The root of all evil

12 réponses [Dernière contribution]
lanun
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 04/01/2021

I got caught in a root loop when trying to start Trisquel on a shared laptop (shared between three systems). Tried to update-grub, but the problem seems to appear much further than GRUB.

"You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemclt default" or "exit" to boot into default mode". After which comes a superuser password prompt. Anything else than "journalctl -xb" restarts the loop.

journalctl show someone has been trying to warn me about this kind of stuff:

systemd[1]: Timed out waiting for device dev-disk-by\x2d*\*\*\*d46.device: Job [etc] failed with result "dependency". <- in red, as if particularly evil.
systemd[1]: Dependency failed for /home.
systemd[1]: Dependency failed for Local File System.
systemd[1]: local-fs.target: Job local-fs.target/start failed with result "dependency".
systemd[1]: home.mount: Job home.mount.start failed with result "dependency".

None of the similar cases I have found so far searching for the above mentions seem to apply. I am posting here because I am not sure whether it is specifically related to Trisquel, nor whether it is some more Cthulhu antics. In fact, all journalctl entries about systemd[1] say: "Support : http://ubuntu.com/support".

andyprough
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 02/12/2015

Did you read this:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Fstab#Automount_with_systemd

I think that is your problem. Automounting might help you out.

Apparently the problem is caused by crappy and unecessary default fsck behavior by systemd applied to a large partition with lots of data. The way I understand it, systemd tries to start various services which want to interact with that partition, but the partition isn't available yet because moronic systemd is requiring an unecessary fsck. adding 'x-systed.automount' in fstab to your /home partition should hopefully help you out.

If you try this, be sure and back up your data first.

I could be wrong, I'm not the brightest one about this stuff, and I rarely interact with systemd at all.

lanun
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 04/01/2021

Thanks for your encouragements.

After doing something completely different in a parallel universe, I came back and tried to boot again, without success, and kept getting the same warnings.

Since this is the famous secret test machine, there is no worry about losing content, so I might flatten that Trisquel 9 system with Trisquel 10 and be happy forever after.

Still, I always like to know what exactly happened in these cases, so I started playing with the UUIDs and seemingly managed to create a different, but no less complete mess. I noticed that fstab was referring to a mysterious xfs partition, which is not listed in blkid (nor lsblk), which could nicely explain why it cannot be mounted. I say "was", because I have now all but destroyed the original fstab. I am now getting to the graphical login screen, but still stuck in a similar loop where trying to login gets me back to the login screen. Only, not as root.

EDIT: Oh my, it appears to be highly likely that I might have already flattened the /home partition for Trisquel 9 when I installed Devuan. Beowulf ate cousin.

lanun
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 04/01/2021

The bright side of things is that I now have upgraded to Chimaera - hoping the name not to be as ominous as it sounds. I am still getting that nice figure of about 450MB of RAM used at startup, Devuan really helps keeping things reasonably low in resources.

Next step will be to find Trisquel a new /home and to upgrade to Trisquel 10.

EDIT: Trisquel 10 is asking for EFI partition. Given that there are already two systems standing on various ext4 partitions, I am not sure how to handle that. I have already tried two of the existing partitions to use as EFI, but both attempts failed. I have a feeling that maintaining multiple boot is going to getting tricky with that EFI stuff.

lanun
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 04/01/2021

I chose the "erase all and install Trisquel" option, thinking it would be straightforward, but the installer is still complaining about a missing /efi partition.

Meanwhile, tons of /dev/mapper/vgtrisquel-* partitions have popped up like mushrooms after a rainy day.

I did not expect full disk encryption to become the default option. I also thought that a handy installer would not become a nightmarish quagmire. What is supposed to happen when people will want to upgrade from T9 to T10? I will try that next, and see what happens.

EDIT: I knew something evil was at play. /efi partition needs to be fat. I was three letters away from success, now I am stuck with a complete mess of empty partitions. I don't understand why the installer knows how to make an xfs partition out of an ext4 one, but does not know how to create an efi partition.

andyprough
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 02/12/2015

That's not the Trisquel installer on your computer - that's the Cthulhu installer.

Abort!! Abort!!

lanun
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 04/01/2021

I was begnning to think so, until something even more unexpected happened: installation succeeded without warning.

No weird efi request, no fancy partitioning, just a working Trisquel 10 system, nicely running on anywhere between 650MB and 700MB of RAM.

The file system on /sda1 says it is "grub2 core.img" and is flagged 'bios_grub', not unlike the previous partition was (before Cthulhu wreaked havoc there and tried to hijack the whole machine). Seems that this installer has a built-in Cthulhu damage control tool.

Note that the succesful install was started directly from the live media menu, not from a running live system. Maybe that helped.

andyprough
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 02/12/2015

>"not from a running live system"

That makes sense. Since the Cthulhu GNU/Lindeath system is an undead OS, you'll never be able to successfully install it from a running live system. If you could get a running dead system, that would have probably worked.

You know what this means - now you and I can play Xonotic first-person shooter game against each other online from our Trisquel 10 beta laptops.

lanun
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 04/01/2021

One thing is for sure: Orca is insisting on being activated at startup, so Cthulhu is now talking to me straight from inside the system.

I can feel his voice slowly permeating my mind. It is already too late. Chimaera cannot help me any more. In fact, I suspect Chimaera to be the prime suspect of it all.

No, wait, maybe Chimaera vs Cthulhu is the fight we need. The Kraken was only yet another avatar of the tentacular monster, the fight was fake.

andyprough
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 02/12/2015

If you lived in America, you would know that the Kraken has been a bit busy recently.

He was brought into some election lawsuits by the lawyers for a certain recent US president, he-who-must-not-be-named-or-this-thread-will-turn-into-a-giant-fireball-of-useless-political-opinions.

I think we should put in a call to Mothra to save us with her silky wings and eyeball laser beams.

mothra.jpg
lanun
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 04/01/2021

> a certain recent US president

James Monroe?

"The collapse of the Federalists left Monroe with no organized opposition at the end of his first term, and he ran for reelection unopposed." Good old times.

The_Monroe_Doctrine_must_be_respected_(F._Victor_Gillam,_1896)_restored.png
andyprough
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 02/12/2015

Al Gore (who many claim won the presidency over George W. Bush) Invests in Octopus Energy
https://24htech.link/al-gore-founded-vehicle-buys-stake-in-octopus-energy.html

"Octopus and its software platform Kraken are at the forefront of innovation and helping to create the dynamic and flexible renewable energy system needed."

lanun
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 04/01/2021

...

shocked.gif