuntu4

---------------
sudo (1.8.9p5-1ubuntu4) vivid; urgency=medium

  * Correct sudo.pam use "session" for pam_env.so, not "auth". (LP:
    #155794, LP: #25700)
 -- Dimitri John Ledkov <email address hidden> Tue, 23 Dec 2014 04:08:33 +0000