GLIb-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)

Bug #532984 reported by Adrien Lamothe
502
This bug affects 197 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
plymouth (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned
Lucid
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned
Maverick
Fix Released
Undecided
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Natty
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Text screen displays the following warning, and is misleading, since it has nothing to do with boot or Xorg problems:

    (process 239): GLIb-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)

Please open a new bug for any boot hangs, etc. This message is not related to those problems, and need to be tracked separately.

(The warning appears for people with Plymouth in their initramfs, for things like encrypted drives, etc. It is triggered by Pango initialization that tries to read /etc/passwd, which is missing in the initramfs.)

Tags: iso-testing
Revision history for this message
James P. Carter (jpcarter) wrote :

Is this after an upgrade from a previous release?

Does this happen when attempting to install?

Does this happen after installing from a particular CD? (LIVE / Alternate / Mini)

Revision history for this message
Adrien Lamothe (a-lamothe) wrote : Re: [Bug 532984] Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot, with (process 239): GLib-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0), on HP Compaq Pentium 4

No, this happens with a fresh install attempt from a Live CD. Also, I tried it on a different computer of the same model and specs and it also hung the same way. As well, I tried installing Debian 5.04 and it installed without any problems and that is what I'm now running on that computer.

This bug likely isn't worth the time, the computer in question is old and likely not in widespread use, but maybe the fix is simple and maybe that info could prove useful in some other way.

Best,

Adrien

--- On Sun, 3/7/10, James P. Carter <email address hidden> wrote:

From: James P. Carter <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 532984] Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot, with (process 239): GLib-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0), on HP Compaq Pentium 4
To: <email address hidden>
Date: Sunday, March 7, 2010, 2:07 PM

Is this after an upgrade from a previous release?

Does this happen when attempting to install?

Does this happen after installing from a particular CD? (LIVE /
Alternate / Mini)

--
Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot, with (process 239): GLib-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0), on HP Compaq Pentium 4
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/532984
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Revision history for this message
Ryan Kavanagh (ryanakca) wrote : Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot, with (process 239): GLib-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0), on HP Compaq Pentium 4

I can confirm this with yesterday's server install CD, i386. Was booting up fine, and then this problem started. I can boot from the install CD and chroot in to help debug.

Revision history for this message
Anders (andersja+launchpad-net) wrote :

I can confirm this same error on a recently upgraded (Karmic --> Lucid Beta 1) HP Compaq nx6110 laptop. Worked fine after upgrading. Booted fine once. Shutdown was clean, yet upon booting again I get the new Ubuntu red dots screen for a bit, then this error:

(process:275): GLib-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)

if it makes any difference at all, the laptop is connected to an LCD TV and is set to auto-login to a default user id.

Revision history for this message
Anders (andersja+launchpad-net) wrote :

Another reboot - it works again. Odd...

Revision history for this message
jonnieo (jonnie-o) wrote :

Got the same error using the Beta-1 Desktop install (x86), so unable to install lucid.

Revision history for this message
jonnieo (jonnie-o) wrote :

Note that I don't get this using the alternate installer

Revision history for this message
Stephen Ostrow (isleshocky77) wrote :

I got it up and running once using the alternate install CD. Upon trying to restart I got this error and now cannot get it to boot.
I'm running Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 1 AMD64

My equipment is
Intel Quadcore i7 930
Galaxy GeForce 9500GT
6GB DDR3 1066

Revision history for this message
Stephen Ostrow (isleshocky77) wrote :

It appears this only happens when I have my two monitors plugged in. If I unplug one and run the system with one monitor the system boots and behaves fine. I have now tested this 10 times all 5 times it started with one monitor and didn't with two. I'm thinking this might be a driver issue since I haven't plugged the system into the internet yet.

The interesting this is that if I start the system with one monitor and plug the other one in while it's on, the machine operates fine and had use of both monitors properly.

Revision history for this message
JustMe007 (justme007) wrote :

I am also having this kind of troubles, the Ubuntu 10.04 Live CD just doesn't work.
It hangs at the Ubuntu red dots, and from there on nothing happens and I have to shutdown my PC manually.
I tried the daily build (lucid-desktop-i386.iso 06-Apr-2010 03:07 696M) and also ubuntu-10.04-beta1-desktop-i386.iso.
When I shutdown my PC manually I can see this message: "(process:345): GLib-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)". I also attached a screenshot.

Revision history for this message
Mike Grunewald (mikeg32) wrote :

I can also confirm this on the day Beta 2 was released this is a show stopper how did beta 2 get pushed live ?

GLib-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)

Core 2 quad 2.66
Nvidia 9600GT

Revision history for this message
Cristian (cristianrosa) wrote :

I think there are several issues mixed in this bug report.
I can confirm that I have the same behavior than comment #9 with beta 2 on a Dell Precision M90 (x86_64).
When I plug a monitor (dvi) to the laptop and try to boot the live cd it hangs at splash (red dots), if I boot with the monitor unplugged it works. However, even if it works, when rebooting the system I can see the getpwuid_r() error message.
So I think that the message might be unrelated to the freeze.
Should be the title of the bug be changed to something more general?

