On a Debian testing inside virt-manager, console-setup always fails on
boot with the following error messages:

Unit console-screen.service could not be found.

● console-setup.service - Set console font and keymap
    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/console-setup.service; enabled;
vendor preset: enabled)
    Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2016-11-29 11:28:36
EET; 6h ago
  Main PID: 428 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

ное 29 11:28:36 miranda systemd[1]: Starting Set console font and keymap...
ное 29 11:28:36 miranda console-setup.sh[428]: /bin/setupcon: 866:
/bin/setupcon: cannot open /tmp/tmpkbd.xTd9cX: No such file
ное 29 11:28:36 miranda systemd[1]: console-setup.service: Main process
exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
ное 29 11:28:36 miranda systemd[1]: Failed to start Set console font and
keymap.
ное 29 11:28:36 miranda systemd[1]: console-setup.service: Unit entered
failed state.
ное 29 11:28:36 miranda systemd[1]: console-setup.service: Failed with
result 'exit-code'.

Around line 866 is the following code that fails "gzip -9n <$TMPFILE":

if [ "$savekbdfile" ]; then
     case "$kernel" in
         linux)
             tempfile || { echo setupcon: Can not create temporary file
 >&2; exit 1; }
             {
                 $installdir/bin/ckbcomp -backspace "$backspace"
$acm_option \
                     $rules_option -model "$XKBMODEL" \
                     "$XKBLAYOUT" "$XKBVARIANT" "$XKBOPTIONS" >$TMPFILE \
                     && gzip -9n <$TMPFILE >"$savekbdfile"
             } || exit 1
             ;;
         freebsd)
             $installdir/bin/ckbcomp -freebsd -backspace "$backspace" \
                 $acm_option $rules_option -model "$XKBMODEL" \
                 "$XKBLAYOUT" "$XKBVARIANT" "$XKBOPTIONS" >"$savekbdfile" \
                 || exit 1
             ;;
     esac
fi

I didn't try to investigate further.

Just starting the service later works but on boot it always fails.

Best regards,
Ognyan

I confirm the same error on boot. Not sure what the implications are, the system seems to work, even when I go to the console.
Cheers,

I can confirm the same bug on Debian unstable, console-setup 1.164:

Apr 27 11:33:08 debian-pc systemd[1]: Starting Set console font and
keymap...
Apr 27 11:33:08 debian-pc console-setup.sh[537]: /bin/setupcon: 866:
/bin/setupcon: cannot open /tmp/tmpkbd.voFOYG: No such file
Apr 27 11:33:08 debian-pc systemd[1]: console-setup.service: Main process
exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Apr 27 11:33:08 debian-pc systemd[1]: Failed to start Set console font and
keymap.
Apr 27 11:33:08 debian-pc systemd[1]: console-setup.service: Unit entered
failed state.
Apr 27 11:33:08 debian-pc systemd[1]: console-setup.service: Failed with
result 'exit-code'.

found 846256 1.160
thanks

Confirming on current package in testing
Adding /tmp in RequiresMountsFor in the unit doesn't seem to fix the
problem (tested with a dropin).

Hi,

We also encountered the bug, and to me, it seems to be caused by the
systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service, shown as "Create Volatile Files and
Directories". This is because /tmp is listed as "D" in
/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/tmp.conf, which means its contents gets removed
when /bin/systemd-tmpfiles --remove is called, and the service files
does exactly that.

You might see it in your journal that the bug only happens if
console-setup is started before systemd-tmpfiles-setup.

I think not having "DefaultDependencies=no" in setup-console's unit
file or explicitly having systemd-tmpfiles-setup in After would solve
the problem.

Also, isn't Bug#818065 a duplicate of this?

Regards,
Alex Badics

Since I do not know well systemd, I will prefer if some other developer
looks into this.

The script /bin/setupcon does not require the existence of /tmp because
it can use alternative directories if necessary (look at the function
tempfile in setupcon).  However it will use /tmp if it exists.
Therefore, the following perhaps can explain the bug:

1. The scripts of console-setup are started before
   systemd-tmpfiles-setup.

2. If they finish in time, this is ok.  Suppose however that
   systemd-tmpfiles-setup starts before the scripts of console-setup
   finish their work.  (Is this possible?)

