systemd system extension doesn't start

[federicomenaquintero]

I installed the MicroOS 2023/03/30 snapshot, and then built a gdm-container image inside the MicroOS VM from the Dockerrfile.

The systemd system extension appears to install fine, and the nscd error seems (?) inocuous:

localhost:~/gdm-container # podman container runlabel install-sysext gdm-container
fetching container
time="2023-04-04T23:13:45Z" level=info msg="Not using native diff for overlay, this may cause degraded performance for building images: kernel has CONFIG_OVERLAY_FS_REDIRECT_DIR enabled"
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob sha256:d020fb4197da04a93529d8652993900e411098e317f72c0ea5b7eeae0a745fdb
Copying blob sha256:fe5f1f8d365ca5d59f550b22eeccfa6fb177f93237467ca465372c5a959f3621
Copying blob sha256:606994990e34475bb0dd776df5112a6d23f18647ad5f71762bb9c31cd66bea62
Copying blob sha256:a75ef0f7c5dcd05d337ea2eb242c41a25efa4ce959ea457e0db145a35392e481
Copying blob sha256:fddbffa17f8e491873519231db4be448386b0687456f7ef56f1e4b75c0153a0a
Copying blob sha256:4416423a623eb32c6e90e7c229bc93453948605940af71837a2d6b1c123959ba
Copying blob sha256:33e56c2c448ccaf56c0aab23c9e3edf1b48f8951cce0dfb6378eeb5dc6b08084
Copying blob sha256:678c749a7615e9ea9c47c0d315e0a3eaf5e5a4825054f04aee3513e3101da482
Copying blob sha256:10a5ac69f1558a0d9a37d032dc194d6d2c17ee0ff81c76fb63d7dc32ca626e1a
Copying blob sha256:588eec82f5a90bf6f782dd605b8b03764a251510b71063bedba38fff9bed2ec0
Copying config sha256:bd76bb6aa020e7833755ae73814e639ad698c3b672adb0733940d06c6f1b7480
Writing manifest to image destination
Storing signatures
converting container layer to system extension
patching file nsswitch.conf
/
'/host/var/lib/extensions/gdm/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/gdm.conf' -> '/host/etc/tmpfiles.d/gdm.conf'
'/host/var/lib/extensions/gdm/etc/gdm/Init' -> '/host/etc/gdm/Init'
'/host/var/lib/extensions/gdm/etc/gdm/Init/Default' -> '/host/etc/gdm/Init/Default'
'/host/var/lib/extensions/gdm/etc/gdm/PostLogin' -> '/host/etc/gdm/PostLogin'
'/host/var/lib/extensions/gdm/etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default' -> '/host/etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default'
'/host/var/lib/extensions/gdm/etc/gdm/PostSession' -> '/host/etc/gdm/PostSession'
'/host/var/lib/extensions/gdm/etc/gdm/PostSession/Default' -> '/host/etc/gdm/PostSession/Default'
'/host/var/lib/extensions/gdm/etc/gdm/PreSession' -> '/host/etc/gdm/PreSession'
'/host/var/lib/extensions/gdm/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default' -> '/host/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default'
'/host/var/lib/extensions/gdm/etc/gdm/Xsession' -> '/host/etc/gdm/Xsession'
'/host/var/lib/extensions/gdm/etc/gdm/custom.conf' -> '/host/etc/gdm/custom.conf'
'/host/var/lib/extensions/gdm/etc/sysconfig/displaymanager' -> '/host/etc/sysconfig/displaymanager'
Failed to reload-or-try-restart nscd.service: Unit nscd.service not found.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/sysinit.target.wants/systemd-sysext.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-sysext.service.
gdm system extension installed, to start gdm, run the following command on host:
systemctl start display-manager

But then, systemctl start display-manager doesn't seem to do anything. This is the start of the journal; I've omitted what follows since it is just gdm-x-session starting as a fallback and also failing.

localhost:~/gdm-container # journalctl -xeu display-manager
Apr 04 23:40:58 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Starting X Display Manager...
░░ Subject: A start job for unit display-manager.service has begun execution
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░ 
░░ A start job for unit display-manager.service has begun execution.
░░ 
░░ The job identifier is 1802.
Apr 04 23:40:58 localhost.localdomain display-manager[14497]: /etc/vconsole.conf available
Apr 04 23:40:58 localhost.localdomain display-manager[14497]: KEYMAP: us
Apr 04 23:40:58 localhost.localdomain display-manager[14497]: Command: localectl set-keymap us
Apr 04 23:40:58 localhost.localdomain display-manager[14497]: I: Using systemd /usr/share/systemd/kbd-model-map mapping
Apr 04 23:40:59 localhost.localdomain gdm-launch-environment][14517]: pam_systemd(gdm-launch-environment:session): Failed to create session: No such process
Apr 04 23:40:59 localhost.localdomain gdm-launch-environment][14517]: pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session opened for user gdm(uid=497) by (uid=0)
Apr 04 23:40:59 localhost.localdomain /usr/libexec/gdm/gdm-wayland-session[14529]: dbus[14529]: Could not get password database information for UID of current process: User "???" unknown o>
Apr 04 23:40:59 localhost.localdomain /usr/libexec/gdm/gdm-wayland-session[14529]: dbus[14529]: Failed to start message bus: Memory allocation failure in message bus
Apr 04 23:40:59 localhost.localdomain gdm-launch-environment][14517]: pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session closed for user gdm
Apr 04 23:40:59 localhost.localdomain gdm-launch-environment][14517]: GLib-GObject: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Apr 04 23:40:59 localhost.localdomain gdm[14511]: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never registered, failing
Apr 04 23:40:59 localhost.localdomain gdm[14511]: Gdm: Child process -14526 was already dead.
Apr 04 23:40:59 localhost.localdomain gdm[14511]: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never registered, failing
Apr 04 23:40:59 localhost.localdomain gdm[14511]: Gdm: Child process -14526 was already dead.
Apr 04 23:40:59 localhost.localdomain gdm-launch-environment][14531]: pam_systemd(gdm-launch-environment:session): Failed to create session: No such process
Apr 04 23:40:59 localhost.localdomain gdm-launch-environment][14531]: pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session opened for user gdm(uid=497) by (uid=0)

What do the PAM errors from gdm-launch-environment mean? And the one from gdm-wayland-session about user "???" - how can I test if userdb is working?

Actually... what sets up /usr/lib/userdb/gdm.{group,user}? The import-from-oci.sh script has a comment about "kill userdb from container", but I don't know where those files actually come from.

[federicomenaquintero]

The portable extension fails in the same way when starting up.

[fcrozat]

The system extension is deprecated (it can't work reliably, as I discovered and can break host OS due to remount of /usr).

I fixed issues in the portable just after your last comments. Try to pull the latest version from registry.opensuse.org, it works reliably for me.