Sudo and a number of other things not working after update

Support
1

Hello, my knowledge is limited but after having spend 2 days just searching instead of working I need a little help.

After the last update a number of things have gone strange. Sudo no longer works for most things, but after about 15-20 minutes magically starts working again. System takes about 5 minutes to shut down with a: Failed to unmount /oldroot: Device busy , message. Can’t install/uninstal/update Nvidia drivers.

I have tried re-installing and applying numerous small fixes I found but nothing has really changed. I am a little lost and not sure what to do next. I am looking at backing up everything and formatting and re-installing if this is the easiest/best solution right now. As I am looking in all the wrong places it seems. I just need my workstation working again. Any suggestions as to where to look would be amazing, thank you.

x470
3950x
two 1070ti

2

Just guessing at possible pacnews since thats been around lately…

pacdiff -o

If you see anything in pam.d folder you need to handle it like outlined in some other posts, ex:

1 Like
3

Thank you very much for taking the time to help. I have looked through those threads previously as well as reinstalled pam and pambase. Edited/deleted any of the files and fixes outlined. no change.

Output for the above code was:
/etc/shadow.pacnew
/etc/fonts/fonts.conf.pacnew
/etc/locale.gen.pacnew

4

OK.
Lets just make sure the whole update is there:

sudo pacman-mirrors -f && sudo pacman -Syyu

(if there are errors return those … if nothing to do thats alright)

5

I have now completed the operation, it took a long time and I missed the second sudo password prompt and timed out. Redid it and there was only 1 error:

::ERROR ftp error: error_perm(‘550 Failed to change directory.’) ‘ftp://mirrors.opensource.is/manjaro/’

It then finished with starting system upgrade. . . Nothing to do.

Thank you again for all this help.

6

I would say look for errors in something like journalctl as shown here:

7

Thank you for that link. I have ran all those commands and there are walls and walls of information being pasted. I am not sure what I should be looking for. Or if I should try and paste the entire thing.

8

I am still searching. I have followed your other threads instruction on getting Nvidia to update but none of the options worked and am still stuck.

I have been trying to find errors and solutions, found that one of my Samsung NVME EVO plus 970 drives has out of date firmware, however updating that firmware didn’t clear that particular error, although I don’t think this is really part of any of the problems I am having and also most likely harmless.

I was able to find this string of error on each login:


31/8/20 10:54 PM	sudo	pam_unix(sudo:auth): conversation failed
31/8/20 10:54 PM	audit	USER_AUTH pid=2493 uid=1000 auid=1000 ses=1 subj==unconfined msg='op=PAM:authentication grantors=? acct="ayasz" exe="/usr/bin/sudo" hostname=? addr=? terminal=/dev/pts/1 res=failed'
31/8/20 11:02 PM	sudo	pam_unix(sudo:auth): conversation failed
31/8/20 11:02 PM	audit	USER_AUTH pid=2765 uid=1000 auid=1000 ses=1 subj==unconfined msg='op=PAM:authentication grantors=? acct="ayasz" exe="/usr/bin/sudo" hostname=? addr=? terminal=/dev/pts/3 res=failed'
1/9/20 8:53 AM	sudo	pam_unix(sudo:auth): conversation failed
1/9/20 8:53 AM	audit	ANOM_LOGIN_FAILURES pid=2036 uid=1000 auid=1000 ses=1 subj==unconfined msg='pam_faillock uid=1000  exe="/usr/bin/sudo" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
1/9/20 8:53 AM	audit	RESP_ACCT_LOCK pid=2036 uid=1000 auid=1000 ses=1 subj==unconfined msg='pam_faillock uid=1000  exe="/usr/bin/sudo" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
1/9/20 8:53 AM	audit	USER_AUTH pid=2036 uid=1000 auid=1000 ses=1 subj==unconfined msg='op=PAM:authentication grantors=? acct="ayasz" exe="/usr/bin/sudo" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=failed'

Not sure if this is a clue to what’s causing these sudo not working problems. I did find a temporary workaround. Inside /etc/pam.d/ sudo I added a line auth sufficient pam_permit.so. And this has made sudo command work inside the terminal, but it’s passwordless and well, just a temporary workaround. Other gui authentications do not work, such as trying to press install or saving files inside the etc directory confirmation.
It does seem to start working on it’s own after about 30 minutes of the system running regardless of what I am doing, but I can’t see anything in the log indicating any kind of change. I have also tried enabling wheel group and added my user to every single group available on the system and still nothing.
Shutting the system down still takes absolutely for ever eventually after about 5 minutes displaying that: Failed to unmount /oldroot: device busy , error message for a split second before finally shutting down.

I have also updated to the newer kernel 5.8.3-2 instead of the one that was done automatically by the update, which was 5.7.17-2. Did this via the gui and it didn’t change anything.

I am not sure what to look for or what could be the problem but I am continuing to look. This was the third day of work missed just searching but I am at least learning something new, I guess. Any other suggestions or help would be most appreciated. I clearly do not have a clue what I am looking for.

9

I think I have the same problem. It started after I needed to fix the system-login file in /etc/pam.d/ after the latest update in order to log in. Now logging in works and even changing users via su works but sudo/pkexec/pamac authentication tends to not work on a recently booted system.

Unfortunately I don’t know how to solve this problem yet but I’m also looking for a solution and if I make any progress I’ll post an update.

I think I’ll try to monitor at which point the authentication starts to work an if there are any logs that go along with this change.

10

Thanks, I am trying to find it also. But even after staring at the log for half an hour nothing happens. It just starts working. However even after it starts working I still can’t update Nvidia or shutdown normally. Just weirdness all around.

11

I guess its worth wondering here …
How exactly were the pam/pacnew files ‘dealt with’ ?
I have seen a number of instances where users misunderstand and add or entirely delete lines when the only needed action was to replace (if present) the string of a deprecated module with a working one.

12

I never had those lines. I did at one stage try and add them to see if anything changed, but no. So I removed them again.