Revision history for this message
Cristian (cristianrosa) wrote :

I found that the problem I am experiencing is already reported as bug #533135
"nouveau + more than one screen freezes at plymouth"
So again, the getpwuid_r() error message might be misleading.

Revision history for this message
gsch (gcscheepers) wrote :

I get the same problem on my laptop, no extra monitors. On the first try to boot from the live cd (Beta 2, downloaded an hour ago), I reached the first "choose your language" window, clicked on "try ubuntu", and then the screen froze with a bunch of black and white lines. Had to manually power down, and then got this message (among other things):

 GLIb-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)

On my next tries, I only got a blank white box where the language window should be. Had to manually power down again, and got the same message. My computer: Acer Travelmate 2450 laptop with an ATI Mobility Xpress 200M graphics card.

I hope this can be solved, by the way my ubuntu experience is going, I might just be on Jaunty for the rest of my life.

gsch (gcscheepers)
Changed in ubuntu:
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
gsch (gcscheepers) wrote :

Not being able to boot up is very serious. This has to be fixed before 29 April.

Changed in ubuntu:
assignee: nobody → crc (crc)
assignee: crc (crc) → nobody
assignee: nobody → Boot (willpatch)
Revision history for this message
Mike Grunewald (mikeg32) wrote :

so whats the status of this ? are we still not booting

Revision history for this message
Boot (willpatch) wrote : Re: [Bug 532984] Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot, with (process 239): GLib-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0), on HP Compaq Pentium 4

I think you may have sent this to the wrong person, I'm not on the
development team. Boot is just my nickname and in no way relating to the
booting of the OS.

On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 1:37 AM, Mike Grunewald <email address hidden> wrote:

> so whats the status of this ? are we still not booting
>
> --
> Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot, with (process 239): GLib-WARNING **:
> getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0), on HP Compaq Pentium 4
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/532984
> You received this bug notification because you are a bug assignee.
>
> Status in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Tried to boot Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 on an HP Compaq d530 SFF Pentium 4
> desktop computer. The bootup hangs on the following message:
>
> (process 239): GLIb-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user
> id (0)
>
>
>

gsch (gcscheepers)
Changed in ubuntu:
assignee: Boot (willpatch) → nobody
Revision history for this message
gsch (gcscheepers) wrote : Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot, with (process 239): GLib-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0), on HP Compaq Pentium 4

The problem still exists. Look at the number of page views of the following forum threads!!

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1450625&highlight=GLib-WARNING

Here is someone offering a solution. But will it be safe to install???

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1450179&highlight=GLib-WARNING
UPDATE : this problem can be fixed by following the instructions below

Originally Posted by kansasnoob
from the boot menu press F6 which will display some boot options, then just press the Esc key. You'll now see that the "boot parameters" are displayed at the bottom of the screen. Just use the Backspace key to remove only "quiet splash".

Then just hit Enter & try to boot

Also I had to Remove my 2nd Monitor to get this to work . Having Dual monitors will cause or be part of the problem getting beta 2 installed

Revision history for this message
gsch (gcscheepers) wrote :

I can report that the above proposed fix does work. However, when I do get to the desktop it freezes up, so that I only can move around the pointer but nothing responds. Will I have to give up on the Lynx as well, just like Karmic?

Hopefully someone will take the glib-warning problem to heart and sort it out within two weeks. There are more than 2000 views on one of the related forum threads! A few hundred more on some other threads. There will be quite a few aspirant ubuntu users chucking the LiveCD in the trash can and going back to MS in about two weeks time if this is not solved.

Revision history for this message
Joshua R. Poulson (jrp) wrote :

I can successfully boot on a Lenovo W510 by removing "quiet splash" from the command line, but this is hardly an old machine (Desktop Beta 2 ISO, both CD-ROM and USB key).

Revision history for this message
SaverioB (saverio-bolognani) wrote :

I see the warning message when booting from Live CD Lucid PC (Intel x86) desktop (BETA 2).
However, boot is completed and the laptop is perfectly fine. No problems, but the warning message.
Computer is a DELL E1505, Nvidia card.

Revision history for this message
SaverioB (saverio-bolognani) wrote :

And by the way (sorry for the double message) I think there are multiple issues in here. Some people have their computer frozen for different reasons, but the last message that is left on their screen is this warning.

Revision history for this message
John King (kingj-linuxmlsts) wrote :

I've experienced a similar hang up to Beta 1 whenever I tried to boot the LiveCD (haven't tested Beta 2 yet). However, I only got the Glib message in Alpha 3. Removing quiet splash makes it work, so I believe this is a Plymouth issue.

