Arch Linux

Roken

Member

From: South Wales, UK

Registered: 2012-01-16

Posts: 1,253

systemd "Failed to start Setup Virtual Console"

I'me getting this error at boot, with no clue why/

Google only returns hits where it blocks startup, which it doesn't.

 systemd-analyze dump

shows that all TTYs are loaded, which is proven by cycling through them.

There don't appear to be any problems, but red errors during boot irritate me.

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Ryzen 5900X 12 core/24 thread - RTX 3090 FE 24 Gb, Asus Prime B450 Plus, 32Gb Corsair DDR4, Cooler Master N300 chassis, 5 HD (1 NvME PCI, 4SSD) + 1 x optical.
Linux user #545703

davispuh

Member

From: Latvia

Registered: 2014-03-31

Posts: 10

Re: systemd "Failed to start Setup Virtual Console"

I've same issue, but it happens inside initramfs where I use systemd, but there's no errors after switching to new root. Any idea how to debug initramfs?

davispuh

Member

From: Latvia

Registered: 2014-03-31

Posts: 10

Re: systemd "Failed to start Setup Virtual Console"

Turns out systemd in initramfs also saves logging to journal so could see in journal

systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd[1]: Failed to start Setup Virtual Console.
systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Unit entered failed state.
systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd-vconsole-setup[74]: /usr/bin/setfont failed with error code 66.
systemd-vconsole-setup[74]: Cannot open font file iso04.16

it happens because sd-vconsole hook fails to add some console fonts from /etc/vconsole and thus it's not included in initramfs.
I posted this bug https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/45444?project=1 and also included a patch there

Roken

Member

From: South Wales, UK

Registered: 2012-01-16

Posts: 1,253

Re: systemd "Failed to start Setup Virtual Console"

Something must have changed, because I'm no longer getting the errors. I don't recall a systemd upgrade, but me not recalling is what I do.

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Ryzen 5900X 12 core/24 thread - RTX 3090 FE 24 Gb, Asus Prime B450 Plus, 32Gb Corsair DDR4, Cooler Master N300 chassis, 5 HD (1 NvME PCI, 4SSD) + 1 x optical.
Linux user #545703

delwin

Member

Registered: 2010-06-21

Posts: 8

Re: systemd "Failed to start Setup Virtual Console"

Just hit me this morning. I fixed it by editing /etc/vconsole.conf and using one of the fonts in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts.

See the Console Fonts section of the Fonts wiki page to see how to preview them.

Stunts

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2009-03-28

Posts: 339

Website

Re: systemd "Failed to start Setup Virtual Console"

@delwin:
Thanks. A variation of that has worked for me too.

I just deleted the line "FONT=terminus" from /etc/vconsole.conf that was causing the issues.

DarkLite1

Member

Registered: 2014-05-15

Posts: 28

Re: systemd "Failed to start Setup Virtual Console"

I'm having the same error message from systemd during boot:

[Me@Arch ~]$ systemctl status systemd-vconsole-setup.service 
● systemd-vconsole-setup.service - Setup Virtual Console
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-vconsole-setup.service; static; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2015-07-21 10:19:49 CEST; 10min ago
     Docs: man:systemd-vconsole-setup.service(8)
           man:vconsole.conf(5)
  Process: 186 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-vconsole-setup (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
 Main PID: 186 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Jul 21 10:19:54 Arch systemd-vconsole-setup[186]: Cannot open font file Lat9w-16

[root@Arch viper]# cat /etc/vconsole.conf 
KEYMAP=be-latin1
FONT=Lat9w-16

[Me@Arch ~]$ ls /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/ | grep lat9w
lat9w-08.psfu.gz
lat9w-10.psfu.gz
lat9w-12.psfu.gz
lat9w-14.psfu.gz
lat9w-16.psfu.gz

Is the fix to change "FONT=Lat9w-16" to "FONT=Lat9w-16.psfu.gz"?

Stunts

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2009-03-28

Posts: 339

Website

Re: systemd "Failed to start Setup Virtual Console"

@DarkLite1:
I think you should write:

FONT=lat9w-16

At least according to the wiki.

DarkLite1

Member

Registered: 2014-05-15

Posts: 28

Re: systemd "Failed to start Setup Virtual Console"

You're right Stunts, that fixed the problem. Unbelievable that systemd is case sensitive... T
hanks for the help, greatly appreciated

Stunts

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2009-03-28

Posts: 339

Website

Re: systemd "Failed to start Setup Virtual Console"

You're welcome.
Apparently it didn't use to be case sensitive (at least as far as vconsole.conf was concerned). Seems to be now.

Cheers!