Failed to create virtual server : Lock filename contains invalid characters

I have spent 3 days wrestling with this and getting no where.

Whatever I do in virtualmin, webmin or usermin I get a lock filename error.

Failed to create virtual server : Lock filename contains invalid characters

Failed to delete user : Lock filename contains invalid characters

I also get the same error when I run the post-install config. When it gets to setting the primary nameserver it returns:

Lock filename contains invalid characters

I have tried deleting/renaming lock files - no joy.

I have been through the logs and can’t find any indication of which lock file is causing the issue. There are no other webmin instances running and no other users logged in. I am using the latest version of webmin/virtualmin.

Any ideas?

If you’re seeing these files

/etc/group.lock
/etc/gshadow.lock
/etc/passwd.lock
/etc/shadow.lock

there will be PID numbers in them. If the processes associated with the PIDs are still running they could be preventing new user and group creation. Try ending them with the command kill -9 [pid#] before deleting the .lock files.

Had a look today and none of those files exist.

I tried setting up a domain I had previously deleted and virtualmin said the user already exists, but Linux says it doesn’t.

Could this be an issue with virtualmin files/db rather than system files?

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