Hi, main problem was the disk indeed! Apparently there was a typo in fstab, probably leading to a parse error (which isn't shown unfortunately) then the value "0" in the "pass" row for fsck apparently is ignored and "1" is assumed instead, BUT systemd does not call fsck! fsck parsed the line as intended (pass=0 -> no check), so is all fine. I tested with pass=1, then fsck has correct error behavior and logs a clear error message. But systemd tries to do things itself and then the chain of bugs and odds start. Maybe systemd should be dropped until properly implemented (or superseeded).
I think actually this is the main bug: systemd uses /etc/fstab like fsck and friends do, but wrongly (differently). This even seems to be a known issue (google found quite a lot of related rants). Does it make sense to submit a bug report at least for the most important bugs? Probably not, because the issues seem to be known already? Steffen On Sun, Jan 8, 2017 at 2:56 PM, Steffen Dettmer <steffen.dett...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > I think I found some more information. > > In short: > "Failed at step exec spawning /bin/plymouth: no such file or directory" > but I have no clue why it is suddenly missing or suddenly required. > I found postings in the internet that simply installing plymouth seems > not to solve this issue. > > What can I do about this? > Any hints appreciated. > > In detail: > Google suggested "systemctl status". This shows "State: maintenance", > "Jobs: 0 queued", "Failed: 0 units" and some output looking like > pstree which tells me nothing. > Why "maintenance" when there are no fails? > Is it true that logging, debugging and troubleshooting still is not > implemented correctly in systemd? > > "systemctl --failed" shows "0 loaded units listed". According to man > page the command is supposed to list failed units, not loaded units, > so I'm not sure what is true. 0 fails would be good, 0 loaded probably > be bad. It could explain why I don't get syslog messages. > > I also found the command "journalctl -p 3 -xb". man page tells > something about a so-called "system journal". Man page references some > desktop stuff (freedesktop.org) and seems to be related to systemd as > well (seems all my recent issues are systemd issues - hope it dies as > fast as upstart). Man page of systemd-journald.service suggests > systemd invented an own wheel called syslog which does not write to > /var/log? Man page mentions /var/log/journal/ files, but no such > directory exists. > > "journalctl -p 3 -xb" shows some information in red color, in reverse > order assuming the later the more important: > 1) "r8169 firmware: failed to load rtl_nic/rtl8168g-2.fw" > but eth0 is state UP, so should be fine. At least I should get a > normal local login prompt. > > 2) "Failed at step exec spawning /bin/plymouth: no such file or directory" > Google suggest this is some graphical whatever, so I think it would be > a bug if found on a server > > 3) "Dependency failed for local file systems" > sounds bad, but all file systems are there? > > 4) "Depencency failed for /mnt/grace" > /mnt/grace was used to mount a USB disk and of course the system must > not depend on it > > 5) "TImed out waiting to device dev-disk-by-\x2dlabel-Grace.device > I guess "\x2d" is just a funny systemd way to write "-". > This probably is the cause for 4) and 5). > I have no idea why systemd waits for this disk at all. As it noticed > it is not even connected. I assume this is systemds replacement of USB > automouter and that it is safe to ignore it. > > So only problem I can see is missing /bin/plymouth. Could it got lost > during apt-get ugrade? Shall I install it? I hope I don't need > graphical whatever, can it be disabled? > > Steffen
