Arch Linux

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,565

[Solved] Downside of disabling shutdown-ramfs.service ?

The recent change in systemd 259 that leads to shutdown warning messages made me realise I have  no idea what the shutdown-ramfs is good for.

I do remember vaguely having that doubt when it was introduced many years ago, but didn't investigate .

$ pacman -F mkinitcpio-generate-shutdown-ramfs.service
core/mkinitcpio 40-3 [installed]
    usr/lib/systemd/system/halt.target.wants/mkinitcpio-generate-shutdown-ramfs.service
    usr/lib/systemd/system/kexec.target.wants/mkinitcpio-generate-shutdown-ramfs.service
    usr/lib/systemd/system/mkinitcpio-generate-shutdown-ramfs.service
    usr/lib/systemd/system/poweroff.target.wants/mkinitcpio-generate-shutdown-ramfs.service
    usr/lib/systemd/system/reboot.target.wants/mkinitcpio-generate-shutdown-ramfs.service
$ 

That clarifies the service is used in 4 targets atleast 2 of which I often use.

All 4 of those targets show only 1 service : mkinitcpio-generate-shutdown-ramfs.service
I understand the service is used to create an ramfs to be used on shutdown/restart , but why does systemd need that ?

Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2025-12-21 15:48:52)

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,342

Re: [Solved] Downside of disabling shutdown-ramfs.service ?

The shutdown initramfs is there so you can pivot_root to it, making the actual filesystems unused so they can be gracefully unmounted. It's a data safety issue.

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,565

Re: [Solved] Downside of disabling shutdown-ramfs.service ?

Thanks, that clarifies its purpose.

Marking as Solved

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky