"change password failed: user 'johnsmith' does not exist (500)"

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dpearceFL

Active Member
Jun 1, 2020
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Proxmox 8.1.4 - So I created a new user successfully. I select the user and press "Password" and type in a new password. I get an error that says:
Code: 
change password failed: user 'xxxxxxxxx' does not exist (500)

The user is there so what is the real problem? I am using the "root" account.
 
Where and how did you add the user? Is it a PVE user or PAM/Linux user?
If its a PAM/Linux user - why do you think it exists? Did you actually create this user in Linux or just a mapping in PVE?

Code: 
As Linux PAM corresponds to host system users, a system user must exist on each node which
the user is allowed to log in on. The user authenticates with their usual system password.
This realm is added by default and can’t be removed. In terms of configurability, an
administrator can choose to require two-factor authentication with logins from the realm
and to set the realm as the default authentication realm.


Code: 
Linux PAM Standard Authentication
Linux PAM is a framework for system-wide user authentication. These users are created on
the host system with commands such as adduser. If PAM users exist on the Proxmox VE host
system, corresponding entries can be added to Proxmox VE, to allow these users to log in
via their system username and password.

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
 
Last edited:
In the GUI, I select Datacenter, then permissions and users. Then "add". I type in the user name and select PAN as the realm. In group I select "admins" then hit "Add". I select the user I just created and press "Password". I type in the password (twice) then hit "OK". The I get the "user 'XXXX' does not exist (500)" message.

So are you saying a Linux user by the same name must also exist on all nodes? Creating the user in Proxmox is not enough?

SOLVED: I just added the user in Linux and it worked. I understand it now but it seems like the error message could be a little clearer. "Does not exist" but where? It exists in Proxmox. It should say "does not exist in Linux" or something like that.
 
Last edited:
dpearceFL said:
SOLVED: I just added the user in Linux and it worked. I understand it now but it seems like the error message could be a little clearer. "Does not exist" but where? It exists in Proxmox. It should say "does not exist in Linux" or something like that.
Click to expand...
I agree, the message should be clearer, ie "Corresponding Linux user not found, please create manually".
Feel free to file an enhancement here: https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
 
bbgeek17 said:
This error comes directly from Linux "passwd" , so there is really no pre-check that user exists:
Code: 
passwd test33333
passwd: user 'test33333' does not exist

Perhaps extra wording can be added, but this seems like a low priority, IMHO

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
Click to expand...
I've just spent 15 minutes going around in a circle as I also wrongly assumed that creating the user via the GUI would create a fully working user. Google brought me to this page - Anything that makes the job of using Proxmox without having to resort to a search engine must be a good thing. As a new person to Proxmox I have a big old learning curve ahead - Especially once you want to get past the "install and create VMs'" and leave alone to just work (which proxmox does fantastically) . A little help in the UI would be appreciated :)
 
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I can confirm the issue still exists
Change password failed: user 'xxxx' does not exist (500) - while user exists

Word around - on the node - shell​

useradd xxxx
passwd xxxx
 
Last edited:
hanoon said:
useradd xxxx
Click to expand...
Hi @hanoon ,
If you have to do useradd to "solve" the issue, it means that the user did not exist at the time of the error.
If you think otherwise, please reproduce the scenario, post it here with accompanying details and command line outputs.

Cheers

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
 
bbgeek17 said:
Hi @hanoon ,
If you have to do useradd to "solve" the issue, it means that the user did not exist at the time of the error.
If you think otherwise, please reproduce the scenario, post it here with accompanying details and command line outputs.

Cheers

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
Click to expand...

I can also confirm that this is an issue, as I just found this thread with the same problem. I added a user in Datacenter > Permissions > Users. I was not promted to add a password so I tried changing it, which led to the same error. I solved it by doing useradd + passwd <user> in the shell. I'm using the community edition/free version of Proxmox.
 
PapaPeskwo said:
I can also confirm that this is an issue, as I just found this thread with the same problem. I added a user in Datacenter > Permissions > Users. I was not promted to add a password so I tried changing it, which led to the same error. I solved it by doing useradd + passwd <user> in the shell. I'm using the community edition/free version of Proxmox.
Click to expand...

This isn't really an issue with ProxMox but with user's not knowing the difference between Linux PAM and PVE Auth. Proxmox - User Management explains it pretty clearly.

If you select PAM you aren't creating a user on ProxMox, you are just telling ProxMox that this user already exists on the host and is allowed to login. These users have access to ProxMox GUI and to the host shell/SSH, such as "root" user.

If you select PVE Auth you are actually creating users in ProxMox database. These users only have access to the ProxMox UI, they can't login to the host shell/SSH.
 
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For those finding this thread in 2025, and finding both this and the docs wildly unhelpful, I did too. Thought I think I've figured it out.

# In the Proxmox GUI:
1. I made a linux user within the proxmox gui shell on a node I picked at random:
hanoon said:
useradd xxxx
passwd xxxx
Click to expand...
2. Datacenter>Permissions>Users>Add using the same username from step 1.
3. Datacenter>Permissions>Users>(click the user you just created in the gui)>Password using the same password from step 1.

At this point I tried mounting the cephfs per this documentation...failed, but I found out it was looking for a file at /etc/pve/priv/ceph.client.xxxx.keyring that didn't exist even though I could see
Code: 
ceph auth get client.xxxx
showed a key and capabilities.

Puzzled, I googled again and found this documentation that was very helpful.

4. Back in the gui shell for a host node (or you can ssh into one of your host nodes):
Code: 
ceph fs authorize <cephfs> client.xxxx / rw
5. On your client machine that you're trying to access the cephfs from, back to this documentation to help us mount the share:
Code: 
sudo mount -t ceph xxxx@.<cephfs>=/ <local-path-for-mount>

Boom. It worked as expected. Gets picked up by my file explorer automatically. Done. Permissions seem to work as expected, too.
 
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