GNU bug report logs - #27732
Changing display manager can render system unbootable

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Marius Bakke <mbakke <at> fastmail.com>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: Changing display manager can render system unbootable
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2017 12:09:54 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hello!

When changing display manager in the system configuration and invoking
`guix system reconfigure`, the existing desktop environment will be
killed. If you invoked the command from within said desktop environment,
the reconfigure command will be forcefully terminated.

If you're unlucky, this might happen during `grub-install`. After
logging in on a console and rebooting, this is what I got:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
Welcome to GRUB!

Attempting to decrypt master key...
Enter passphrase for hd1,gpt2 (<uuid>):
Slot 0 opened
error: file `/boot/grub/x86_64-efi/normal.mod' not found.
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue>
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

It can be recovered by booting by copying /boot/grub/x86_64-efi/* from a
healthy system to the partially installed one.

I'm not sure how to mitigate this, since the DE restart is arguably a
feature. A command analogous to `nixos-rebuild boot` might be of aid for
those of us aware of this problem.

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Message #8 received at 27732 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: ng0 <ng0 <at> infotropique.org>
To: Marius Bakke <mbakke <at> fastmail.com>
Cc: 27732 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#27732: Changing display manager can render system unbootable
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2017 11:47:49 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Marius Bakke transcribed 1.6K bytes:
> Hello!
> 
> When changing display manager in the system configuration and invoking
> `guix system reconfigure`, the existing desktop environment will be
> killed. If you invoked the command from within said desktop environment,
> the reconfigure command will be forcefully terminated.
> 
> If you're unlucky, this might happen during `grub-install`. After
> logging in on a console and rebooting, this is what I got:
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> Welcome to GRUB!
> 
> Attempting to decrypt master key...
> Enter passphrase for hd1,gpt2 (<uuid>):
> Slot 0 opened
> error: file `/boot/grub/x86_64-efi/normal.mod' not found.
> Entering rescue mode...
> grub rescue>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> 
> It can be recovered by booting by copying /boot/grub/x86_64-efi/* from a
> healthy system to the partially installed one.
> 
> I'm not sure how to mitigate this, since the DE restart is arguably a
> feature. A command analogous to `nixos-rebuild boot` might be of aid for
> those of us aware of this problem.

This is weird. I was aware of this and simply waited a reasonable long
time until I forced a reboot from such a system. I've done this
countless times in the past and it always worked.

But the situation is unfortunate and a fix would be good.

-- 
ng0
GnuPG: A88C8ADD129828D7EAC02E52E22F9BBFEE348588
GnuPG: https://n0is.noblogs.org/my-keys
https://www.infotropique.org https://krosos.org

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Message #11 received at 27732 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: ludo <at> gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)
To: Marius Bakke <mbakke <at> fastmail.com>
Cc: 27732 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#27732: Changing display manager can render system unbootable
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2017 15:50:07 +0200

Hello,

Marius Bakke <mbakke <at> fastmail.com> skribis:

> When changing display manager in the system configuration and invoking
> `guix system reconfigure`, the existing desktop environment will be
> killed. If you invoked the command from within said desktop environment,
> the reconfigure command will be forcefully terminated.

Why is the desktop environment killed?

From Guix’s viewpoint, the ‘xorg-server’ Shepherd service cannot be
restarted if it’s still running (and indeed, when I run ‘guix system
reconfigure’ from my X11 + Ratpoison setup, Xorg is not killed,
fortunately.)  Same for ‘dbus-system’ etc.

I don’t know what else could be killing GNOME et al.

Thanks,
Ludo’.

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