Hi,

Yes, on Debian Bookworm we are also seeing a similar issue:
if these services are masked during the rootfs_install task, 
populate-systemd-preset fails.

On Debian Trixie, it continues without error. I created a v3 patch to 
ignore preset failures
only, rather than making populate-systemd-preset optional, since this 
appears to be the
correct default behavior for now. Link to the updated patch:
[PATCH v3 0/1] image-postproc: ignore systemd preset failures 
<https://groups.google.com/g/isar-users/c/Dot1Kf5VGZw>

Many thanks,
Badrikesh
On Wednesday, February 18, 2026 at 11:35:17 PM UTC+5:30 Gokhan Cetin wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've not investigated the root cause yet but I might have a concrete 
> example for the mentioned issue:
> I have a recipe which has following masks at postinst to disable sleep 
> states on the target:
>
> systemctl mask \
>         ctrl-alt-del.target \
>         hibernate.target \
>         hybrid-sleep.target \
>         sleep.target \
>         suspend-then-hibernate.target \
>         suspend.target
>
> At Debian Bookworm, build ends up with "Failed to preset unit, unit 
> /etc/systemd/system/sleep.target is masked.", until  
> "populate-systemd-preset" is opt-out.
> But I don't have any issue at Debian Trixie. Not sure if this might be a 
> clue.
>
> Best,
> Gokhan
>
> On Wednesday, January 14, 2026 at 12:46:44 PM UTC+3 Heinisch, Alexander 
> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 2026-01-13 at 09:48 -0500, Badrikesh Prusty wrote: 
>> > Disable running populate-systemd-preset at build time by default. 
>> > Although systemd runs enable-only presets at first boot, running this 
>> > step during image creation changes the enabled state of units before 
>> > systemd’s first-boot logic runs,  
>> Why is this a problem? The reasons why to have services prepopulated 
>> are listed here [1]. 
>>
>> > ignores disable rules, and can cause 
>> ...as is the case with current systemd 
>>
>> > some services to fail during runtime. 
>>
>> What's the difference compared to enabling on first-boot? 
>> > 
>> > Downstream users can opt in when preset population is required. 
>>
>> Imo, having the pre population enabled seems to me a propper default. 
>> If downstream has issues with the prepopulation, for some reason (maybe 
>> you can clarify based on concrete cases) then you always can opt-out 
>> via: ROOTFS_FEATURES:remove = "populate-systemd-preset" 
>>
>> Initially your V1 was about not only enabling but also disabling 
>> services in the postprocessing. What caused the change to neither 
>> populate enabled nor disabled units? As above, maybe a concrete example 
>> helps to understand your requirements. 
>>
>> BR Alexander 
>>
>> 1: 
>>
>> https://github.com/ilbers/isar/blob/master/RECIPE-API-CHANGELOG.md#populate-systemd-units-based-on-presets-during-image-postprocessing 
>>
>> > 
>> > Opt-in: 
>> >   ROOTFS_FEATURES:append = " populate-systemd-preset" 
>> > 
>> > Signed-off-by: Badrikesh Prusty <badrikes...@siemens.com> 
>> > --- 
>> >  RECIPE-API-CHANGELOG.md           | 14 ++++++++++++++ 
>> >  meta/classes-recipe/image.bbclass |  1 - 
>> >  2 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) 
>> > 
>> > diff --git a/RECIPE-API-CHANGELOG.md b/RECIPE-API-CHANGELOG.md 
>> > index 0bad8a44..46c8c905 100644 
>> > --- a/RECIPE-API-CHANGELOG.md 
>> > +++ b/RECIPE-API-CHANGELOG.md 
>> > @@ -962,3 +962,17 @@ INSTALLER_UNATTENDED_ABORT_ENABLE = "1" 
>> >  # Optional: set countdown timeout in seconds (default 5) 
>> >  INSTALLER_UNATTENDED_ABORT_TIMEOUT = "5" 
>> >  ``` 
>> > + 
>> > +### Make populate-systemd-preset opt-in 
>> > + 
>> > +Running populate-systemd-preset at build time is disabled by 
>> > default. 
>> > +Although systemd runs enable-only presets by default at first boot, 
>> > +running this step at build time changes the enabled state of units 
>> > +before systemd’s first-boot logic runs, ignores disable rules, and 
>> > +can cause some services to fail during runtime. 
>> > + 
>> > +Downstream users can explicitly enable this feature when preset 
>> > +population is required during image creation. 
>> > + 
>> > +Opt-in: 
>> > +  ROOTFS_FEATURES:append = " populate-systemd-preset" 
>> > diff --git a/meta/classes-recipe/image.bbclass b/meta/classes- 
>> > recipe/image.bbclass 
>> > index e605bc80..47ed068d 100644 
>> > --- a/meta/classes-recipe/image.bbclass 
>> > +++ b/meta/classes-recipe/image.bbclass 
>> > @@ -101,7 +101,6 @@ ROOTFS_FEATURES += "\ 
>> >      export-dpkg-status \ 
>> >      clean-log-files \ 
>> >      clean-debconf-cache \ 
>> > -    populate-systemd-preset \ 
>> >      generate-sbom \ 
>> >      " 
>> >  ROOTFS_PACKAGES += "${IMAGE_PREINSTALL} 
>> > ${@isar_multiarch_packages('IMAGE_INSTALL', d)}" 
>>
>> -- 
>> Alexander Heinisch 
>> Siemens AG 
>> www.siemens.com 
>>
>

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