Arch Linux

nfortier

Member

Registered: 2011-09-18

Posts: 49

[SOLVED] Downgraded systemd to 245 after failed netctl, what next?

I upgraded my system today, which included systemd moving to 246.1-1. After reboot my network connection no longer worked, dmesg had this:

aoû 12 19:18:08 lino systemd[1]: /etc/systemd/system/netctl@net_normand_static.service:1: Assignment outside of section. Ignoring.
aoû 12 19:18:08 lino systemd[1]: netctl@net_normand_static.service: Service has no ExecStart=, ExecStop=, or SuccessAction=. Refusing.
aoû 12 19:18:08 lino systemd[1]: netctl@net_normand_static.service: Cannot add dependency job, ignoring: Unit netctl@net_normand_static.service has a bad unit file setting.

In this bug report
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/67517
luca cunegondi mentioned having a similar problem and downgrading systemd to 245 as a solution. I did (245.7-1), which indeed solved the problem. I added the systemd packages to my IgnorePkg line in /etc/pacman.conf.

(BTW my mkinitcpio.conf already had udev instead of systemd in HOOKS, so that was not the original problem.)

I'm a newbie at systemd things, is there a more permanent solution than staying with systemd 245? Or should I just wait for the next systemd upgrade to try upgrading it again?

Last edited by nfortier (2020-08-13 14:01:42)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,081

Re: [SOLVED] Downgraded systemd to 245 after failed netctl, what next?

Did you see the other bug linked from that one?

nfortier

Member

Registered: 2011-09-18

Posts: 49

Re: [SOLVED] Downgraded systemd to 245 after failed netctl, what next?

So far, I've got:

- downgrading systemd
- replacing systemd with udev in mkinitcpio hooks (irrelevant for me)

Bug report
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issu … -645843333 which says
"Add fullpath to the systemctl call in initrd-switch-root.service" but which has not worked for everybody, and affected 245.5-2, which is not the case here.

Bug report
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/16076
Which mostly delves into the origins of the problem, again not clear for me.

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,081

Re: [SOLVED] Downgraded systemd to 245 after failed netctl, what next?

Go back and read the ticket you linked again. Pay attention to the comments.

jfsoar

Member

Registered: 2020-08-13

Posts: 1

Re: [SOLVED] Downgraded systemd to 245 after failed netctl, what next?

I had the same problem since yesterday, but it was not due to the above bug report (or any of the linked ones), but I think due to  the deprecation of the ".include" directive in the netctl systemd unit file. I assume this deprecation has now taken place.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ne … directives (in your case netctl reenable net_normand_static) worked for me.

At any rate, the above command seems to have regenerated my unit files and allowed me to re-enable the netctl unit without the above errors.

John

Last edited by jfsoar (2020-08-13 12:09:28)

nfortier

Member

Registered: 2011-09-18

Posts: 49

Re: [SOLVED] Downgraded systemd to 245 after failed netctl, what next?

I had not noticed the warnings. I have regenerated my unit files and then upgraded to latest systemd, the problem is gone.

jfsoar, thank you for your very useful input!

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,081

Re: [SOLVED] Downgraded systemd to 245 after failed netctl, what next?

And if you would have read the comments on the ticket you linked, you would have gotten to that right away.

ezacaria

Member

Registered: 2007-12-10

Posts: 113

Re: [SOLVED] Downgraded systemd to 245 after failed netctl, what next?

I do not want to antagonize Scimmia, but I have to agree that arriving to the deprecation of the .include directives is not trivial, when starting from the task 67517 (which is what nfortier originally cited).

John's answer is very helpful. I also solved my problem via "netctl reenable" and I have to say that there is a non-trivial step from the error message "Assignment outside of section", to the root cause of deprecation of ".include".

HitomiTenshi

Member

Registered: 2013-03-07

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] Downgraded systemd to 245 after failed netctl, what next?

I have wasted 4 hours of trying out linux-lts kernel, switching on debug kernel parameters, going through logs and so on until I noticed that the netctl service had some weird issue, which led me here. The error message systemd throws for this deprecation really is abysmal, thank god I stopped to look at that.

Just as jfsoar and ezacaria already said, running "netctl reenable <your-profile-name>" has fixed the issue for me.

RoKoInfo

Member

Registered: 2020-09-11

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] Downgraded systemd to 245 after failed netctl, what next?

Fell over that one today, thanks to all of you, but especially @jfsoar

WorMzy

Administrator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 12,400

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Downgraded systemd to 245 after failed netctl, what next?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … mpty_posts

Closing.

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