Bug#828006: systemd: "quiet" kernel boot parameter overrides LogLevel= in /etc/systemd/system.conf

[Brian Kroth]

Package: systemd
Version: 215-17+deb8u4
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

Per [1], the current version of systemd in Debian Jessie (v215) has an 
issue that makes the "quiet" kernel boot parameter override values of 
LogLevel= in the /etc/systemd/system.conf file (mine has LogLevel=info 
explicitly set) and explicitly sets it to "notice" instead of the 
documented default of "info".

There's a simple patch [2] that fixes this that I'd like to suggest 
backporting.

Short of that, it'd be nice if it were documented somewhere (here?) that 
an alternative workaround (aside from just removing "quiet") is to also 
list "systemd.log_level=info" somewhere after quiet in the kernel boot 
parameters (eg: in /etc/default/grub's GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT 
variable).

Without that, lots of things end up not getting logged (eg: service 
start/stops, socket connections, etc.), even though the 
systemd man page and other documentation would appear to imply that the 
default LogLevel should be "info".

Let me know if you need any other info.

Thanks,
Brian

[1] <https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/systemd-devel/2016-June/036954.html>
[2] <https://cgit.freedesktop.org/systemd/systemd/commit/?id=5e07a79e84ab8b045b9df1a2719f14fc84471a1d>


-- Package-specific info:

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.5
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable'), (120, 'testing'), (110, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 4.5.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages systemd depends on:
ii  acl             2.2.52-2
ii  adduser         3.113+nmu3
ii  initscripts     2.88dsf-59
ii  libacl1         2.2.52-2
ii  libaudit1       1:2.4-1+b1
ii  libblkid1       2.25.2-6
ii  libc6           2.19-18+deb8u4
ii  libcap2         1:2.24-8
ii  libcap2-bin     1:2.24-8
ii  libcryptsetup4  2:1.6.6-5
ii  libgcrypt20     1.6.3-2+deb8u1
ii  libkmod2        18-3
ii  liblzma5        5.1.1alpha+20120614-2+b3
ii  libpam0g        1.1.8-3.1+deb8u1+b1
ii  libselinux1     2.3-2
ii  libsystemd0     215-17+deb8u4
ii  mount           2.25.2-6
ii  sysv-rc         2.88dsf-59
ii  udev            215-17+deb8u4
ii  util-linux      2.25.2-6

Versions of packages systemd recommends:
ii  dbus            1.8.20-0+deb8u1
ii  libpam-systemd  215-17+deb8u4

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

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/systemd/journald.conf changed [not included]
/etc/systemd/logind.conf changed [not included]
/etc/systemd/system.conf changed [not included]

-- no debconf information