[Bug 1768230] Re: Long time booting : Failed to connect to lvmetad. Falling back to device scanning.

[Brandon O'Donnell]

tl;dr: initramfs-tools 0.130ubuntu3.5 and running update-initramfs -u
seems to have fixed it.

I have been putting up with this problem for months, thinking it was due
to a kernel update (from 4.13 to 4.15). Finally, I find this thread
today. Anyhow, here's my info:

OS: Linux Mint 19 (based on Ubuntu 18.04)
Kernel: 4.18.15-041815-generic kernel
initramfs-tools version: 0.130ubuntu3.5
LVM root and swap partitions setup during install
Symptom: waiting 30 sec during boot, with message "failed to connect to lvmetad" ....... "falling back".

After reading previous comments, I did following:
sudo vim /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume
 .. changed from RESUME=UUID=e6675202-6e2f-4c1b-b6e6-4ffe3ef7c882
 .. to RESUME=/dev/mint-vg/swap_1
sudo update-initramfs -u
  ,, (this indicated that it would only apply to latest kernel, not older ones, which is what I wanted in case it borked my boot)
reboot

It now boots without the 30sec delay, but does display a message about "[something something] disabled by BIOS" or somesuch. This seems to override the mint logo that would normally display during boot if one did not press del to see boot messages.
Note that I only guessed that RESUME=/dev/mint-vg/swap_1 would work, since I do want to be able to resume from sleep, but not sure if that's the correct syntax for the resume file, but it is a valid symlink for my swap partition, the alternatives being /dev/dm-1 and /dev/mapper/mint--vg-swap_1. Resume from sleep still works, not sure if it'd affected by this anyhow.

Finally, I apologise if reporting on mint 19 is not welcome/appropriate
here, but it is based on ubuntu 18.04 and I did have relevant info to
contribute.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1768230

Title:
  Long time booting : Failed to connect to lvmetad. Falling back to
  device scanning.

Status in initramfs-tools package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in initramfs-tools source package in Bionic:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  [SRU Justification]
  A regression in initramfs-tools causes it to autogenerate config in the initramfs saying to resume from any available swap devices, but references the swap device by UUID, which is not a canonical form for referring to LVM volumes (because of snapshotting, they are not unique).  Ubiquity also generates a file in /etc at install time which references the swap partition in the same way.  Since the lvm2 initramfs hooks also only activate precisely those LVs that are detected as needed at boot, this adds an inappropriate 30-second boot delay to any system with swap on LVM, which includes any desktop system that was configured with LVM (but not full-disk encryption) at install time.

  [Test case]
  1. Install using the "Use LVM" option in the desktop installer.
  4. Reboot.
  5. Verify that dmesg shows a 30-second delay before mounting the root filesystem.
  6. Install initramfs-tools from bionic-proposed.
  7. Reboot.
  8. Verify that dmesg no longer shows a 30-second delay before mounting the root filesystem.
  9. Install using the bionic daily image that contains the ubiquity from bionic-proposed.
  10. Reboot.
  11. Verify that /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume is not present and that there is no delay before mounting the root filesystem.

  [Regression potential]
  This makes changes to shell scripts, and shell is a perilous language. An unnoticed bug could cause all initramfs generation, and thus all kernel installation, to fail for some users. A regression could also cause a user to lose hiberation support that they currently have.

  [Original description]
  After choosing "Erase disk and install ubuntu" + "Use LVM with the new Ubuntu installation", the
  system is very slow to reboot.

  It shows the message : "WARNING:Failed to connect to lvmetad. Falling back to device scanning.",
  then waits 32 seconds, then continues as it should.

  I think this is a ubiquity bug, since the d-i based installer is not affected.
   - ubuntu-18.04-desktop-amd64.iso (a55353d837cbf7bc006cf49eeff05ae5044e757498e30643a9199b9a25bc9a34) : affected
   - xubuntu-18.04-desktop-amd64.iso (7c24318d3b1de1efd584b5aea034ce1aafd2d0f06c59812d989a5fc95bf947e3) : affected
   - ubuntu-18.04-server-amd64.iso (a7f5c7b0cdd0e9560d78f1e47660e066353bb8a79eb78d1fc3f4ea62a07e6cbc) : not affected

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