[Bug 1615021] Re: Unable to network boot Ubuntu 16.04 installer normally on Briggs

[Steve Langasek]

Examining the initrd shows that readlink is provided as
/usr/bin/readlink -> /bin/busybox, not as /bin/readlink where systemd
expects it (and where it's shipped on an installed system).  This is a
bug in debian-installer's construction of that image - though gee it
would be nice if systemd didn't require hard-coded paths to everything.

There's no guarantee that fixing the bug that's causing this error
message will fix the underlying problem preventing your boot, but it
will at least fix the message spam.

** Package changed: systemd (Ubuntu) => debian-installer (Ubuntu)

** Also affects: busybox (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1615021

Title:
  Unable to network boot Ubuntu 16.04 installer normally on Briggs

Status in busybox package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in debian-installer package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  == Comment: #7 - Guilherme Guaglianoni Piccoli <gpiccoli at br.ibm.com> - 2016-08-19 10:08:07 ==
  The normal procedure to perform a Netboot installation of Ubuntu 16.04 is to download the latest vmlinux and initrd.gz files available, and kexec them with no parameters (at least in ppc64el).

  We're experiencing a strange issue in which the installer freezes
  before menus are showed. The system hangs in the point specified
  below, right after the i40e driver initialization:

  [   11.052832] i40e 0002:01:00.0 enP2p1s0f0: renamed from eth0
  [   11.073976] i40e 0002:01:00.1 enP2p1s0f1: renamed from eth1
  [   11.117799] i40e 0002:01:00.2 enP2p1s0f2: renamed from eth2
  [   11.225745] i40e 0002:01:00.3 enP2p1s0f3: renamed from eth3
  ***HANG***

  The most difficult part in this issue is that it seems to be a timing
  issue/race condition, and many debug trials end up by avoiding the
  issue reproduction (heisenbug).

  We were successful though in getting logs by booting the kernel with
  the command-line "BOOT_DEBUG=2" and by changing the initrd in order to
  enable systemd debug; only the files "init" and "start-udev" were
  changed in initrd, both attached here.

  We've attached here a saved screen session that shows the entire boot
  process until it gets flooded with lots of messages like:

  
  "starting '/bin/readlink /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules'
  '/bin/readlink /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules'(err) 'failed to execute '/bin/readlink' '/bin/readlink /etc/
  udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules': No such file or directory'

  seq 3244 queued, 'add' 'pci_bus'
  starting '/bin/readlink /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules'
  passed 408 byte device to netlink monitor 0x1003cfe8020seq 3236 running'/bin/readlink /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-l
  ink.rules'(err) 'failed to execute '/bin/readlink' '/bin/readlink /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules': No such
  file or directory'
  '/bin/readlink /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules'(err) 'failed to execute '/bin/readlink' '/bin/readlink /etc/
  udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules': No such file or directory'
  Process '/bin/readlink /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules' failed with exit code 2.
  PROGRAM '/bin/readlink /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules' /lib/udev/rules.d/73-usb-net-by-mac.rules:6
  passed device to netlink monitor 0x1003d01f730
  "

  
  Then it keeps hanged in this stage. We re-tested it by changing the file 73-usb-net-by-mac.rules in initrd, replacing " /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules" to  "/lib/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules", since the former does not exist whereas the latter does. Same issue were observed!

  Notice that if we boot the installer with command-line "net.ifnames=0"
  or "net.ifnames=1", the problem does not reproduces anymore.

  We want to ask Canonical's help in investigating this issue.
  Thanks,

  
  Guilherme

  == Comment: #8 - Guilherme Guaglianoni Piccoli <gpiccoli at br.ibm.com> -
  2016-08-19 10:09:51 ==

  
  == Comment: #9 - Guilherme Guaglianoni Piccoli <gpiccoli at br.ibm.com> - 2016-08-19 10:10:31 ==

  
  == Comment: #10 - Guilherme Guaglianoni Piccoli <gpiccoli at br.ibm.com> - 2016-08-19 10:11:49 ==

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