I'd also suggest that this bug be marked critical, as one reply stated, this is a showstopper. It doesn't matter how awesome Lucid is, if a user can't even boot the LiveCD on a relatively new computer. Also, greater attention should be given to so-called duplicates, there is likely more than one issue at play here.

affects: ubuntu → plymouth (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
John King (kingj-linuxmlsts) wrote :

The Beta 2 LiveCD boots fine for me, but now I am having a much different issue with Plymouth, I have filed a report here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plymouth/+bug/565936

Revision history for this message
John King (kingj-linuxmlsts) wrote :

To those who have had issues with Beta 2, could you try the more recent daily builds here and see if the problem still occurs?

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/

Revision history for this message
JustMe007 (justme007) wrote :

I tested the latest daily build (lucid-desktop-i386.iso 18-Apr-2010 08:32 695M Desktop CD for PC (Intel x86) computers (standard download)

The Live CD actually gets past Plymouth and I can see the purple wallpaper and my mouse cursor, but than I get the following error: "The installer encountered an unrecoverable error, A desktop session will now be run so that you may investigate the problem or try installing again." When I click "OK" it says "Please remove the disc and close the tray (if any) then press ENTER." A reboot follows.

Revision history for this message
Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote :

The getpwuid_r() message is a generic warning that is displayed for all users, but is usually hidden by the splash screen. It is not the *cause* of any hangs or failures to display the splash screen, so keying on this for a bug report is not useful.

A large number of users have followed up to this bug report, but none have provided the kind of information we need in order to debug your individual issues. And the original bug report was against Alpha 3, which is a far cry from the state of affairs in Beta 2. So I'm closing this bug report as invalid.

Anyone who is still seeing a hang at boot time in 10.04 LTS Beta 2, please file a separate bug report against the linux package. If you can boot a previous version of Ubuntu on this system, please use the command 'ubuntu-bug linux' to file the report, so we have full information about your hardware.

If you are seeing hangs in beta2 when booting on a system with nvidia video, and you have more than one display connected, please verify whether disconnecting the second display fixes the issue before filing a new bug report. If it does, this is bug #533135 and you don't need to file a separate bug.

Changed in plymouth (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Tom Jaeger (thjaeger) wrote : Re: [Bug 532984] Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot, with (process 239): GLib-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0), on HP Compaq Pentium 4

There is still the issue of the actual error message, which certainly
shouldn't appear on the user's screen. Is this bug tracked anywhere?

On 04/18/2010 06:09 PM, Steve Langasek wrote:
> The getpwuid_r() message is a generic warning that is displayed for all
> users, but is usually hidden by the splash screen. It is not the
> *cause* of any hangs or failures to display the splash screen, so keying
> on this for a bug report is not useful.

Revision history for this message
Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote : Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot, with (process 239): GLib-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0), on HP Compaq Pentium 4

No, it's not tracked anywhere because the warning message itself is not the real bug, and the mere act of opening a bug report to track that low-priority bug would make it a magnet for hundreds of unrelated follow-ups. We need to be addressing the underlying causes of the message being passed through to the console, instead.

I'll try to figure out an appropriate way to suppress that message when plymouth is running from the initramfs, but won't open a new bug report for it, for the above reasons.

Revision history for this message
qaqadoo (qaqadoo) wrote :

Release Candidate from 23.04:
problem still exist. I can´t boot and install system. I want to see boot options (F6, any key) but this is not possible...
I hope that this bug(?) will be fixed in stable Ubuntu 10.04. Something wrong is here.

Revision history for this message
marenzi (severina1983) wrote :

I get a same warning when I try to boot Ubuntu 10.04 RC. Show me the message:

(process:371): GLib-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)

AMD64X2
Nvidia GeForce 6100

Revision history for this message
John King (kingj-linuxmlsts) wrote :

To those who are still having issues, refer to Steve's above post -- the GLib warning is a red herring, and you should file seperate bug reports so the devs can fix the issues properly.

Revision history for this message
wchristian (wchristian) wrote :

same error here, when loading self-compiled mantis.ko
10.04 up2date

Revision history for this message
Copernicus (twowayspirit) wrote :

Not sure how to file a proper bug report when the system doesnt even start to install from the 10.04 CD. It just stays at the Ubuntu logo for a few minutes, doing nothing, and then continues and shows a message box where I can restart or sit there forever.

Its not related to having two monitors since Im only having one and still get this problem.

Revision history for this message
Thomas Fritz (fritzthomas.com) wrote :

This still happens on fresh stable 10.04 Release of Kubuntu on an Lenovo Thinkpad X200. I have to manually shutdown and reboot, when this happens. After this Kubuntu reboots without any problem.

I have an external Monitor on the VGA output - just because the latest commentor wrote about a second monitor...

Regards

Revision history for this message
DrFaNaTiC (drfanatic) wrote :

Same here on a Dell Inspiron 6400.

