[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#743743: initscripts: bootmisc.sh to use /run/nologin

[Pierre Ynard]

found 743743 2.88dsf-59.2
retitle 743743 initscripts: bootmisc.sh not using /run/nologin locks users out after reboot
severity 743743 important
tags 743743 + patch
thanks

My system, after a couple years of uptime, unexpectedly rebooted. It
had a symlink from /etc/nologin to /var/lib/initscripts/nologin last
modified in 2011, which I never manually set up. When trying to recover
my system after that incident, logging in through SSH, I was greeted
by the nice message: "System bootup in progress - please wait", in a
permanent fashion. I was locked out, apart from physically logging in as
root.

When I managed to do so, I realized that the boot sequence had ended
fine, but as mentioned before, a combination of uncertain /etc/nologin
symlink management and discrepancies between bootmisc.sh and other users
made it so that I lost access after the reboot for no good reason. I was
very much not pleased.

This is arguably worse than the /etc/nologin feature just occasionally
failing to prevent access. Let me reiterate that I never manually
fiddled with that configuration, it just somehow ended in that state
through updates.

I really see no reason why /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh should use
/var/lib/initscripts/nologin or a location that isn't even under /run
or /var/run when it clearly belongs there. So can we please apply the
patch above or equivalent? Please note that some postinst should really
clean up that /var/lib/initscripts/nologin because it still won't delete
itself at the next reboot either (and the stray /var/lib/initscripts/
directory could be removed too then I suppose).

In some cases, like mine, the /etc/nologin symlink will be left pointing
to that pointless location, so it would be nice if that could be fixed
too, but I have no idea how this is supposed to work. At least people
won't get unexpectedly locked out anymore.

Please take a step to fix this long-standing mess :/

Best regards,

-- 
Pierre Ynard
"Une âme dans un corps, c'est comme un dessin sur une feuille de papier."