Linux – Cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later

linuxpasswd

With several commands in Linux, I get the error:

cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

Does anybody know how to solve it? Also I don't get in my /etc/shadow directory.

Best Answer

If no .lock files are present but you still cannot create a user try the following

sudo mount -o remount,rw /

If logged in as root then use

mount -o remount,rw /

Related Solutions

Linux – passwd/shadow or group/gshadow mismatch

Why would you use Excel?

cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd | sort > p.out
sudo cut -d: -f1 /etc/shadow | sort > s.out
diff p.out s.out
rm p.out s.out

Or in Bash:

diff <(cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd | sort) <(sudo cut -d: -f1 /etc/shadow | sort)

and you can do the same kind of thing for /etc/group and /etc/gshadow.

You need to run GUI System>Administration>Users and Groups with elevated permissions. Is it asking you for a password?

Linux – users not found in /etc/passwd

That is because the users database is stored elsewhere, for example an LDAP. Use getent passwd $USER to resolve your user. Make sure you read nsswitch.conf(5) with command man nsswitch.conf to understand how and where can be users (and some other) databases stored.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Linux – passwd/shadow or group/gshadow mismatch

Linux – users not found in /etc/passwd

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