3. Then, ofcourse, if systemd-tmpfiles-setup deletes files that the
   scripts of console-setup have creaded and expected to be deleted by
   them and not by some third party, these scripts will fail to work
   properly.

It wourld be preferable if there were a directive to tell systemd not to
run systemd-tmpfiles-setup during the execution of console-setup.  But
ofcourse, if this is impossible, then removing DefaultDependencies=no is
(maybe) also a solution.

I doubt this can explain #818065.  If the system uses systemd, then
after `setupcon --save' has been run, the script setupcon is no longer
required in order to setup the system.  And the other scripts are short
and simple and do not require temporary files.

On the other hand, it seems likely to me that this bug is a duplicate of
#819288.

Anton Zinoviev

Yes. We have seen this happen. Although it being a race condition,
it's hard to reproduce, and we've only seen it happen on at least 8
core servers.
Putting systemd-tmpfiles-setup in the "After" stanza of the
console-setup unit file would fix the bug. At least since we've done
this on our internal fork, we haven't seen the bug.

Regards,
Alex Badics

severity #846256 important
thanks

I have this issue every time I boot my sid system, and:

# /etc/systemd/system/console-setup.service.d/override.conf
[Unit]
After=systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service

solved this for me as well. A similiar override.conf is recommended for
keyboard-setup.service.

Before this fix is put in Debian's package, "DefaultDependencies=no"
should be overthought as well.

I am raising the severity of this bug to "important".

Greetings
Marc

severity #846256 important
thanks

I have this issue every time I boot my sid system, and:

# /etc/systemd/system/console-setup.service.d/override.conf
[Unit]
After=systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service

solved this for me as well. A similiar override.conf is recommended for
keyboard-setup.service.

Before this fix is put in Debian's package, "DefaultDependencies=no"
should be overthought as well.

I am raising the severity of this bug to "important".

Greetings
Marc

I also experience this bug.

I got in touch with the debian maintainers for systemd at:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=904079

According to the maintainer, the issue should be solved by using the
`After=` directive in the unit file for console-setup.

Regards,
  Arnaud

see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/console-setup/+bug/1824227

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We’re also facing that issue here. It’s not 100 % reproducible, but after installing a custom-built Debian image (with debootstrap), it mostly happens after the first boot in vmware.

Adding the dependency Marc Haber suggested, seems to fix the issue.


Regards,
Bernhard

Just a +1 to being affected by this bug, Debian Bullseye (console-setup
package version 1.205) on a Dell XPS laptop (4-core i7).

I've applied Marc's workaround:

# /etc/systemd/system/console-setup.service.d/override.conf
[Unit]
After=systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service

and

# /etc/systemd/system/keyboard-setup.serviceoverride.conf
[Unit]
After=systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service

(I've not seen it with keyboard-setup, only console-setup, but applied
both based on Marc's recommendation in his post.)

Side note for anybody coming here...

On Ubuntu, with snapd, the keyboard-setup.serviceoverride.conf create a
loop in dependencies.

$ systemd-analyze verify default.target

local-fs.target: Found ordering cycle on snap-chromium-2623.mount/start
local-fs.target: Found dependency on local-fs-pre.target/start
local-fs.target: Found dependency on keyboard-setup.service/start
local-fs.target: Found dependency on systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service/start
local-fs.target: Found dependency on local-fs.target/start
local-fs.target: Job snap-chromium-2623.mount/start deleted to break
ordering cycle starting with local-fs.target/start
local-fs.target: Found ordering cycle on local-fs-pre.target/start
local-fs.target: Found dependency on keyboard-setup.service/start
local-fs.target: Found dependency on systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service/start
local-fs.target: Found dependency on local-fs.target/start
local-fs.target: Job local-fs-pre.target/start deleted to break ordering
cycle starting with local-fs.target/start

For info only since this is a Debian thread.