2024-01-04

glibc 2.38 Update Issues and Solutions

With the update to glibc 2.38, libcrypt.so.1 is no longer provided by glibc. Libcrypt is an important library for several core system packages that use cryptographic functions, including pam. The library has changed versions, and the legacy version is still available for precompiled or proprietary applications. The new version is available on Void as libxcrypt and the legacy version is libxcrypt-compat.

With this change, some kinds of partial upgrades can leave PAM unable to function. This breaks tools like sudo, doas, and su, as well as breaking authentication to your system. Symptoms include messages like “PAM authentication error: Module is unknown”. If this has happened to you, you can either:

• add init=/bin/sh to your kernel command-line in the bootloader and downgrade glibc,
• or mount the system’s root partition in a live environment, chroot into it, and install libxcrypt-compat

Either of these steps should allow you to access your system as normal and run a full update.

To ensure the disastrous partial upgrade (described above) cannot happen, glibc-2.38_3 now depends on libxcrypt-compat. With this change, it is safe to perform partial upgrades that include glibc 2.38.