[Bug 1326199] Re: initramfs-tools ROOTDELAY too low, box drops into shell during boot

[Stéphane Graber]

Hello Anton, or anyone else affected,

Accepted initramfs-tools into trusty-proposed. The package will build
now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-
tools/0.103ubuntu4.2 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed
repository.

Please help us by testing this new package.  See
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to
enable and use -proposed.  Your feedback will aid us getting this update
out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug,
mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag
from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the
bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to
verification-failed.  In either case, details of your testing will help
us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification .  Thank you in
advance!

** Changed in: initramfs-tools (Ubuntu Trusty)
       Status: In Progress => Fix Committed

** Tags added: verification-needed

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1326199

Title:
  initramfs-tools ROOTDELAY too low, box drops into shell during boot

Status in “initramfs-tools” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in “initramfs-tools” source package in Trusty:
  Fix Committed

Bug description:
  [Impact]
  See original description.

  [Test Case]
  Install updated packages on an affected ppc machine, update-initramfs -u, reboot without any special rootdelay set on the cmdline, watch it not fail to boot.

  [Regression Potential]
  This is already tested locally by Anton, so barring me having made a typo in the uploaded version, the potential for new bugs is pretty much nil.  Bumping the rootdelay to 180 (from 30) could be seen as a regression in itself, as people who are legitimately failing to find a root device will have to wait that much longer to get dropped to a shell to investigate, which is why I limited the fix to PPC only for now.

  [Other Info]
  A better long-term fix would be to make scripts/local (or wait-for-root) a bit smarter and learn about specific driver quirks and multipath devices, etc, as IPR controllers can't be the only place we see this bug, and it would be nice to have backoff in cases where we expect delays, but quicker failure modes in cases when we don't.

  [Original Description]
  After installing Trusty on a ppc64el box, each boot drops into a shell because we aren't waiting long enough for the root device:

  Gave up waiting for root device. Common problems:
   - Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
     - Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
     - Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
   - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
  ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/d55ef64e-2d0c-4a51-9c6f-20999ee0276e does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

  The dmesg shows the device appeared at 49 seconds:

  [ 49.367749] sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3

  I could fix this by overriding ROOTDELAY on the command line:

  rootdelay=180

  Could we get ROOTDELAY in initramfs-tools bumped for ppc64el?

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