Ubuntu 10.04
Linux dell 2.6.32-21-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 16 08:10:02 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

Revision history for this message
Mister-EL (mister-el) wrote :

Same Problem here, after some reboot I get
"getpwuid_r(): failed du to unknown user id (0)"

Kubuntu 10.04 amd 64 an Lenovo T400 with intel graka

Revision history for this message
=0yP)F]|L(0YNrv (ccgjsz8xdbdyyvy-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Ubuntu, installed Kubuntu-desktop later. Using KDE as default, KDM default, plymouth Kubuntu logo. I have framebuffer=y in /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash to delay boot a few seconds to make my splash actually show up. Occasionally this error pops up on me, I restart again and it's fine however. It pops up right after plymouth is finished loading, and I do not see the KDM login screen.

Using..
Ubuntu(KDE) 10.04 amd64
Linux <hostname> 2.6.32-22-generic #33-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 28 13:28:05 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Annoying issue... Workaround or fix coming soon..?

Revision history for this message
simon1991 (simon.1991) wrote :

I have the same problem.
I even can't install Ubuntu, each time when I try it, I get a GLIb-WARNING....
I think that this is a bug that really needs to be fixt...

Greetz,

Simon

Revision history for this message
krueger.freddy (krueger-freddy) wrote :

I get this error when booting the release version of 10.04 from a downloaded 32-bit CD image burned to disk.

Cant use 10.04 until its fixed so if I can help in any way, let me know.

simon1991 (simon.1991)
Changed in plymouth (Ubuntu):
status: Invalid → In Progress
status: In Progress → Invalid
status: Invalid → New
Revision history for this message
Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote :

See comment #27. Do not reopen this bug.

Changed in plymouth (Ubuntu):
status: New → Invalid
Revision history for this message
simon1991 (simon.1991) wrote :

Sorry Steve, I had not seen your post.
It's difficult to provide information about the bug, because the error message doesn't provide much info.
Maybe it will be solved in milestone 10.04.1?
Or I can keep using Karmic, that's also a possibility :)

Revision history for this message
Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote :

There is no information to be provided on this bug. You need to file a *new* bug for *your* issue against the linux package - not against plymouth, which is almost certainly not the source of the hang.

> Maybe it will be solved in milestone 10.04.1?

If you don't file a bug on the linux package, that's unlikely.

Revision history for this message
Atasa (rossios) wrote :

I can also confirn this bug after on a Dell XPS m1330 I have upgraded from karmic to lucid stable.

Steve Langasek (vorlon)
summary: - Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot, with (process 239): GLib-WARNING **:
- getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0), on HP Compaq Pentium 4
+ Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot on HP Compaq Pentium 4; displays an
+ irrelevant Glib warning on the console
Revision history for this message
Andreas Schoenegger (andreas-schoe) wrote : Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot on HP Compaq Pentium 4; displays an irrelevant Glib warning on the console

Getting this generic error message on two (very different machines: 1 Acer Netbook, 1 HP Centrino Laptop)!
Machine A runs 10.04 LTS Netbook edition, error first occured maybe one week now.
Machine B runs 10.04 LTS 32 Bit, worked fine until last reboot I did this morning (an update must have broken something?)

Booting with Live CDs works fine on both machines!

Revision history for this message
bfoo (bfoo) wrote :

Same here, feels like a race condition while initializing the user-space. This is getting annoying.

Revision history for this message
Jeff Hoogland (blue-starsoar) wrote :

I all of the sudden started getting this on my Asus T101MT netbook.... Super annoying :-/ It will boot once every three of four tries, otherwise it hangs with the glib message... Trying the fix listed about for removing the option from the kernel menu.

~Jeff

Revision history for this message
Raman (ramanjit81) wrote :

Today I installed a few updates on my 10.04 which has been running absolutely fine for over a month at this stage. Before installing the updates I got a warning saying that some of the update packages could not be authenticated. I decided not to install those updates, but, after every reboot when I ran update manager, the same few updates were listed, so I decided to install the unauthenticated updates, after which the computer rebooted and then I started getting the error message as follows:

(process :362) : GLib-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)

I have tried reinstalling from a live cd, but no joy. I too would like to see this issue resolved.
I must admit that on my second laptop, 10.04 is running quite alright for just as long and no update issues either.

Now I'm just a beginner still and can't say whether the software packages installed on the two systems were identical or not, so I can't say I know the source of the issue.

Help please.

Revision history for this message
Ryan Kitty (gothickitty93) wrote :

i get the same error as Raman does, but it seems to only be happening to me if i boot up my laptop without it plugged in, if i unplug it while Ubuntu is running, or if i change the screen brightness. If you need any debug message log things, just let me know which ones you need to diagnose the bug.

Revision history for this message
Adrien Lamothe (a-lamothe) wrote : Re: [Bug 532984] Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot on HP Compaq Pentium 4; displays an irrelevant Glib warning on the console

I had the problem on a desktop machine.

