Bug#773386: release-notes: Systemd related updates to "before reboot" and Recovery proceedures

[Niels Thykier]

Control: tags -1 help

On 2014-12-17 20:37, Niels Thykier wrote:
> Package: release-notes
> Severity: normal
> Tags: jessie
> 
> (X-CC to systemd maintainers for input)
> 
> The release notes have a "Prepare for recovery"[1] and "Things
> to do before rebooting" section[2].  They currently does not cover any
> systemd related preparation.
> 
> I believe we should consider covering some/all of:
> 
>  * My system does not boot after upgrading to systemd.  How do I figure out
>    what the problem is and how do I get a shell/some method to fix it?
> 

This seems to have partly forked into #774233, so please follow up with
relevant information to that.

>  * Is there someone I can do to check for issues after upgrading but before
>    rebooting?  Like do we have a tool to report:
>    - There are cycles in your init configuration between the following
>      services / init.d scripts.
>    - You have an old init.d script laying around that is likely to break
>      stuff because of reason X
>    - etc.
> 

Still hoping for more information here.  I would strongly prefer that we
could have users test their box before hitting reboot.

> 
> So far, I got following for recovery:
> 
>   * (When boot fails) Reboot and alter kernel command line to include
>     "systemd.unit=rescue.target".

Covered in #774233

>   * (Before reboot or from rescue shell) Run systemctl enable
>     debug-shell.service to get a (passwordless) root shell on TTY9
>     "just in case"

Should possibly be included in #774233 as well, but I forgot it in my draft.

>   * (Before upgrade) Back up /sbin/init and use it on the kernel cmd line
>      as last resort [Presumably Jessie-only]
> 

As Andrei pointed out, the sysvinit package handles this.

> 
> On the "before reboot", I got nothing so far.  I am hoping you do.
> 
> If you got known issues to be documented in the Release Notes (or
> other suggestions for improvements), please file additional bugs.
> We got some items covered in [3], but I would not be surprised if I
> had missed one or some of the existing ones could be improved.
> 
> Thanks,
> ~Niels
> 
> [...]

Such extra bugs are still welcome!

~Niels