Glib-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknow user id (0)

[Kris969]

I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 on a N150 SAMSUNG Laptop.
sometime, let say once every twenty times, when I start the laptop I get on the screen the line :
Glib-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknow user id (0)
The system then stop here but isn't freeze because when I power it off it normally shutdown. I tried to go into a console using Ctrl F1 but it is impossible at this moment of the boot sequence.
Up to know when I power up the system again it start normally !
I tried to find information connected to this bug in log files, but right now I don't found anything, even something must be written somewhere...

kris@kris-laptop:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
Release: 10.04

[Paillomams (aymeric-pallottini)]

Same behavior on an acer revo 3610.

[Robert Lummis (robert-lummis)]

I'll add the following in case it's a clue: On rebooting after this fail-to-boot occasion it booted OK then displayed the following message: "Your disk drives are being checked for errors. This could take some time." Then booting resumed after only about 1 second and finished successfully. This is the second time since I upgraded to 10.04 that I got the Glib-WARNING. I never saw it on 8.10 or 9.04, which I was running prior to 10.04. The first time I got eh Glib-WARNING I did not get the message about "Your disk drives are being checked...".

Also, one other time I got the "disk drives being checked" message during boot but without a prior boot failure and on that occasion it also finished "checking" in about one second, which is far too short. It couldn't have really done a disk check in that time.

What this may suggest is that the failure to boot (the Glib-WARNING) happens when it is time to check for disk errors, and even then not consistently.

<email address hidden>

[LostInBrittany (lostinbrittany)]

I have the same problem since I installed Ubuntu 10.04 on my HP ProBook 6540b.
At least twice a week, when booting I get on the screen the line :
Glib-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknow user id (0)
System isn't frozen, because keyboard stills works (NumLock diodes, for exemple, or Ctrl-Alt-Supr to reboot)
Then the only thing I can do is rebooting.

[LostInBrittany (lostinbrittany)]

It seems tha the GLib-WARNING is a red herring, a non important warning hiding the true problem : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plymouth/+bug/532984/comments/27

But the problem is there...

[Patrik Nilsson (nipatriknilsson)]

I would suggest this bug have all the faces of attached bugs during boot of when ubuntu can't determine the screen resolution to be used.

Attach four images from boots which failed and one is correct.

cimg0566: The error message. Failed boot. The cryptsetup was shown normally.
cimg0639: failed resolution
cimg0640: booting with the failed resolution, video of 0639
cimg0641: normal boot screen, cryptsetup

[Patrik Nilsson (nipatriknilsson)]

.

[Mackenzie Morgan (maco.m)]

Which of the following is happening:
A: Plymouth splash is visible followed by the black screen displaying this harmless warning when it should take you to login screen
B: Plymouth splash never shows up, boot goes straight to this screen

Thanks

[Patrik Nilsson (nipatriknilsson)]

What is the "Plymouth splash"?

On 09/23/2010 10:23 PM, Mackenzie Morgan wrote:
> Which of the following is happening:
> A: Plymouth splash is visible followed by the black screen displaying this harmless warning when it should take you to login screen
> B: Plymouth splash never shows up, boot goes straight to this screen
>
> Thanks
>

--
PGP-key available upon request!

[Mackenzie Morgan (maco.m)]

The splash screen that shows the Ubuntu logo with little dots under it

[Patrik Nilsson (nipatriknilsson)]

This warning (and stop) is just before the background of the desktop is
drawn. Everything seems to be correct until this point. I use
crypt-setup and after that the splash screen is shown correctly.

/Patrik

On 09/24/2010 08:05 AM, Mackenzie Morgan wrote:
> The splash screen that shows the Ubuntu logo with little dots under it
>

--
PGP-key available upon request!

[Jens (jens-bormueller)]

I become the same error since yesterday at every boot process. In the previous weeks sporadically. But after running

sudo update-initramfs -u -k all

the error is not occured for a few boot processes.

[Patrik Nilsson (nipatriknilsson)]

I have noticed that this warning sometimes is shown, and still the
Ubuntu system starts as expected.

But on the other hand the opposite has never happened to me, that the
system hangs without the GLib-warning.

--
PGP-key available upon request!

[Mackenzie Morgan (maco.m)]

The GLib warning is ALWAYS there, whether it works or not. It's just a matter
of having a quick eye to see it. I see it momentarily when I switch TTYs.
The warning is unrelated.

I suspect there are *at least* two different bugs for people who are getting
stuck seeing the warning. One is case A and one is case B (and there may be
more subsets within those cases). So, I'm trying to separate out the bug
reports where people are seeing Plymouth but no login screen versus not seeing
Plymouth at all.

The original reporter on this bug is Kris969. Kris, which case are you
hitting?

[José Lou Chang (obake)]

We had a long discussion of this bug at Bug#532984

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plymouth/+bug/532984

Unfortunately, it seems that it won't be fixed any time soon.

