For some time now (since the last update?), I’ve been getting the error message [FAILED] Failed to start User Database Manager when booting up. How and where can I permanently re-enable the service correctly?
systemctl restart systemd-userdbd only works for the session and has do be redone on each startup.
Please post the output of
systemctl status systemd-userdbd.socket systemd-userdbd.service
directly after booting, that is, when you get this failure message before restarting the service.
× systemd-userdbd.socket - User Database Manager Socket
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-userdbd.socket; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: failed (Result: service-start-limit-hit) since Wed 2026-09-23 21:00:34 CEST; 1min 36s ago
Duration: 7.008s
Invocation: 974e0ff456644d679579509c0bdd6774
Triggers: ● systemd-userdbd.service
Docs: man:systemd-userdbd.service(8)
Listen: /run/systemd/userdb/io.systemd.Multiplexer (Stream)
Sep 23 21:00:34 xenon systemd[1]: systemd-userdbd.socket: Failed with result 'service-start-limit-hit'.
× systemd-userdbd.service - User Database Manager
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-userdbd.service; indirect; preset: disabled)
Active: failed (Result: start-limit-hit) since Wed 2026-09-23 21:00:34 CEST; 1min 36s ago
Duration: 1.163s
Invocation: 516025cd1a234ad49c742a63b203ed42
TriggeredBy: × systemd-userdbd.socket
Docs: man:systemd-userdbd.service(8)
Process: 10409 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-userdbd (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 10409 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Status: "Shutting down..."
Mem peak: 11.6M
CPU: 3.427s
Sep 23 21:00:33 xenon systemd[1]: Starting User Database Manager...
Sep 23 21:00:33 xenon systemd[1]: Started User Database Manager.
Sep 23 21:00:34 xenon systemd-userdbd[10409]: Worker threads requested too frequently, not starting new ones for a while.
Sep 23 21:00:34 xenon systemd-userdbd[10409]: Worker threads requested too frequently, not starting new ones for a while.
Sep 23 21:00:34 xenon systemd-userdbd[10409]: Worker threads requested too frequently, but worker count is zero, something is wrong.
Sep 23 21:00:34 xenon systemd[1]: systemd-userdbd.service: Deactivated successfully.
Sep 23 21:00:34 xenon systemd[1]: systemd-userdbd.service: Consumed 3.427s CPU time over 1.199s wall clock time, 11.6M memory peak.
Sep 23 21:00:34 xenon systemd[1]: systemd-userdbd.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Sep 23 21:00:34 xenon systemd[1]: systemd-userdbd.service: Failed with result 'start-limit-hit'.
Sep 23 21:00:34 xenon systemd[1]: Failed to start User Database Manager.
This doesn’t show why it fails. You still need to find the reason. You can try
journalctl -xeu systemd-userdbd
or also to check whether anything is corrupt
pacman -Qkk systemd
although i think in that case the service shouldn’t start at all.
pacman -Qkk systemd gave:
Warnung: systemd: /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-userwork (Änderungszeitpunkte stimmen nicht überein) Warnung: systemd: /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-userwork (Größen stimmen nicht überein) Warnung: systemd: /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-userwork (SHA256-Prüfsummen stimmen nicht überein) Warnung: systemd: /var/log/journal (GID stimmt nicht überein)
I fixed the issue with re-installing systemd.
That might indicate an interrupted update or filesystem errors, you might want to check everything:
sudo pacman -Qk 2>/dev/null | grep -v ' 0 missing files'
If something shows up - reinstall it!
And even deeper, this might take 1-2 minutes:
sudo pacman -Qkk | grep -v ' 0 altered files' | grep -v 'backup file'
But since you are with German locale, for grep like this to work you will either have to change the strings in grep, or the locale of the output to English, like this
LC_ALL=C sudo pacman -Qkk | grep -v ' 0 altered files' | grep -v 'backup file'
Note that WILL show a lot of false positives. Every config file changed. And if the package maintainer of something changed the permissions of some file after the date you installed it, and probably other cases. So this is not so easy to interpret as the missing files.
