[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#762278: dbus: New syslog messages in Testing (esp. regarding systemd)

Helge Kreutzmann debian at helgefjell.de
Mon Sep 22 14:56:18 UTC 2014


Hello Simon,
On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 12:09:04PM +0100, Simon McVittie wrote:
> Control: retitle 762278 dbus: please add logcheck rules
> Control: severity 762278 wishlist
> Control: clone 762278 -1
> Control: retitle -1 dbus-daemon-launch-helper: log to syslog?
> Control: tags -1 - patch
> Control: forwarded -1 https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66728
> 
> Which of the following packages do you have, and for the ones you do
> have, which versions: systemd, systemd-sysv, systemd-shim, sysvinit-core?

ii  systemd                                                208-8                            amd64                            system and service manager
un  systemd-sysv                                           <none>                           <none>                           (no description available)
ii  sysvinit-core                                          2.88dsf-53.4                     amd64                            System-V-like init utilities
dpkg-query: no packages found matching systemd-shim

> Are you running systemd as pid 1?

No. Classic Sysv. (System is unable to use systemd). However, systemd 
intermittedly installed as init system, I had to manually remove it
again.

> Before the upgrade from stable to testing that you described, were you
> running systemd as pid 1?

No.

> If you switched from sysvinit to systemd: which of the messages you
> described, if any, were between the point at which you installed
> systemd-sysv or otherwise selected systemd as pid 1, and the point at
> which you rebooted into systemd?

n/a

> On 20/09/14 15:13, Helge Kreutzmann wrote:
> >    sneo dbus[]: [system] Activated service 'org.freedesktop.login1' failed: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 1
> 
> It is unclear whether this is bad or not. It could be; the only
> information we get back from dbus-daemon-launch-helper is an exit code.
> This is reporting that either dbus-daemon-launch-helper, or what it
> executed (/lib/systemd/systemd-logind-launch), exited 1. Why that
> happened is anyone's guess.

Since it is systemd related, I can probably ignore it then?

> You would probably get better debuggability here by using systemd as pid
> 1 (under systemd, activated D-Bus services' stdout/stderr goes via the
> Journal to syslog; otherwise, their stdout/stderr to /dev/null, unless
> they take steps to log stuff themselves).

Sorry, not possible on this machine.

> Alternatively, you could try altering
> /usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/org.freedesktop.login1.service so that
> instead of executing /lib/systemd/systemd-logind-launch, it executes a
> shell script that runs /lib/systemd/systemd-logind-launch with its
> stdout and stderr piped to logger(1).

I'll try that out.

> If there is indeed a problem here after investigating further, please
> clone a bug for that, and reassign/alter severity as necessary.

Will do.

> I have cloned this bug to suggest that dbus-daemon-launch-helper (which
> is a trusted, security-sensitive setuid-root process) should maybe log
> more info to syslog itself, and marked it as forwarded to the upstream
> bug where I suggested the same.
> 
> This general class of message (for arbitrary services) should not be
> added to the logcheck filter, but see below...
> 
> >    sneo dbus[]: [system] Activated service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1' failed: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 1
> 
> This is expected if you are not running systemd as pid 1, because
> systemd has:
> 
>  % grep -v '^#'
> /usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/org.freedesktop.systemd1.service
> 
> [D-BUS Service]
> Name=org.freedesktop.systemd1
> Exec=/bin/false
> User=root
> 
> as a way to say "I am responsible for the org.freedesktop.systemd1 name,
> but its activation under pid 1 != systemd should fail".
> 
> (With pid 1 = systemd, systemd claims its own bus name on the system bus
> as soon as possible, and this file is not used.)
> 
> This exact, specific instance of "Launch helper exited with unknown
> return code 1" might be OK to filter by default, since it is expected on
> sysvinit and Upstart systems.

Thanks for the explanation.

> >    sneo dbus[]: [system] Activating service name='whatever' (using servicehelper)
> 
> This is not an error. It's only logged to provide some visibility into
> what dbus-daemon is doing. It could safely be added to a logcheck file.
> 
> >    sneo dbus[]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.UDisks2': timed out
> 
> This means we tried to activate udisks2, but after an arbitrary timeout
> (if you haven't deliberately reconfigured it, the default is 25 seconds)
> it had still not requested its bus name. Debugging why that happens
> would be a udisks2 issue, and might be easier with systemd as pid 1.
> 
> This indicates either a bug in something, or transient breakage between
> upgrade and next reboot, and should not be in the logcheck file. It is
> not unexpected for an upgrade from stable to testing, or oldstable to
> stable, to generate unusual log messages; it *is* unexpected to get this
> message in normal operation.

Then I can safly ignore this.

> >    sneo dbus[]: [system] Reloaded configuration
> 
> This is benign and can safely be added to a logcheck file.
> 
> >    sneo dbus[]: [system] Successfully activated service 'whatever'
> 
> This is benign and can safely be added to a logcheck file.

Thanks very much for the extensive explanation and the prompt reply. 

Best greetings

             Helge
-- 
      Dr. Helge Kreutzmann                     debian at helgefjell.de
           Dipl.-Phys.                   http://www.helgefjell.de/debian.php
        64bit GNU powered                     gpg signed mail preferred
           Help keep free software "libre": http://www.ffii.de/
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 190 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-utopia-maintainers/attachments/20140922/f83a82b3/attachment.sig>


More information about the Pkg-utopia-maintainers mailing list