--- On Thu, 6/10/10, Ryan Schwenker <email address hidden> wrote:

From: Ryan Schwenker <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 532984] Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot on HP Compaq Pentium 4; displays an irrelevant Glib warning on the console
To: <email address hidden>
Date: Thursday, June 10, 2010, 3:18 PM

i get the same error as Raman does, but it seems to only be happening to
me if i boot up my laptop without it plugged in, if i unplug it while
Ubuntu is running, or if i change the screen brightness. If you need any
debug message log things, just let me know which ones you need to
diagnose the bug.

--
Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot on HP Compaq Pentium 4; displays an irrelevant Glib warning on the console
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/532984
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Revision history for this message
orngjce223 (orngjce223) wrote : Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot on HP Compaq Pentium 4; displays an irrelevant Glib warning on the console

Affected, Sony VAIO VGN-C190G, upgraded from Karmic to Lucid release and then quietly upgraded further. Problem seems not to affect booting up, however ominous message may turn off less-technically-inclined users. No multiple monitors.

Revision history for this message
Adrien Lamothe (a-lamothe) wrote : Re: [Bug 532984] Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot on HP Compaq Pentium 4; displays an irrelevant Glib warning on the console

In my case, it prevented the system from booting, the system hung.

--- On Fri, 6/11/10, orngjce223 <email address hidden> wrote:

From: orngjce223 <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 532984] Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot on HP Compaq Pentium 4; displays an irrelevant Glib warning on the console
To: <email address hidden>
Date: Friday, June 11, 2010, 7:33 AM

Affected, Sony VAIO VGN-C190G, upgraded from Karmic to Lucid release and
then quietly upgraded further.  Problem seems not to affect booting up,
however ominous message may turn off less-technically-inclined users.
No multiple monitors.

--
Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot on HP Compaq Pentium 4; displays an irrelevant Glib warning on the console
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/532984
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Revision history for this message
Vincenzo Ciancia (vincenzo-ml) wrote : Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot on HP Compaq Pentium 4; displays an irrelevant Glib warning on the console

This bug makes a fully functional ubuntu LTS installation completely useless, and the only known solution is to install a different operating system.

This bug MUST be paid more attention, both by users and by developers.

I've seen it today simultaneously on a eeepc 1005ha and a fixed pc made by DELL which I have in my office. These are two entirely different machines, e.g. one is 32 bit and the other one 64 bit, one is one year old, the other one seems to have 3 or 4 years on its shoulders.

I am seeing this bug in two installed copies of Lucid LTS, not upgraded from an alpha or a beta; they are regular installs. Both installations have worked very well on the two machines for some time.

Today I can't get the fixed machine to boot with ubuntu at all. I will now try to boot them with the correct option to disable the splash screen and see what happens.

Steve Langasek: when you closed this bug, it would have been much more helpful if you also explained your users how to identify the error more precisely.

Revision history for this message
Vincenzo Ciancia (vincenzo-ml) wrote :

Please disregard my comments. I had not seen all the comments from Steve. There is no such thing as "this bug".

Revision history for this message
buntolo (carlotto1987) wrote :

Computer: hp Compaq 6720s
OS: 10.04 64 bit full install official release (no upgrade, no alpha/beta/RC)

I've got the same error 4 or 5 times in 114 boots (i've counted them with bootchart), except that I've got number 344.

"(process:344): GLib WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)"

The process' number is useless for the bug, because processes aren't always launched in the same order, so for one it will be 348, for another it will be 380...

Revision history for this message
antonio (einsteniano4000) wrote :

Same error on my toshiba satellite a100 that doesn't boot after the message. In my case happens after the Routine Check of drives. If booting into recovery mode everything is fine.

o.s. ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Revision history for this message
Patrik Nilsson (nipatriknilsson) wrote :

I did the following change:

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
--- contents ---
Option "BlankTime" "0"
Option "StandbyTime" "0"
Option "SuspendTime" "0"
Option "OffTime" "0"
Option "NoPM" "true"

SubSection "extmod"
 Option "omit DPMS"
EndSubSection
--- end ---

Before my change xorg.conf was empty.

I have had some hangs during boot time, because of "etpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id" before, but with the above change the computer hanged every time I tried to boot.

Then I entered recovery mode and root shell...

cd /etc/X11
mv xorg.conf xorg.conf-1

... I shuted down the computer and after that I could log on again.

Just for testing, I repeater the above steps again and the error came back. To start the computer (and to write this error report) I had to rename xorg.conf again.

Revision history for this message
Raman (ramanjit81) wrote :

Well, after waiting for a solution (one which I could do myself without spending days at learning more about linux immediately) to the problem for a month now, I decided to reinstall 10.04 using the alternate cd.

Before anything else, I logged onto vista and deleted all of the linux partitions except the home partition i.e. deleted /, /var, /tmp and swap.

Then I reinstalled 10.04 using an alternate install cd without formating the home folder after which the grub got overwritten.

Then I reinstalled grub to /dev/sda with sda8 mounted as root Directory.

