[Bug 1792644] [NEW] If snapd is not working it can take down systemd

[Henry Wertz]

Public bug reported:

I'll start out with saying, this bug is probably priority "invalid" due
to my non-stock configuration (this 18.04.1 install is on an Acer
Chromebook 13, so it has a held back kernel and Xorg for the lovely
nvidia drivers it came with.) But I figure I'll file anyway since the
problem is rather serious if it arises on your particular system, and
the workaround/fix is easy once you figure out what the heck is
happening.

So, snapd has errored out since I updated to 18.04 due to my held back
kernel (snap packages are using xz compression, and this kernel has no
xz support...)  I found within the last day or so that my machine would
not boot to graphical environment, just to text login with no networking
up and several missing services (ntp and a few others.)  journalctl -xe
showed failures due to "file not found" on files like tr, cut, modprobe,
cat, that should definitely be found.  PATH problems!  Ultimately, I
found /usr/lib/systemd/system-environment-generators/snapd-env-generator
(which appears -- not sure since it's a binary instead of a shell script
-- to be intended to just add "/snap/bin" to the PATH.)    I moved this
out of the folder, on reboot everything worked fine. Then I went ahead
and uninstalled snapd.

I suspect systemd is "too smart for it's own good", and instead of
providing it's own environment variables then letting items in
/usr/lib/systemd/system-environment-generators/ modify the environment
(as docs say), instead systemd either decided "snapd-env-generator" is
setting a PATH so systemd doesn't have to (resulting in PATH of
":/snap/bin") or systemd "rolled back" that PATH when snapd service
failed, resetting PATH to empty instead of the default PATH value.

** Affects: systemd (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to systemd in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1792644

Title:
  If snapd is not working it can take down systemd

Status in systemd package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I'll start out with saying, this bug is probably priority "invalid"
  due to my non-stock configuration (this 18.04.1 install is on an Acer
  Chromebook 13, so it has a held back kernel and Xorg for the lovely
  nvidia drivers it came with.) But I figure I'll file anyway since the
  problem is rather serious if it arises on your particular system, and
  the workaround/fix is easy once you figure out what the heck is
  happening.

  So, snapd has errored out since I updated to 18.04 due to my held back
  kernel (snap packages are using xz compression, and this kernel has no
  xz support...)  I found within the last day or so that my machine
  would not boot to graphical environment, just to text login with no
  networking up and several missing services (ntp and a few others.)
  journalctl -xe showed failures due to "file not found" on files like
  tr, cut, modprobe, cat, that should definitely be found.  PATH
  problems!  Ultimately, I found /usr/lib/systemd/system-environment-
  generators/snapd-env-generator (which appears -- not sure since it's a
  binary instead of a shell script -- to be intended to just add
  "/snap/bin" to the PATH.)    I moved this out of the folder, on reboot
  everything worked fine. Then I went ahead and uninstalled snapd.

  I suspect systemd is "too smart for it's own good", and instead of
  providing it's own environment variables then letting items in
  /usr/lib/systemd/system-environment-generators/ modify the environment
  (as docs say), instead systemd either decided "snapd-env-generator" is
  setting a PATH so systemd doesn't have to (resulting in PATH of
  ":/snap/bin") or systemd "rolled back" that PATH when snapd service
  failed, resetting PATH to empty instead of the default PATH value.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/+bug/1792644/+subscriptions