[Bug 927803] [NEW] Fails to launch recovery menu when (at least) Postfix installed

[Jani Uusitalo]

Public bug reported:

I have two computers affected by this and one that is not, each running
Precise. I've tracked down the cause, but I'm not sure which of the
components involved (friendly-recovery, resolvconf, postfix and upstart)
is the culprit, so I'll file this for friendly-recovery which is at
least severly affected. Feel free to correct the target with better
insight.

Steps to reproduce:
0. Have the 'postfix' and 'resolvconf' packages installed.
1. Boot into recovery mode.

What happens:
The boot proceeds in nonsplash (text) mode, but in the end the recovery menu fails to show up. Instead the graphical greeter is brought up.

What I expect to happen:
For the recovery menu to show up so I can use it.

The cause:
For debugging this, I first enabled logging for friendly-recovery.conf. That log implicated resolvconf, so I enabled logging for resolvconf, and that in turn revealed this:

cp: cannot create regular file `/var/spool/postfix/etc/resolv.conf':
Read-only file system

So I checked, and indeed postfix wasn't there on my laptop which wasn't
affected. It seems that due to the read-only file system, the resolvconf
upstart job fails, which in turn leads to the resolvconf-dependent
friendly-recovery job to also fail.

The workaround:
Uninstall postfix if you can afford to.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: friendly-recovery 0.2.19
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-14.23-generic 3.2.3
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-14-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.91-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: 09ae689090491ca53449589269e4bfd8
CheckboxSystem: edda5d4f616ca792bf437989cb597002
Date: Mon Feb  6 20:36:29 2012
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: friendly-recovery
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-01-17 (20 days ago)
mtime.conffile..etc.init.friendly.recovery.conf: 2012-02-06T20:17:28.034920

** Affects: friendly-recovery (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: amd64 apport-bug precise running-unity

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/927803

Title:
  Fails to launch recovery menu when (at least) Postfix installed

Status in “friendly-recovery” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I have two computers affected by this and one that is not, each
  running Precise. I've tracked down the cause, but I'm not sure which
  of the components involved (friendly-recovery, resolvconf, postfix and
  upstart) is the culprit, so I'll file this for friendly-recovery which
  is at least severly affected. Feel free to correct the target with
  better insight.

  Steps to reproduce:
  0. Have the 'postfix' and 'resolvconf' packages installed.
  1. Boot into recovery mode.

  What happens:
  The boot proceeds in nonsplash (text) mode, but in the end the recovery menu fails to show up. Instead the graphical greeter is brought up.

  What I expect to happen:
  For the recovery menu to show up so I can use it.

  The cause:
  For debugging this, I first enabled logging for friendly-recovery.conf. That log implicated resolvconf, so I enabled logging for resolvconf, and that in turn revealed this:

  cp: cannot create regular file `/var/spool/postfix/etc/resolv.conf':
  Read-only file system

  So I checked, and indeed postfix wasn't there on my laptop which
  wasn't affected. It seems that due to the read-only file system, the
  resolvconf upstart job fails, which in turn leads to the resolvconf-
  dependent friendly-recovery job to also fail.

  The workaround:
  Uninstall postfix if you can afford to.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
  Package: friendly-recovery 0.2.19
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-14.23-generic 3.2.3
  Uname: Linux 3.2.0-14-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 1.91-0ubuntu1
  Architecture: amd64
  CheckboxSubmission: 09ae689090491ca53449589269e4bfd8
  CheckboxSystem: edda5d4f616ca792bf437989cb597002
  Date: Mon Feb  6 20:36:29 2012
  EcryptfsInUse: Yes
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
  PackageArchitecture: all
  SourcePackage: friendly-recovery
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-01-17 (20 days ago)
  mtime.conffile..etc.init.friendly.recovery.conf: 2012-02-06T20:17:28.034920

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