While it may not be fixable I think would be helpful if an attempt to change a users password by root were to produce a warning message. This warning message is more discoverable than a question or bug report in Launchpad. Some irc discussion from #ubuntu-devel regarding this:
16:14 < bdmurray> kirkland: could passwd somehow warn about bug 579876? 16:14 < ubottu> Launchpad bug 579876 in ecryptfs-utils (Ubuntu) "encrypted home directory isn't mounted if password changed by another user" [High,Won't fix] https://launchpad.net/bugs/579876 16:15 < kirkland> bdmurray: would take some pam hackery, should probably talk to slangasek 16:15 < kirkland> bdmurray: i could probably make pam_ecryptfs say something 16:15 < bdmurray> that seems nicer than hoping people find an answer in Launchpad 16:15 < slangasek> does pam_ecryptfs stack before or after pam_{unix,krb5,fwibble} for password changes? 16:16 * kirkland checks 16:16 < kirkland> slangasek: that's common-password? 16:16 -!- jbicha [~jeremy@unaffiliated/jbicha] has quit [Quit: leaving] 16:16 < slangasek> yes 16:16 < kirkland> slangasek: ecryptfs is last 16:17 -!- jbicha [~jeremy@unaffiliated/jbicha] has joined #ubuntu-devel 16:17 < slangasek> hmm, ok 16:17 < kirkland> slangasek: if old password is empty, i was thinking i could throw a warning message 16:17 < slangasek> and how's it marked? optional, requisite, etc? 16:17 < kirkland> password optional pam_ecryptfs.so 16:17 < slangasek> yeah, I'm thinking you could downright abort the stack instead, if you wanted :) 16:18 < kirkland> slangasek: i deliberately did not, in the beginning 16:18 < kirkland> slangasek: more and more people are complaining about this 16:19 -!- raphink [~raphink@ubuntu/member/raphink] has quit [Ping timeout: 246 seconds] 16:21 < slangasek> well, I guess giving no option for root to change the password would get a different set of people complaining 16:22 -!- mterry [~m...@pool-108-20-74-149.bstnma.fios.verizon.net] has quit [Ping timeout: 246 seconds] 16:22 < slangasek> a prompt that has to be explicitly acked might be the best 16:22 < slangasek> so pam_ecryptfs will never prompt for a password of its own in the event that the login credentials don't match the ecryptfs creds? 16:26 -!- jbicha [~jeremy@unaffiliated/jbicha] has quit [Read error: Connection reset by peer] 16:27 -!- jbicha [~jeremy@unaffiliated/jbicha] has joined #ubuntu-devel 16:28 < kirkland> slangasek: correct 16:28 < slangasek> should it? -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/579876 Title: encrypted home directory isn't mounted if password changed by another user -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
