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Jessie refractasnapshot systemd iso no boot correctly

Thu Jan 08, 2015 1:41 am

I should really make my own topic for this. So here it is.

I have a jessie system that i switched over to systemd successfully. Making iso's with the snapshot tool is also working fantasticly. However, i am unable to get a proper boot with the iso's. I tested on two computers with usb drive that i normally use the dd command for which works fine.

Two things fail at boot when testing the snapshot i made of the jessie installation. Live-config, and console system startup logging. Because of that last one is my reasoning behind why everything in /var/lib/live/config is blank. This unfortunately leaves me unable to provide a startup log to view.

After those two failures, it will continue loading, taking me to a frozen tty (as noted by the non-blinking typing indicator in the top left of the screen). Other standard boot options result in the same thing aside from text-mode where I can coax it to stay at cli login (more on that next sentence). I can get to a tty if i do boot with text mode, where it dumps me to cli login (if i happen to hit some keys on the keyboard to stay at cli login when it first appears right before trying to load slim), then i can login and startx.

I consider this to be one hell of a failure with things as they are now.

Re: Jessie refractasnapshot systemd iso no boot correctly

Thu Jan 08, 2015 1:51 pm

I've made bootable isos from sid and jessie with systemd that booted ok. The jessie install has no display manager, and the sid has lightdm. In both of those, I don't get autologin to the console, but when I do log in, the desktop comes up. That's the result of the live-config scripts for xinit and lightdm, respectively.

A snapshot made from jessie with sysvinit and no display manager gives me autologin on console and desktop. The console autologin comes from the live-config script for sysvinit - it edits inittab for this. I don't think there is equivalent code for systemd in the live-config scripts. I just tried grepping for 'systemd' and for 'target.getty.wants' in /lib/live/config/* and came up with nothing.

Maybe try it with a different desktop manager or no dm at all.
Maybe try it after configuring auto-login on tty1. (I don't think this is the problem - you should be able to boot to a console login prompt without autologin set up.)

Another thing I haven't tried with any snapshots recently is whether the isohybrid works on a usb. I normally use refracta2usb to make a live-usb, and those are all booting fine as long as the files in the syslinux folder are from the same version of syslinux that installed itself into the mbr.

What boot commands are you using? (Either the boot menu entry or the output of 'cat /proc/cmdline' after you get to a commmand prompt in the running snapshot.)

Are you using a stock debian kernel or something else? Anything weird or different you did in the installation? (yeah, I know that last one is vague.)

Edit: Here's a post that describes how to set up console autologin with systemd:
systemd-and-autologin-t394.html?hilit=target.getty.wants&sid=683fd344399fd3282f1b08b1b22f2b83#p3957

Re: Jessie refractasnapshot systemd iso no boot correctly

Fri Jan 09, 2015 12:47 am

Sorry, been off the case of this stuff for a few weeks.. too much else going on.

Note the empty files in /var/lib/live/config are just state files, to show which live-config scripts have executed (although not necessarily done anything).

To get full (set -x) logging of the live stuff (in /var/log/live/) you need "debug=1" on cmdline.)

Take a look if xinit has been run, that one caused problems here many times. You can exclude it with "noconfig=xinit". I don't use slim nor systemd here so can't help with either of those specifically.

Re: Jessie refractasnapshot systemd iso no boot correctly

Fri Jan 09, 2015 12:56 am

Arf. I don't know how to tackle this. I have been largely trying to get some record of the boot logs. I am unable to do so. As those are blank, and this other file, well, doesn't have the pertinent information.

Live-config, and console system startup logging fails.

I am not using autologin, and this is just stock debian jessie, about the only special things i pulled were installing yad, refracta installer and snapshot tool, and also changing sources.conf over to testing (i am to stick at permanently staying in testing; for now that is jessie). I do not consider switching jessie over to systemd as something special since systemd is going to be the default system daemon. I have always used the dd command for making a live-usb, this i do not think is the problem since i have never had a problem with dd before. I don't know what's going on, in fact i find it quite unexplainable. Why won't it at least load the login screen?

For the hell of it, i'll try burning to a dvd to see what happens.

EDIT: I got a little more in depth with the var/log/live directory.
Code:
live-config: debconf sudo locales tzdata
Current default time zone: 'Etc/UTC'
Local time is now:      Fri Jan  9 01:01:59 UTC 2015.
Universal Time is now:  Fri Jan  9 01:01:59 UTC 2015.

slim keyboard-configuration policykit ssl-cert anacron util-linux login xserver-xorg xfce4-panelsudo: unknown defaults entry `passwd_time'
sudo: unknown user: user
sudo: unable to initialize policy plugin
:ERROR

username=guest should work :D
EDIT: yes that worked, that is extremely awkward though. On sysvinit, it would dump you to the login screen. This is completely strange how things are now (wtf?).

I did find another failure, but don't really see how it pertains to anything other than sudoers which i did configure specially for "passwd_time=0". whatever.
Code:
live-config: debconf hostname user-setup sudosudo: unknown defaults entry `passwd_time'
sudo: unknown defaults entry `passwd_time'
sudo: unknown defaults entry `passwd_time'
sudo: unknown defaults entry `passwd_time'
locales tzdata
Current default time zone: 'Etc/UTC'
Local time is now:      Fri Jan  9 01:32:37 UTC 2015.
Universal Time is now:  Fri Jan  9 01:32:37 UTC 2015.

slim keyboard-configuration policykit ssl-cert anacron util-linux login xserver-xorg xfce4-panelsudo: unknown defaults entry `passwd_time'
sudo: unknown defaults entry `passwd_time'
xscreensaver.

This is benign. thx guys :D
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