Re: [PATCH 1/1] enable-fsck: don't run update-initramfs after fstab modification

[Uladzimir Bely <ubely@ilbers.de>]

On Fri, 2025-09-05 at 17:06 +0200, Jan Kiszka wrote:
> On 21.01.22 08:42, Uladzimir Bely wrote:
> > On first machine run, if enable-fsck recipe was enabled, it takes
> > much time to start because of spending too much time on
> > the 'update-initramfs -u' call.
> > 
> > Removing it while it really does nothing useful.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Uladzimir Bely <ubely@ilbers.de>
> > ---
> >  meta/recipes-support/enable-fsck/files/enable-fsck.sh | 2 --
> >  1 file changed, 2 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/meta/recipes-support/enable-fsck/files/enable-fsck.sh
> > b/meta/recipes-support/enable-fsck/files/enable-fsck.sh
> > index d09e35df..72d6bd78 100644
> > --- a/meta/recipes-support/enable-fsck/files/enable-fsck.sh
> > +++ b/meta/recipes-support/enable-fsck/files/enable-fsck.sh
> > @@ -12,5 +12,3 @@ set -e
> >  ROOT_DEV="$(/bin/findmnt -n -o SOURCE /)"
> >  sed -i -e
> > 's|^/dev/root\([ 	]\+.*[ 	]\+\)0[ 	]\+0|'"$ROOT_DEV"'\10	1|' \
> >         -e
> > 's|^\(/dev/.*[ 	]\+\)0[ 	]\+0|\10	2|' /etc/fstab
> > -
> > -update-initramfs -u
> 
> This was wrong, unfortunately: The original purpose of this whole
> recipe
> is to generate an initramfs that contains all tools needed to perform
> early filesystem checks. As this information is not available at the
> time we build the rootfs, only after wic ran, I once decided achieve
> the
> desired effect by recreating the initramfs on first boot.
> 
> If anyone has a better idea how to model that more elegantly, I'm all
> ears. Otherwise, we need to revert this and address the boot time
> issue
> by reducing the number of targets where it is run.
> 
> Jan

Hello.

It seems that "enable-fsck" doesn't look like some mandatory for Isar
itself, that's why the patch was applied earlier.

First, the script tries to modify "/dev/root..." line that none of
meta-isar's targets have at all. This probably works only with
downstreams that use `cip-core` with `readonly-roofs.bbclass` or in
some other (which?) cases with "/dev/root..." in fstab.

Second, other "/dev/..." lines in fstab are also uncommon for meta-
isar's targets that are quite simple (e.g., have only rootfs or at most
boot/rootfs).

Third, real benefit from enable-fsck seems to become visible only after
some hardware crashes that require filesystem reparing.


I tried to revert the patch and this brought the following issues
again:

- qemuarm/qemuarmhf machines (at least) take more than 10 minutes to
start when run on quite decent CI server. Default value for
DEF_VM_TO_SEC value in testsuite should be increased to avoid "timeout"
failures.
- generating new initrd on first run requires additional space on
rootfs, otherwise some targets fail. Changes in some WKS files (adding
extra space for root partition) are required.

When both issues are solved, CI seems to pass.

So, if having "update-initramfs" is mandatory for downstreams, we can
propose the following patchset as a solution:

 - original patch revered
 - increased CI timeout
 - extra space added to .WKS/.conf used by failing qemu targets.

If OK, the patchset will be sent after testing in CI.

-- 
Best regards,
Uladzimir.

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