Arch Linux

ectospasm

Member

Registered: 2015-08-28

Posts: 273

[SOLVED]...question about systemd-ukify

SOLVED:  It actually wasn't systemd, but mkinitcpio which changed.

• I wasn't using ukify at all, since systemd-ukify wasn't installed

• mkinitcpio was changed recently to not build the UKI if uki_generator was not explicitly set to mkinitcpio

• it was mkinitcpio that was actually building my UKI, until this change

Original Post

I don't see it directly in the systemd changelog, but systemd-ukify was recently (within the past month) split from the main systemd package on Arch.  When exactly did this happen?

It was definitely sometime between systemd 255.2-2 and 255.2-3, by my reckoning.  I finally installed my new laptop on December 27, and did not explicitly install systemd-ukify for use with kernel-install.  I had UKI setup with Secure Boot and the TPM2.0 in my new laptop, and everything was working fine when installed with kernel-install and all the requisite plugins.  Until I upgraded to linux 6.7.0-arch3-1. 

Because I didn't have systemd-ukify installed (it was ostensibly split from the main systemd package in the interim), when I installed the new kernel around January 17 it removed the old UKI from my ESP, and failed building the new .efi executable.  As it stands, it was part of a regular upgrade so several other packages were installed/upgraded at the same time, and when the ukify step failed pacman merrily continued installing/upgrading everything else and the failure scrolled off the screen and I didn't see it.

Since there was no UKI, my laptop couldn't boot on reboot.  It took me a couple of days, but I figured it out.   I'm just curious as to when ukify stopped being part of the main systemd package, requiring systemd-ukify to be installed separately.  And maybe improve the process so stuff like this can have a proper notice, however that can be published.

Last edited by ectospasm (2024-01-20 19:18:13)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,646

Re: [SOLVED]...question about systemd-ukify

Over 10 months ago. https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … 68db06e9b7

ectospasm

Member

Registered: 2015-08-28

Posts: 273

Re: [SOLVED]...question about systemd-ukify

Over 10 months ago. https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … 68db06e9b7

I see, thanks for your reply.  But that doesn't explain why kernel-install was working for me prior to my upgrade earlier this week.  If it was indeed a separate package ten months ago, was ukify also still part of the systemd package, until it was finally removed recently?

I'm just trying to wrap my head around why it broke for me so I can try to avoid something similar in the future.  And maybe figure out which notification stream(s) I need to subscribe to so I could have been aware of this before it broke.

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,646

Re: [SOLVED]...question about systemd-ukify

Have you checked your pacman log for what might have happened recently there?

Erus_Iluvatar

Wiki Admin

Registered: 2010-04-01

Posts: 122

Re: [SOLVED]...question about systemd-ukify

This looks like the same issue from https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=291995 : the latest mkinitcpio release stops it from running if it's not set as the image generator.

---

I'm french, don't mind my mistakes in english.

ectospasm

Member

Registered: 2015-08-28

Posts: 273

Re: [SOLVED]...question about systemd-ukify

This looks like the same issue from https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=291995 : the latest mkinitcpio release stops it from running if it's not set as the image generator.

Yep, we discussed this here.  I'll update the topic to say [SOLVED] and post the summary in the original post.

swsnr

Member

Registered: 2024-01-21

Posts: 18

Re: [SOLVED]...question about systemd-ukify

See also https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … /issues/19 and https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … requests/3