So, thereafter ubuntu is back runnning with nearly all of my settings intact. However, firefox and thunderbird did not start properly saying, "Firefox is already runnning, please close the existing window before starting a new one." A similar error appeared for Thudnerbird as well and the reason was the the fstab was overwritten with the install and the partition with the firefox profile did not automount at startup.

So, after editing the fstab i.e. sudo gedit /etc/fstab I was able top restore my system to nearly a 100% of the state before crash.

Happy with it now.

Revision history for this message
Ca67 (ca67) wrote :

Hello, I have this error as well, but it just shows sometimes. I press the power button again and the netbook shuts down. Then I start it again and it works normal. I scanned all the comments, there no perfect solution yet?

(process:295): GLib-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)

Ubuntu 10.04 NetBook
Asus Eee 1005-HA with Intel Atom

Revision history for this message
shane (shane-animail) wrote :

Same again here.
Running on an HP G62 laptop.
It happens every several boots, seems completely random and it DOES slow down boot considerably but usually does finish booting eventually.

I also have a Maverick testing install and on that I get this error EVERY single boot.

It is difficult to know what to file the bug against. It is such a cryptic sounding error.
It has been suggested that this error has nothing to do with plymouth but if I remove the splash line from grub I don't get the message so to me that suggests the problem IS related to plymouth somehow.

Both my standard install AND the maverick testing install are both netbook editions.
I have been intending to try a daily DESKTOP maverick iso to see if anything is different but for the past couple of days they have been unusable due to a grub error.

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natuk (a-velios) wrote :

Exactly the same problem here on a Lenovo X200 and a Lenovo X61 with 10.04LTS.

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Ajay Chebbi (ajaychebbi) wrote :

Same problem while installing on Thinkpad T42

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dRewsus (drewsus) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Andre Tadeu de Carvalho (andre-tadeu-de-carvalho) wrote :

I had this problem updating initramfs-tools from another repository which I had to add to get some packages needed in my job. I had to enable the other 'backports' and 'multiverse' repositories.

Since it is written in sources.list these repositories does not receive security updates from Ubuntu, I don't expect any solution at all.

Technical specs from machine:
Pentium 4 3.40GHz
Asus P5VD1-X Rev 303
GV-955256D F10

Revision history for this message
fejes (anthony-fejes) wrote :

either update-grub or a recent update seems to have worked for me - I no longer see the error any more.

Revision history for this message
Ajay Chebbi (ajaychebbi) wrote :

There is nothing to upgrade... This happened to me on a blank machine when trying to install Ubuntu 10.04 GA from a CD. The work around I found was hit escape on the splash screen (where there is a square = little man pic at the bottom). then it goes to the menu and works fine. After installation I have not experienced this on the machine itself.. but happens with the CD everytime.

Problem is with the grub instance on the CD.

Revision history for this message
fejes (anthony-fejes) wrote :

My comment was premature - I still get this error. After 4 clean boot sequences, the computer must have had a kernel panic (flashing lights on the keyboard, and no possible recovery), followed by three boots where this error was present.

Revision history for this message
MurkyMurk (murkymurk) wrote :

It's CD/DVD drive specific.
I get the error when I use my Emperex DVDRW 8x but not when I use my Emperex DD DVDRW 16x.
Everything else is identical as i have to physically swap the EIDE cable over from one drive to the other.

Lucid LiveCD hangs with the 8x but boot with the 16x

<duplicate bugs should have their comments pages merged in 2010 FFS>

Revision history for this message
Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig) wrote :

This symptom also seen on Asus eeepc 1001ha; maybe 1in 5 boots?
(Intel graphics, 1GB RAM - Lucid, previously upgraded from Karmic)

Revision history for this message
runbei (gbeinhorn) wrote :

Problem still exists on an HP 7100 as of 8/31/10. I'm using Mint 9 (Ubuntu 10.04). I unplugged all drives except the boot drive to see if it was a problem with the IDE or SATA chains. Nope, still see the GLib warning message.

If I press Enter at that message, I see a bunch of fail messages and then the system truly hangs.

It is strange, as the system was working normally until this morning - I could boot normally without any hangs. Also, I've been using Mint 9/10.04 on my ThinkPad T43 laptop for ages with no boot problems whatever.

Off topic, but the earlier comment by a developer that this affects only older PCs and is therefore irrelevant, is appalling. A major selling point of Linux is that it does work on older hardware - it "revives" old PCs. I hope that comment doesn't reflect the Ubuntu devs' pride in craft generally.

Revision history for this message
arjordan (jorsuscrip) wrote :

I have the same error happening in Kubuntu 10.04 (amd64) after upgrade from 9.10 and also after performing a fresh installation. Both of the installations were from the alternate CD:
(process 373): GLIb-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)

The only solution is to hit CTRL+ALT+DEL to reboot. Sometimes it takes two or three attempts to finally continue starting up.

