Syslog fails [SOLVED]

ralvez · 2012-08-30 23:07:48

Today about an hour ago I did a pacman -Syu.
The most relevant part was :

 upgraded filesystem (2012.7-1 -> 2012.8-1)
[2012-08-30 17:34] ln -s '/usr/lib/systemd/system/getty@.service' '/etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/getty@tty1.service'
[2012-08-30 17:34] :: Append 'init=/bin/systemd' to your kernel command line in your
[2012-08-30 17:34]    bootloader to replace sysvinit with systemd
[2012-08-30 17:34] installed systemd (189-3)

Since I had to make changes to my kernel line I decided to reboot (just to make sure I got things right) and I so something fail .... but it went by too fast for me to read.
I went to my /var/log/boot log and ... nothing, no error there.
I rebooted again and same thing [failed] message but hard to read at the speed it boots. Back to /var/log/boot and no message BUT I noticed the time of my last boot ... it was about an hour before, so clearly something wrong here ...
I rebooted by the third time and in this occasion I was able to read something about Syslog to have failed.
Now that makes sense since I am not getting logs anymore but the question is: did the systemd upgrade cause problems to anyone else?
Any proposed solutions/ideas ?

Thanks.

R.

Last edited by ralvez (2012-08-31 00:35:41)

HungGarTiger · 2012-08-30 23:36:53

When did you switch to systemd? Looks like you missed a couple of steps from the guide

ralvez · 2012-08-30 23:47:57

Today, about 2 hours ago.
The ONLY steps I had where those I show in the post. They were given by the pacman update.
But more importantly ... what did I miss?

Can you direct me to where "all the steps" are?

Thanks.

R.

ralvez · 2012-08-30 23:57:29

Well ... now that you mentioned "steps", you got me thinking...
So I went to the wiki and found all about "systemd". I was under the impression that this was a change "to be" NOT something we were pushing already out.
I'm very surprised that this mile long set of instructions was not more advertised and posted in the Arch homepage (as it has been done in the past with big updates).

I just read about a week ago that this change was being "discussed" by the developers.

Am I missing something?

R.

WonderWoofy · 2012-08-31 00:23:57

There are various tools merged into the systemd package, so although systemd is installed on your system, it does not mean that you have to use it. If you notice the pacman update said "...to replace sysvinit with systemd"... as in, optional.

If you are not ready to switch, you can simply remove init=/bin/systemd

ralvez · 2012-08-31 00:35:08

@WonderWoofy and HungGarTiger,

Yes. I'm now reading about systemd in the wiki.
It seems it takes a "calculated" action to make the move.
I think I'll work through the process, read the wiki, understand what's needed and then switch to sysinit.

Thank you both for posting and your timely help.

R.

HungGarTiger · 2012-08-31 00:35:10

The switch is actually very easy, there are about 5 steps in the wiki and around 5 new files that need to be created. Then like Woofy said just put init=/bin/systemd into Grub or w/e and you're good to go, it's been smooth sailing for me so somebody thats been with Arch since '05 will be a breeze

Last edited by HungGarTiger (2012-08-31 00:35:49)

ralvez · 2012-08-31 00:43:51

@HungGarTiger,

Yes. I have no doubt that the move is easy enough. I just want to make sure I follow the steps carefully because this is my production system and I cannot afford to goof it.
Once again. Thanks!!

R.

cfr · 2012-08-31 01:23:05

Note that even if you enable the support for syslog, it will still not write to /var/log/boot. I would love to know how to get an equivalent working with systemd.

ralvez · 2012-08-31 01:33:27

@cfr,

You mean to say that setting systemd will not give us boot logs anymore?!
That would be utterly ridiculous!!
Is there anything else this "improved" systemd will mangle that we know of?

I may just as well hold off the upgrade if it produces a less "usable" that before system. It may be fantastic for the few milliseconds I'll get booting
but will be far more damaging in other areas.

R.

ralvez · 2012-08-31 01:51:37

@cfr,

There IS a way to get logs!

Systemd Journal
==========

Since version 38 systemd has an own logging system, the journal.

By default, running a syslog daemon is no longer required. To read the log, use:

# journalctl

The journal writes to /run/systemd/journal, meaning logs will be lost on reboot. For non-volatile logs, create /var/log/journal/:

# mkdir /var/log/journal/

The report in journalctl is VERY verbose, so if you are looking for something in particular you may want to use it in conjunction with grep.

R.

cfr · 2012-08-31 01:54:20

I'm still struggling, to be honest, to understand and configure it. Plus right now I'm trying to maintain the ability to boot with initscripts as well which naturally complicates things. And I'm having a mysterious, intermittent problem which may well be hardware. And now kernel panics on boot...

All I can say is that syslog-ng.service is enabled on my machine and syslog-ng is configured to pick up systemd's output but:

$ l /var/log/boot 
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 811K Aws  28 23:20 /var/log/boot
$ l /var/log/dmesg.log 
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 55K Aws  28 23:20 /var/log/dmesg.log

I booted several times yesterday and once this evening. Those logs are from the last time I booted with initscripts.

I also can't figure out how to get similar information although I'm sure there is a way.

Right now, switching to a pure systemd system will also mean you lose access to the emergency/rescue shell. (But this will only happen if you install systemd-sysvcompat which conflicts with sysvinit.) This will, I believe, be fixed once util-linux is updated.

Last edited by cfr (2012-08-31 01:55:05)

cfr · 2012-08-31 01:57:23

ralvez wrote:

@cfr,
By default, running a syslog daemon is no longer required. To read the log, use:
# journalctl

Thank you! Why did I think I was meant to use systemctl to access the journal?!

ralvez · 2012-08-31 01:58:14

cfr try this:
su -c 'journalctl'

Use your root password and ...you should see all the logs.

R.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-08-30 23:07:48

Syslog fails [SOLVED]

#2 2012-08-30 23:36:53

Re: Syslog fails [SOLVED]

#3 2012-08-30 23:47:57

Re: Syslog fails [SOLVED]

#4 2012-08-30 23:57:29

Re: Syslog fails [SOLVED]

#5 2012-08-31 00:23:57

Re: Syslog fails [SOLVED]

#6 2012-08-31 00:35:08

Re: Syslog fails [SOLVED]

#7 2012-08-31 00:35:10

Re: Syslog fails [SOLVED]

#8 2012-08-31 00:43:51

Re: Syslog fails [SOLVED]

#9 2012-08-31 01:23:05

Re: Syslog fails [SOLVED]

#10 2012-08-31 01:33:27

Re: Syslog fails [SOLVED]

#11 2012-08-31 01:51:37

Re: Syslog fails [SOLVED]

#12 2012-08-31 01:54:20

Re: Syslog fails [SOLVED]

#13 2012-08-31 01:57:23

Re: Syslog fails [SOLVED]

#14 2012-08-31 01:58:14

Re: Syslog fails [SOLVED]

Board footer