Bug#770644: systemd: can't start dbus if dbus is not running

[brian m. carlson]

retitle 770644 systemd: systemd is completely unusable after a fatal signal
# Justification: breaks the whole system, not suitable for release
severity 770644 serious
kthxbye

On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 09:34:03PM +0000, brian m. carlson wrote:
> Package: systemd
> Version: 215-6
> Severity: important
> 
> I'm trying to start strongswan:
> 
>   castro ok % sudo service strongswan start
>   Failed to get D-Bus connection: No such file or directory
> 
> Okay:
> 
>   castro ok # systemctl start dbus
>   Failed to get D-Bus connection: No such file or directory
> 
> So I start dbus by hand (à la /etc/init.d/dbus), and:
> 
>   castro ok # service dbus restart
>   Failed to restart dbus.service: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 1
>   castro ok # service freeradius restart
>   Failed to restart freeradius.service: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 1
>   castro ok # sudo telinit u
>   Failed to execute operation: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 1
> 
> Perhaps systemctl needs to learn a non-dbus way to talk to systemd.
> telinit should be using signals, not dbus, to signal init.
> 
> systemd also does not fix itself even after receiving a SIGHUP, SIGUSR1,
> or SIGTERM.

Even better is this:

castro ok % sudo shutdown -r now
Failed to open initctl FIFO: No such device or address
Failed to talk to init daemon.

I just noticed that the issue is that systemd called assert.  I've
attached an image of the console when this happened.  I don't think I
need to explain why using assert in /sbin/init is a bad idea.

I'm marking this as severity serious because there's no way this is
suitable for jessie, especially as this is not the first time I've seen
this kind of issue.  systemd must *always* function well enough to start
and stop services and reboot or halt the system.  Always.
-- 
brian m. carlson / brian with sandals: Houston, Texas, US
+1 832 623 2791 | http://www.crustytoothpaste.net/~bmc | My opinion only
OpenPGP: RSA v4 4096b: 88AC E9B2 9196 305B A994 7552 F1BA 225C 0223 B187
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