warning: bluez: /etc/bluetooth (Permissions mismatch)
warning: cups: /etc/cups/classes.conf (Permissions mismatch)
warning: cups: /etc/cups/printers.conf (Permissions mismatch)
warning: cups: /etc/cups/subscriptions.conf (Permissions mismatch)
warning: firefox: /usr/lib/firefox/distribution/distribution.ini (Modification time mismatch)
warning: firefox: /usr/lib/firefox/distribution/distribution.ini (Size mismatch)
warning: firefox: /usr/lib/firefox/distribution/distribution.ini (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
warning: ghc-libs: /usr/lib/ghc-9.6.6/lib/package.conf.d/package.cache (Modification time mismatch)
warning: ghc-libs: /usr/lib/ghc-9.6.6/lib/package.conf.d/package.cache (Size mismatch)
warning: ghc-libs: /usr/lib/ghc-9.6.6/lib/package.conf.d/package.cache (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
warning: grub: /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober (Modification time mismatch)
warning: grub: /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober (Size mismatch)
warning: grub: /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
warning: java-runtime-common: /usr/lib/jvm/default (Symlink path mismatch)
warning: java-runtime-common: /usr/lib/jvm/default (Modification time mismatch)
warning: java-runtime-common: /usr/lib/jvm/default-runtime (Symlink path mismatch)
warning: java-runtime-common: /usr/lib/jvm/default-runtime (Modification time mismatch)
bluez: 37 total files, 1 altered file
cups: 947 total files, 3 altered files
firefox: 98 total files, 1 altered file
ghc-libs: 1563 total files, 1 altered file
grub: 1210 total files, 1 altered file
warning: libutempter: /usr/lib/utempter/utempter (GID mismatch)
warning: libutempter: /usr/lib/utempter/utempter (Permissions mismatch)
java-runtime-common: 21 total files, 2 altered files
libutempter: 20 total files, 1 altered file
warning: libvlc: /usr/lib/vlc/plugins/plugins.dat (Modification time mismatch)
warning: libvlc: /usr/lib/vlc/plugins/plugins.dat (Size mismatch)
warning: libvlc: /usr/lib/vlc/plugins/plugins.dat (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
warning: linux618: /usr/lib/modules/6.18.49-1-MANJARO/modules.alias (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux618: /usr/lib/modules/6.18.49-1-MANJARO/modules.alias.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux618: /usr/lib/modules/6.18.49-1-MANJARO/modules.builtin.alias.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux618: /usr/lib/modules/6.18.49-1-MANJARO/modules.builtin.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux618: /usr/lib/modules/6.18.49-1-MANJARO/modules.dep (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux618: /usr/lib/modules/6.18.49-1-MANJARO/modules.dep.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux618: /usr/lib/modules/6.18.49-1-MANJARO/modules.devname (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux618: /usr/lib/modules/6.18.49-1-MANJARO/modules.softdep (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux618: /usr/lib/modules/6.18.49-1-MANJARO/modules.symbols (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux618: /usr/lib/modules/6.18.49-1-MANJARO/modules.symbols.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux618: /usr/lib/modules/6.18.49-1-MANJARO/modules.weakdep (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux72: /usr/lib/modules/7.2.3-2-MANJARO/modules.alias (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux72: /usr/lib/modules/7.2.3-2-MANJARO/modules.alias.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux72: /usr/lib/modules/7.2.3-2-MANJARO/modules.builtin.alias.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux72: /usr/lib/modules/7.2.3-2-MANJARO/modules.builtin.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux72: /usr/lib/modules/7.2.3-2-MANJARO/modules.dep (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux72: /usr/lib/modules/7.2.3-2-MANJARO/modules.dep.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux72: /usr/lib/modules/7.2.3-2-MANJARO/modules.devname (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux72: /usr/lib/modules/7.2.3-2-MANJARO/modules.softdep (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux72: /usr/lib/modules/7.2.3-2-MANJARO/modules.symbols (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux72: /usr/lib/modules/7.2.3-2-MANJARO/modules.symbols.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux72: /usr/lib/modules/7.2.3-2-MANJARO/modules.weakdep (Modification time mismatch)
warning: networkmanager: /usr/lib/NetworkManager/conf.d/20-connectivity.conf (Modification time mismatch)
warning: networkmanager: /usr/lib/NetworkManager/conf.d/20-connectivity.conf (Size mismatch)
warning: networkmanager: /usr/lib/NetworkManager/conf.d/20-connectivity.conf (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
libvlc: 120 total files, 1 altered file
linux618: 7658 total files, 11 altered files
linux72: 7679 total files, 11 altered files
warning: os-prober: /usr/lib/linux-boot-probes/mounted/40grub2 (Modification time mismatch)
warning: pacman-mirrors: /var/lib/pacman-mirrors/mirrors.json (Modification time mismatch)
warning: pacman-mirrors: /var/lib/pacman-mirrors/mirrors.json (Size mismatch)
warning: pacman-mirrors: /var/lib/pacman-mirrors/mirrors.json (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
warning: passim: /var/lib/passim (UID mismatch)
warning: passim: /var/lib/passim (GID mismatch)
warning: passim: /var/lib/passim/data (UID mismatch)
warning: passim: /var/lib/passim/data (GID mismatch)
warning: systemd: /var/log/journal (GID mismatch)
networkmanager: 368 total files, 1 altered file
os-prober: 47 total files, 1 altered file
pacman-mirrors: 357 total files, 1 altered file
passim: 92 total files, 2 altered files
systemd: 1909 total files, 1 altered file