Bug 302

Summary: Boot fails when fstab contains invalid item
Product: [ROSA-based products] ROSA Fresh Reporter: Konstantin Vlasov <konstantin.vlasov>
Component: Packages from MainAssignee: ROSA Linux Bugs <bugs>
Status: CONFIRMED --- QA Contact: ROSA Linux Bugs <bugs>
Severity: critical    
Priority: High CC: alexander.kazantsev, denis.silakov, henadziy, v.potapov
Version: Fresh   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Platform: --- ROSA Vulnerability identifier:
RPM Package: systemd ISO-related:
Bad POT generating: Upstream:

Description Konstantin Vlasov 2012-05-28 19:28:11 MSK
Description of problem:
If /etc/fstab contains an entry which failed to mount during boot (even if it is not critical for work), the boot process stops and system enters emergency mode, which contains absolutely no indication as to what the source of the problem was, and therefore the diagnosis becomes a very difficult process containing mostly of googling.

Users expect that the system boots even if some of their permanently configured mount points are inaccessible (e.g., CD is ejected, or a network resource became unavailable), so that they could reconfigure the faulty items. And at the very least, there should be some information as to what caused the problem. Maybe, there is, but it must be hidden somewhere very deep, because I searched through various log files and failed to find anything of use...


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
systemd-39.3


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Edit /etc/fstab by adding at the end something like:
/dev/cdrom /mnt auto defaults 0 0
2. Eject the CD/DVD disk (if you had one inserted) and reboot the system.
3. Instead of login screen, a "Welcome to emergency mode" message appears, and until the fstab entry becomes mountable (or commented/removed), it is impossible to boot the system normally.
Comment 1 Denis Silakov 2012-06-28 15:54:58 MSK
The problem is that you can't reliably detect if the failed fstab entry is critical to work or not. So I don't think it makes sense to ignore all failed entries.

A solution for the situation you have described would be to use the 'nofail' option in fstab, but afaik it is not implemented. An interesting discussion on this topic:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mountall/+bug/610869

But I agree that seeing Emergence Mode doesn't help at all to understand what has happened.
Comment 2 Denis Silakov 2012-12-25 15:24:15 MSK
*** Bug 175 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 3 Stanislav Fomin 2015-03-06 19:34:45 MSK
Need restesting before releasing Enterprise X2.
Comment 4 Denis Silakov 2015-06-25 01:51:01 MSK
I guess this one is still valid and is not limited to RED.