Notebook Dell 640m
Processor Intel T7200 64bits
Video Intel 945GM

Revision history for this message
Victor Engmark (victor-engmark) wrote :

100% reproducible (after soft and hard boot) with 10.04 x86 Netbook boot SD card on Asus Eee PC 900, and with 10.04 64bit USB boot disk on HP desktop machine. How can this still be Invalid and Undecided with so many reports?

Revision history for this message
nutznboltz (nutznboltz-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Are you running nscd? I got around user account issues by installing nscd but we have a customized environment that uses LDAP. Older releases did not require nscd.

Revision history for this message
Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote :

nscd has nothing to do with this. The message is spurious and caused by plymouth loading glib, which tries to look up the name of the root user, before the root filesystem is mounted.

The bug is marked invalid because the warning has *nothing to do with* any problems you're experiencing; it's an annoying message, but it's output even on systems where plymouth is working perfectly - you just don't *see* it when plymouth is working correctly.

Revision history for this message
Tory (tory-andrew-law) wrote :

I'm getting this error two.

I have basically a fresh install of 10.10 beta
Dell Latitude e6410

and just prior to this I was trying to get my xorg to work

Revision history for this message
Tory (tory-andrew-law) wrote :

I just removed the xorg file, and I got passed the error

Revision history for this message
arjordan (jorsuscrip) wrote :

It is annoying! It happens almost every startup of the notebook. I had to reboot up to five times. Is there a solution to avoid plymouth to do what Steve says in #74?

Revision history for this message
Mark (mark-wege) wrote :

I have tried to boot current pre-RC-Kubuntu Maverik Desktop Installer CD on my system (Thinkpad X201). Unfortunately booting was impossible due to this bug. I tried it several times. Desktop installer was used from USB-Stick.

tags: added: iso-testing
Revision history for this message
JarekJ83 (jarekj83) wrote :

same problem in Maverick 10.10 when i get ctrl+alt F1 etc..

(proces 290) GLIB - warning getpwuid_r() : failed due to unknown uster id (o)

Revision history for this message
JarekJ83 (jarekj83) wrote :

after todays actualizations its workin for me now

Revision history for this message
José Lou Chang (obake) wrote :

I never had this error with Ubuntu Lucid.

But, now that I fresh installed Kubuntu 10.10 (from RC release) I get the error when turning on the laptop:

(process 347): Glib-warning **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)

After that message appeared, the whole system became inactive or frozen, so I had to force-shutdown physically.
When I turned it on again, the same message did not appear and let me log-in normally.

Revision history for this message
José Lou Chang (obake) wrote :

Just in case I have a HP Pavilion dv6000 and my lspci | grep VGA output is:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)

Revision history for this message
norm2929 (norm2929) wrote :

Same issue. Doesn't prevent me from booting, it will recover from the error, but when I plug in my external monitor I sometimes get this error and it can't recover. need to reboot.

Revision history for this message
komputes (komputes) wrote :

I get this error in between boot stages in 10.10. I can always go back to tty7 (ctrl-alt-f7) to see the error. The error doesn't prevent me from booting, therefore it only seems to be aesthetic to me.

Revision history for this message
iheartubuntu (iheartubuntu) wrote :

Im having the same problem on an older P4 Sony Viao PCV-RS310. Burned DVD discs of 10.04 and10.10 give me this error. I tried burning a CD of 10.10 and I got into the install phase, partitioned the drive, and then during install it failed. Tomorrow I will attempt to install 10.04 from official Ubuntu disc and see if I have any luck.

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iheartubuntu (iheartubuntu) wrote :

Is there any sort of fix for this or work around?

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linex83 (linex83) wrote :

Same on Ubuntu 10.10 and different hardware. Keeps me from installing Ubuntu 10.10.

Revision history for this message
Christoph (christoph-thomas) wrote :

Hi,
I had this odd warning
"getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)"
some time ago (I think it was karmic) and got yesterday the same problem with lucid. Since there are already some Bugs filed (565936 and 531027) I decided to add a comment to this open bug what was the solution for me. Maybe it helps somebody.

The problem was related to the directory "/tmp" in all cases this directory was not writable. So you might check if "ls -ld /tmp" gives you the mod 777 (rwxrwxrwx). If this one is OK, you might try to copy a file into "/tmp".
If your problem occurs only once in a while it might be because you have an own partition for "/tmp" (in this case you should check the mod of the mountpoint and of the mounted partition). I found that sometimes e2fsck was running for the device which was assigned to "/tmp" when the display manager (gdm in my case) was started. You might solve this with the "bootwait" option in fstab of if you disable the filesystemcheck for "/tmp" (this gave me a real hedache, since the filesystem was defect in my case and endet unfortionatly with the same errormessage).

Cheers, Chris

Revision history for this message
phil gray (philkgray) wrote :

This error also occurs on my HP mini 110 running ubuntu 10.10.
I get:
GLIB WARNING ** GLib - getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id
when returning from suspend mode, but it goes away after a few seconds.
I also sometimes get the error message when booting, and it wil not go away, and ubuntu does not boot.

