systemd failed to create user.slice

[Jochen Spieker]

Hi,

the short version of my problem is this, happening on a fairly fresh
stable system:

# systemctl start us...@1000.service
Job for us...@1000.service failed because the service did not take the steps required by its unit configuration.
See "systemctl status us...@1000.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
# systemctl status us...@1000.service
● us...@1000.service - User Manager for UID 1000
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/user@.service; static; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: failed (Result: protocol) since Fri 2021-04-23 00:38:59 CEST; 9s ago
Docs: man:user@.service(5)
Process: 20895 ExecStart=/lib/systemd/systemd --user (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 20895 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Apr 23 00:38:59 example.com systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 1000...
Apr 23 00:38:59 example.com systemd[20895]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session opened for user jrspieker by (uid=0)
Apr 23 00:38:59 example.com systemd[20895]: Failed to create /user.slice/user-1000.slice/us...@1000.service/init.scope control group: Permission denied
Apr 23 00:38:59 example.com systemd[20895]: Failed to allocate manager object: Permission denied
Apr 23 00:38:59 example.com systemd[1]: us...@1000.service: Failed with result 'protocol'.
Apr 23 00:38:59 example.com systemd[1]: Failed to start User Manager for UID 1000.


This happens during login via SSH for UID 1000 as well as other user
IDs. I do not see any bad effect except the log spam. I straced this and
think here is the root of the problem:

16971 stat("/sys/fs/cgroup/systemd/user.slice/user-112.slice/us...@112.service", 0x7ffd5f215640) = -1 EACCES (Permission denied)

This is due to:

# ls -ld /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd/
drwx------ 5 root root 0 Mar 21 23:58 /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd/


I have a different buster system where this directory is mode 555 (yes,
not writable by anybody) and that systemd does bot exhibit the behavior
above.

It appears to be working if I just chmod the directory. What/who is
responsible for the proper permissions of that sysfs directory?

J.
--
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