[Bug 1729836] Re: update-initramfs generating unbootable initrd files when using stderred LD_PRELOAD hook

[Jeff Turner]

I think I figured out the cause. Basically PEBCAK..

There's a program called stderred (https://github.com/sickill/stderred)
which colorizes stderr to differentiate it from stdout, via a LD_PRELOAD
hook. I have had this set for years in my ~/.bashrc:

root at jturner-home:~# echo $LD_PRELOAD
/home/jturner/src/github/stderred/build/libstderred.so

When I examine the initrd file as follows, I see half the binaries in
bin/ contain ANSI escape codes, and the libstderred.so library has been
pulled in:

root at jturner-home:/boot# update-initramfs -u -k 4.13.0-25-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-25-generic
root at jturner-home:/boot# mkdir bad
root at jturner-home:/boot# ( cd bad; zcat ../initrd.img-4.13.0-25-generic | cpio -idmv; )
root at jturner-home:/boot# ls bad/home/jturner/src/github/stderred/build/libstderred.so 
bad/home/jturner/src/github/stderred/build/libstderred.so
root at jturner-home:/boot# ls -1 bad/bin
?[0m
?[0m?[1m?[31m[[?[0m?[1m?[31m
?[0m?[1m?[31macpid?[0m?[1m?[31m
?[0m?[1m?[31mash?[0m?[1m?[31m
?[0m?[1m?[31mawk?[0m?[1m?[31m
?[0m?[1m?[31mbasename?[0m?[1m?[31m
?[0m?[1m?[31mblockdev?[0m?[1m?[31m
?[0m?[1m?[31mcat?[0m?[1m?[31m
...
?[1m?[31m[?[0m?[1m?[31m
busybox
cat
chroot
cpio
dash
date
dd
...


The output of update-initramfs goes red halfway.

Perhaps update-initramfs could sanitize its environment, or explicitly
unset LD_PRELOAD. Hard to be idiot-proof when there's such sophisticated
idiots :)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1729836

Title:
  update-initramfs generating unbootable initrd files when using
  stderred LD_PRELOAD hook

Status in initramfs-tools package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  After running 'update-initramfs -u -k $(uname -r)', Linux will not
  boot. With 'quiet splash' set in grub, it appears to freeze after the
  'Loading ramdisk...' message, and if booted in recovery mode, I see
  the following kernel panic:

  Freeing unused kernel memory: 948k
  Freeing unused kernel memory: 104K
  x86/mm: Chcked W+X mappings: passed, no W+X pages found.
  Failed to execute /init (error -2)
  Kernel panic - not syncing: No working init found.  Try passing init= optin to kernel. See Linux Documentation/admin-guide/init.rst for guidance.
  CPU: 6 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 4.13.0-16-generic #19-Ubuntu
  Hardware name: Dell Inc. OptiPlex 990/0D6H9T, BIOS A07 09/10/2011
  Call Trace:
    dump_stack+0x63/0x8b
    ? rest_init+0xb0/0xc0
    panic+0xe4/0x23d
    ? putname+0x4b/0x50
    ? rest_init+0xc0/0xc0
    kernel_init+0xeb/0xfc
    ret_from_fork0x25/0x30
  Kernel Offset: 0x1fc00000 from 0xffffffff8a000000 (relocation range: 0xffffffff80000000-0xffffffffbfffffff)
  ---[ end Kernel panic - no syncing: No working init found.  Try passing init= option to kernel. See Linux Documentation/admin-guide/init.rst for guidance.

  (full screenshot at https://photos.app.goo.gl/XLNKOM3cDNHsfyFt2).

  Examining the initrd files, here is a good one, as installed by the
  Ubuntu 17.10 installer:

  # file /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-16-generic
  /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-16-generic: ASCII cpio archive (SVR4 with no CRC)
  # ls -la /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-16-generic
  -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 50764087 Nov  3 21:02 /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-16-generic

  and here is the file after 'update-initramfs -u -k 4.13.0-16-generic':

  # file /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-16-generic
  /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-16-generic: gzip compressed data, last modified: Thu Nov  2 10:51:42 2017, from Unix
  root at jturner-home:/boot# ls -la /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-16-generic
  -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 50895514 Nov  3 21:01 /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-16-generic

  Good and bad initrds can be downloaded from
  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1reMWj1TohrQ4K5EbBMJPhw4xXUdBi0K9?usp=sharing

  After downloading initrd.img-4.13.0-16-generic-broken, the panic can
  be replicated in qemu with:

  kvm -m 1G -kernel /boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-16-generic -initrd
  /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-16-generic-broken

  (tip obtained from https://lists.debian.org/debian-
  kernel/2016/02/msg00323.html)

  I've experienced this problem with Ubuntu 17.04 and 17.10 on two
  separate PCs (both Dell OptiPlex 990s). Ubuntu boots fine initially,
  until one day I update the kernel or something, and a .deb postinst
  script calls update-initramfs and trashes that kernel's initrd file.
  If I run 'update-initramfs -u -k all', all my old initrd files are
  toast.

  The "good" initrd format "ASCII cpio archive (SVR4 with no CRC)" is
  strange. I'm not getting many google hits on it. None of my other
  Ubuntu/Debian servers use that format in their initrds.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
  Package: initramfs-tools 0.125ubuntu12
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-16.19-generic 4.13.4
  Uname: Linux 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.1
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Fri Nov  3 21:33:12 2017
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-08-05 (90 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Release amd64 (20170412)
  PackageArchitecture: all
  SourcePackage: initramfs-tools
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2017-10-24 (10 days ago)

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