Revision history for this message
Orzech (piotr.orzechowski) wrote :

It happened on Ubuntu 10.10 just at runtime during web surfing too. System was useless after showing blank screen with GLIb-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0), had to force laptop turn off.

Kees Cook (kees)
summary: - Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 won't boot on HP Compaq Pentium 4; displays an
- irrelevant Glib warning on the console
+ GLIb-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)
description: updated
Changed in plymouth (Ubuntu Maverick):
status: New → Invalid
Changed in plymouth (Ubuntu Lucid):
status: New → Invalid
description: updated
Revision history for this message
José Lou Chang (obake) wrote :

Why is this bug report marked as invalid?

Every time I get this error, the OS freezes completely that I have to force a restart.

Revision history for this message
Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig) wrote :

I believe the reason is no one knows where the problem actually exists - this is a symptom but I think the plymouth guys are saying it's not them, and no one has figured out what it is.

Dave

Revision history for this message
Franck (amail4-franckinsc) wrote :

I also get the same error GLIB WARNING ** GLib - getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id
when trying to install kubuntu from a CD. I've tried 4 times without any success.

Config: mini-pc, mother board INTEL DH57JG

Note: I've just bought this computer without OS thinking that linux ditributions are mature enough for the desktop. I guess I was wrong as this bug has been aroundfor several months. Will have to buy another OS better tested ....

Kees Cook (kees)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Simone Cosimo (simosx4) wrote :

i also get some error wheen i trying to install Xubuntu 10.10 from a USB

Revision history for this message
Marcus E (marcus+e) wrote :

This happened frequently on my 10.04 install but far from on every start. Now with encrypted home on a fresh install of 10.10 on another laptop the error comes up on every start, which means the OS is practically unusable.

Revision history for this message
Simon Charette (charettes) wrote :

I have the same issue with encrypted home on a separate partition with fresh install of Ubuntu 10.10. Some times it wont load login screen. Some times it will just crash.

Revision history for this message
MillenniumBug (millenniumbug) wrote :

Does this solve the problem?

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plymouth/+bug/649917

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

Revision history for this message
José Lou Chang (obake) wrote : Re: [Bug 532984] Re: GLIb-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)

Hello Martin Olsen. I have not seen that error message in a while so it
seems to have been resolved.

Thank you all for your contributions.

Cheers!

On Sat, Nov 20, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Martin Olesen <email address hidden>wrote:

> Does this solve the problem?
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plymouth/+bug/649917
>
> In other words, can the report be marked 'solved'?
>
> --
> GLIb-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/532984
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

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Unlogic (unlogic-unlogic) wrote :

I'm getting the same issue when i try to install ubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso on a Zotac Atom D510 WIFI MINI-ITX motherboard.

Created a bootable USB stick using UNetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/)

Revision history for this message
MillenniumBug (millenniumbug) wrote :

Post #176 in this thread
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1443231
might help you.

If you have more support questions, Ubuntuforums is the best place.

Revision history for this message
Xtien (xtien) wrote :

I'm having this problem consistently when booting from a usb stick, created with startup disk creator. I use Maverick Meerkat.

Revision history for this message
MillenniumBug (millenniumbug) wrote :

The 10.10 ISO will not be updated, so the bug is still present here. When you install Ubuntu and apply all updates, you will receive the bug fix.

Again, please use the thread in Ubuntuforums, if more problems appear.

Revision history for this message
gary grover (gtgenter) wrote : Re: [Bug 532984] Re: GLIb-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)

On 01/24/2011 08:20 AM, Martin Olesen wrote:
> GLIb-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)
I've given up on Ubuntu. How can I install any updates when the
installation fails??????

PCLINUX OS is much more stable, installs without a hitch, and recognizes
my broadcom wireless card in my laptop. Ubuntu really blew it with
release 10.10.

Gary

Revision history for this message
MillenniumBug (millenniumbug) wrote :

>>> How can I install any updates when the installation fails?

You could for example follow the link in post #100 above.

Revision history for this message
MillenniumBug (millenniumbug) wrote :

'Fix released' is more precise than 'invalid', since the error message does not appear any more.

Changed in plymouth (Ubuntu Lucid):
status: Invalid → Fix Released
Changed in plymouth (Ubuntu Maverick):
status: Invalid → Fix Released
Changed in plymouth (Ubuntu Natty):
status: Invalid → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
hamdta (hamdta) wrote :

Hi
This happen with me, when i (downgrade :-(( ) from a motherboard Asus P5Vd2Mx-se core2 duo E6470 Intell cpu, (because he have a fault) to a Gigabyte GA-8I945GZME-RH.
With W7 reinstalled,after the first boot of 10.04 still installed before ( do not need installed again), the Ubuntu crash and stuck with busybox only...

I try change the Live Cd to a Pen with 10.04 but only boot on another machine (atlhon), on this, the massage " (process 239): GLIb-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)" appear again...

Only boot with 11.10 result well!...

Regards

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