pam_systemd fails on first use
Author: iandallCreated Aug 28, 2026Updated Sep 17, 2026
Labelsbug 🐛login
systemd version the issue has been seen with
261^1506_gb8bcae4-1.fc44.x86_64
Used distribution
No response
Linux kernel version used
No response
CPU architectures issue was seen on
x86_64
Component
pam_systemd
Expected behaviour you didn't see
On first login after a reboot, the user session does not have a running systemd, which causes all kinds of things to fail. This system uses sddm and journalctl -t sddm-helper "shows pam_systemd(sddm:session): Failed to get user record: No such process".
See sddm-helper.log
Unexpected behaviour you saw
No response
Steps to reproduce the problem
This system is configured with sddm-0.21.0-13.fc44.x86_6 lxqt-session-2.4.0-2.fc44.x86_64 sssd-2.13.1-2.fc44.x86_64
The user records in question are obtained by ldap.
- reboot
- login
ps -fu <user> | grep systemd
sddm-helper.log systemd-userdbd.log sssd_nss.log
Additional program output to the terminal or log subsystem illustrating the issue
Source: systemd/systemd