Systemd issues

[statmonkey]

I am considering rebuilding systemd from the scratch and applying my own patches.  Before I jump down that rabbit hole I was interested if anyone else is seeing the same things that I am and if they had a subsequent fix.  Here is my issue:

A few updates ago I encountered errors when doing an update that I am pretty sure are coming from systemd and the way it controls inits.  These have expanded today and are "Errors encountered while processing:
     console-tools
     console-setup-linux
     console-setup
Is anyone else seeing this?  Are you ignoring them or is there something that can be done to correct them? Maybe it is local to my system and if that is the case I would appreciate knowing.  Thanks.

[VastOne]

I recently tried systemd again and found it unusable as it tool forever to boot... I did not feel like battling it at that time

I am looking forward to your work and output, let me know what I can do to help

[statmonkey]

So that means you removed it?  It seems like the arch people are using it as standard, I wonder how they get away with that?  I also have noticed a dramatic slowdown in boot times.  I think it was dizzie who said he was getting a screaming boot speed to an ssd. I would be interested in knowing if anyone is currently using systemd and if they are seeing problems.  My reason for this is that if I do indeed build it from scratch that is the time to patch it.  I would hate to build the thing and then find I missed something important.  I am pretty sure the boot time delays have to do with it wrestling with residual sysv stuff. Debian has taken a belt and suspenders approach to systemd, trying to accommodate the sysv diehards and implement systemd as well.  I believe that this fence riding is a big part of the problem.

VastOne the first place you could help is by telling me what you did to reverse your systemd install?  Did you just agr it?

[VastOne]

It's still installed, I just do not initiate it from the grub line... I can enable it at any time I want or it is needed for testing

[ozitraveller]

I'm still using systemd and have been for months without issue on my main box and also on my laptop.

[statmonkey]

VastOne --- Doh!? Really need a facepalm emoticon

ozitraveller - so that means you don't see those messages on dist-upgrade and you had no issues with boot times or console-setup etc.?  That is interesting.  How often do you update?

[lwfitz]

I ran into the same issues as VastOne when using systemd with VSIDO and just like him I didnt feel like messing with it.
That being said, I have arch installed on my laptop with a ssd and it boots up perfect....... most of the time. When it boots properly I get about 7 second boot ups, but from time to time my system will boot up to a black screen that seems to be frozen and I have to force shutdown and then it will boot just fine. 

[statmonkey]

lwfitz that is good info.  I have read through the arch systemd forums and did notice a couple of things they have set up different from Debian.  I also know of a couple of patches that should be applied that haven't been.  Additionally there are some local/user settings that can really help eliminate some of the duplication of effort, wheel spinning that the default Debian install goes through.  I have somewhat convinced myself that doing a ground up systemd build is the way to go but think it will take me some time to configure/document etc.  Thanks for the comments.

[lwfitz]

Also, I have noticed that (at least for me) removing "quiet" from the grub line fixes my random bootup issue.

[ozitraveller]

I've had no issues on my main box, updated daily.
The laptop, updated daily, had http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=728361 issue which I seem to have corrected.

[statmonkey]

 Interesting ozitraveller.  Just curious on how you fixed it.  Care to share?  I read that thread and frankly am more confused than I was before.  I am having issues not only with shutdown but also with the mounting of thumb drives.

[ozitraveller]

Today I digged further, and found the difference between the working
machines and the non-working ones. The non-working ones had an extra
entry in /etc/pam.d/common-session:

session optional     pam_systemd.so

This entry gets placed there by the package libpam-systemd. Removing
this entry fixed the problem here. The working machines didn't have
libpam-systemd installed, so I uninstalled it from all of them.

Commenting the line in /etc/pam.d/common-session enabled the button and allowed mounting again.
Mine is a very simple simple xfce system.

[statmonkey]

Thanks ozitraveller.  I don't have libpam-systemd installed so that isn't the cause of my problems (which curiously are the same as the ones you solved).  I also don't have this session optional line in  common-session.  I am in the process of building systemd by hand and applying the patches I have found so far.  If it works I will post the results.  The issue I still haven't found a patch for is the console-setup-linux failure/it also won't configure, reconfigure or figure at all at the moment.  I am not running anything special at all, just a bog standard Vsido with fluxbox.  It's a curious little deal.