Bug#749330: systemd: The sysctl service is not started correctly at boot

Mon May 26 14:10:01 BST 2014

Package: systemd
Version: 208-1
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

I have a file
> /etc/sysctl.d/98-save-power.conf
containing the line
> vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs = 1500
which is used as an example to describe the bug in the following.

After boot,
> cat /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs
returns
> 500,
although
> systemctl status systemd-sysctl.service
returns
> systemd-sysctl.service - Apply Kernel Variables
>    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/systemd-sysctl.service; static)
>    Active: active (exited) since Mo 2014-05-26 14:22:00 CEST; 4min 49s ago
>      Docs: man:systemd-sysctl.service(8)
>            man:sysctl.d(5)
>   Process: 295 ExecStart=/lib/systemd/systemd-sysctl (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
>  Main PID: 295 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
> 
> Mai 26 14:22:00 mmm systemd[1]: Started Apply Kernel Variables.
> Mai 26 14:24:48 mmm systemd[1]: Started Apply Kernel Variables.
i.e. the service seems to be loaded correctly.

After manually executing
> systemctl restart systemd-sysctl.service
> cat /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs
the result is
> 1500.

Executing
> systemctl status systemd-sysctl.service
again results in the same information as before (beside the dates)
> systemd-sysctl.service - Apply Kernel Variables
>    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/systemd-sysctl.service; static)
>    Active: active (exited) since Mo 2014-05-26 14:27:27 CEST; 15s ago
>      Docs: man:systemd-sysctl.service(8)
>            man:sysctl.d(5)
>   Process: 2531 ExecStart=/lib/systemd/systemd-sysctl (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
>  Main PID: 2531 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

I wasn't sure if this is a systemd problem, but as the printed status does not
change although the state of the system clearly changed, I do not have another
explanation.

Please note, that this problem also occured with versions 204-8 and 204-10. I
think it worked on some reboots, so a race condition might be involved, but I
cannot get it to work anymore during the last reboots, so this might be
incorrect.

-- Package-specific info:

-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (900, 'testing'), (800, 'stable'), (500, 'testing-proposed-updates'), (400, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.14-1-amd64 (SMP w/6 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages systemd depends on:
ii  acl                  2.2.52-1
ii  adduser              3.113+nmu3
ii  initscripts          2.88dsf-53
ii  libacl1              2.2.52-1
ii  libaudit1            1:2.3.6-1
ii  libblkid1            2.20.1-5.7
ii  libc6                2.18-7
ii  libcap2              1:2.22-1.2
ii  libcap2-bin          1:2.22-1.2
ii  libcryptsetup4       2:1.6.4-4
ii  libdbus-1-3          1.8.2-1
ii  libgcrypt11          1.5.3-4
ii  libkmod2             16-2
ii  liblzma5             5.1.1alpha+20120614-2
ii  libpam0g             1.1.8-3
ii  libselinux1          2.3-1
ii  libsystemd-daemon0   208-1
ii  libsystemd-journal0  208-1
ii  libsystemd-login0    208-1
ii  libudev1             204-8
ii  libwrap0             7.6.q-25
ii  sysv-rc              2.88dsf-53
ii  udev                 204-8
ii  util-linux           2.20.1-5.7

Versions of packages systemd recommends:
ii  libpam-systemd  208-1

Versions of packages systemd suggests:
pn  systemd-ui  <none>

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/systemd/system.conf changed:
[Manager]
DefaultControllers=cpu memory blkio

-- no debconf information
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==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/sshd.service <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/ssh.service.dsh-also <==
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/ssh.service
/etc/systemd/system/sshd.service

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/ssh.socket.dsh-also <==
/etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/ssh.socket

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/lm-sensors.service.dsh-also <==
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/lm-sensors.service

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/avahi-daemon.socket.dsh-also <==
/etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/avahi-daemon.socket

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/syslog.service <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/binfmt-support.service.dsh-also <==
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/binfmt-support.service

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/rsyslog.service.dsh-also <==
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/rsyslog.service
/etc/systemd/system/syslog.service
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/rsyslog.service
/etc/systemd/system/syslog.service

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/netfilter-persistent.service.dsh-also <==
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/netfilter-persistent.service

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/multi-user.target.wants/anacron.service <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/multi-user.target.wants/lm-sensors.service <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/multi-user.target.wants/rsyslog.service <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/multi-user.target.wants/binfmt-support.service <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/multi-user.target.wants/netfilter-persistent.service <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/multi-user.target.wants/atd.service <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/multi-user.target.wants/ssh.service <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/multi-user.target.wants/vsftpd.service <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/multi-user.target.wants/avahi-daemon.service <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/multi-user.target.wants/pppd-dns.service <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/sockets.target.wants/avahi-daemon.socket <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/atd.service.dsh-also <==
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/atd.service

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/anacron.service.dsh-also <==
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/anacron.service

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/avahi-daemon.service.dsh-also <==
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/avahi-daemon.service
/etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/avahi-daemon.socket
/etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service <==

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/pppd-dns.service.dsh-also <==
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pppd-dns.service

==> /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/vsftpd.service.dsh-also <==
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/vsftpd.service