[Bug 956848] Re: pam_mkhomedir.so fails to create homedir in precise

[Steve Langasek]

In recent versions there's an /sbin/mkhomedir_helper that's supposed to
do the directory creation work; but the manpage indicates that it exists
in support of selinux rather than for this issue.  You *may* be able to
work around the problem locally  by running 'sudo chmod u+s
/sbin/mkhomedir_helper', but I can't guarantee that this is secure.
We'll have to look into whether it's safe to make this helper suid-root
in the package.

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Title:
  pam_mkhomedir.so fails to create homedir in precise

Status in “pam” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  
  I am testing Ubuntu Precise and I think I found a bug related to creation of home directories with pam_mkhomedir.so. I found it initially in an LDAP-based setup, but to nail down the problem I did a fresh re-install, added:
  session     optional          pam_mkhomedir.so umask=0077 skel=/etc/skel
  to /etc/pam.d/common-session and I removed the home directory of the user used during installation, so the bug has nothing to do with network auth.

  Anyway - when I login to lightdm I am successfully authenticated and
  the logon screen disappears, but I am presented with a black screen
  and nothing happens. I can login from text mode, the homedir is
  created and afterwards I can login, even using the graphical
  interface.

  I tried to see if this is related to lightdm or unity, but if I select
  Gnome classic, I get the same problem, if I switch to GDM, the problem
  remains.

  I am attaching the logs from lightdm. The syslog says:
  Mar 16 10:31:45 tubuntu kernel: [99829.342230] accounts-daemon[2152]: segfault at 10 ip b76c86c3 sp bfab7640 error 4 in libdbus-1.so.3.5.8[b76a3000+47000]
  Mar 16 10:31:45 tubuntu kernel: [99829.342545] gdm-session-wor[29440]: segfault at 6e756279 ip b743cd4c sp bf84b250 error 4 in libc-2.15.so[b73ca000+19e000]
  but I cannot say if this caused the issue or was caused by the issue.

  I hope somebody can have a look at this. I can help to do some
  investigating, unfortunately I don't know where to look.

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