[Jens (jens-bormueller)]

So, calling the command

sudo update-initramfs -u -k all

was not working for me. The 100% solution is to disable Plymouth in the file /etc/default/grub:

# GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet noplymouth"

Then call

sudo update-grub
sudo grub-install /dev/…

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

> GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet noplymouth"

Er, this is a made-up boot option. This does not "disable plymouth" at all - the only thing you've actually done here is disable the plymouth *splash screen* by removing the "splash" option from the boot config.

> sudo grub-install /dev/…

And this is superfluous and *dangerous*. You don't have to rewrite the boot block every time you update your grub config!

Anyway, you don't mention why you felt the need to take these steps - if your system was hanging, or simply displaying an unpleasant warning message at boot time. The unpleasant warning message is taken care of with plymouth 0.8.2-2ubuntu2.1 in lucid-proposed, and will also soon be fixed in maverick-proposed. This is bug #649917.

[Jens (jens-bormueller)]

>> sudo grub-install /dev/…
>
> And this is superfluous and *dangerous*. You don't have to rewrite the boot block every time you update your grub config!

Thanks, this was unknown to me! Next time I will try it.

> Anyway, you don't mention why you felt the need to take these steps - if your system was hanging, or simply displaying an unpleasant warning message at boot time.

My problem is/was similar with the original report by Kris969 on 2010-06-06. Getting this error message: "Glib-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknow user id (0)" and the system hangs. Not on every boot but now and then.

> > GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet noplymouth"
>
> Er, this is a made-up boot option. This does not "disable plymouth" at all - the only thing you've actually done here is disable the plymouth *splash screen* by removing the "splash" option from the boot config.

Really, "noplymouth" does not deactivate Plymouth? Okay, this option disable the splash screen. However, it works for me—by now umpteen times.

I found the solution in the german wiki of ubuntuusers.de:
http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Plymouth
Chapter "System bleibt hängen" (System freezes)

[Sergei Vorobyov (svorobyov)]

the same message appears in 10.10 64 bit when you try to log on the ltsp client, see

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/604580?comments=all

[Dominic Raferd (dominic-timedicer)]

Many posters here IMO have a different booting problem. The error message however relates to a specific bug with plymouth which is fixed here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plymouth/+bug/649917. The fix code is now available in repository for maverick-proposed (and I guess lucid-proposed). However this only removes this error message, which is not itself important. If you are experiencing crashes it is almost certainly caused by something else.

[MillenniumBug (millenniumbug)]

Does anyone experience the error after applying the bug fix mentioned above?

In other words, can this report be marked 'solved'?

[Patrik Nilsson (nipatriknilsson)]

I had the bug yesterday. Instead of showing the standard warning, the
system just hanged with a blank screen.

/Patrik

On 11/20/2010 06:55 PM, Martin Olesen wrote:
> Does anyone experience the error after applying the bug fix mentioned
> above?
>
> In other words, can this report be marked 'solved'?
>

--
PGP-key available upon request!

[Kris969 (cby469-free)]

I Haven't seen this issue again for a while.
I'm now using Ubuntu 10.10, always on the same netbook.
I don't know if it can be considered as resolve or not, let's have a survey
for one extra month.

2010/11/21 Patrik Nilsson <email address hidden>

> I had the bug yesterday. Instead of showing the standard warning, the
> system just hanged with a blank screen.
>
> /Patrik
>
> On 11/20/2010 06:55 PM, Martin Olesen wrote:
> > Does anyone experience the error after applying the bug fix mentioned
> > above?
> >
> > In other words, can this report be marked 'solved'?
> >
>
> --
> PGP-key available upon request!
>
> --
> Glib-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknow user id (0)
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/590326
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “plymouth” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 on a N150 SAMSUNG Laptop.
> sometime, let say once every twenty times, when I start the laptop I get on
> the screen the line :
> Glib-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknow user id (0)
> The system then stop here but isn't freeze because when I power it off it
> normally shutdown. I tried to go into a console using Ctrl F1 but it is
> impossible at this moment of the boot sequence.
> Up to know when I power up the system again it start normally !
> I tried to find information connected to this bug in log files, but right
> now I don't found anything, even something must be written somewhere...
>
> kris@kris-laptop:~$ lsb_release -rd
> Description: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
> Release: 10.04
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plymouth/+bug/590326/+subscribe
>

[Mackenzie Morgan (maco.m)]

Because as has been said over and over, the hangs have nothing to do with the
warning. The warning is fixed. The hang is a separate bug.

[Patrik Nilsson (nipatriknilsson)]

I agree with that the warning is resolved, however I suggest that we
consider this bug report as the report of the hang issue we are annoyed
by and rewrite its description.

On 11/22/2010 01:08 AM, Mackenzie Morgan wrote:
> Because as has been said over and over, the hangs have nothing to do with the
> warning. The warning is fixed. The hang is a separate bug.
>

--
PGP-key available upon request!

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

> I agree with that the warning is resolved, however I suggest that we
> consider this bug report as the report of the hang issue we are annoyed
> by and rewrite its description.

As the original submitter says the issue no longer reproducible, please file a new bug report for the remaining issues that you are experiencing. The problem with the existing bug description is precisely that it doesn't tell us *why* you've run into this message in the first place; the possible causes are numerous.