Systemd-vconsole-setup.service fails on boot

General system
1

do you have this error on bootup?

[    5.421840] systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
[    5.421891] systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-vconsole-setup.service.html

systemd-udevd.service is calling maybe ? and if i do restart it on running system it does not bail out… but on bootup it fails everytime…

/etc/vconsole.conf:

KEYMAP=de-latin1
FONT=eurlatgr

does not help too…

× systemd-vconsole-setup.service - Setup Virtual Console
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-vconsole-setup.service; static)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2022-11-21 23:27:36 CET; 29s ago
       Docs: man:systemd-vconsole-setup.service(8)
             man:vconsole.conf(5)
   Main PID: 258 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
        CPU: 2ms

Nov 21 23:27:36 SLIMSHADY64 systemd-vconsole-setup[263]: cannot open include file qwertz-layout
Nov 21 23:27:36 SLIMSHADY64 systemd-vconsole-setup[263]: syntax error, unexpected ERROR
Notice: journal has been rotated since unit was started, output may be incomplete.
2

Not showing here in journalctl or dmesg…

$ journalctl -r | grep systemd-vconsole-setup.service
nov 21 18:02:19 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 21 16:38:57 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 21 13:00:44 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 21 11:08:16 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 21 01:54:17 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 21 01:52:38 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 23:10:24 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 23:09:27 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 18:34:22 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 18:33:49 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 17:31:20 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 14:37:35 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 14:32:55 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 13:07:21 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 12:41:52 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 12:40:23 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 12:35:51 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 12:24:58 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 10:02:05 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 10:01:08 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 20 00:31:07 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.

$ sudo dmesg | grep systemd-vconsole-setup.service

$ sudo systemctl status systemd-vconsole-setup.service 
○ systemd-vconsole-setup.service - Setup Virtual Console
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-vconsole-setup.service; static)
     Active: inactive (dead) since Mon 2022-11-21 18:02:19 -03; 1h 25min ago
   Duration: 1.152s
       Docs: man:systemd-vconsole-setup.service(8)
             man:vconsole.conf(5)
   Main PID: 259 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
        CPU: 3ms

nov 21 18:02:19 eos systemd[1]: systemd-vconsole-setup.service: Deactivated successfully.
nov 21 18:02:19 eos systemd[1]: Stopped Setup Virtual Console.

Edit:

$ cat /etc/vconsole.conf
KEYMAP=br-abnt2
3

i think it is getting started here because i use systemd-boot …
And could be related to dracut too ?

4

I’m using systemd-boot with dracut method too.
No longer using grub since that boot problem around one month ago…

5

interesting…
So i have done something that causing it to get triggered…

6

I have started the service and its working here, but it was disabled by default in my system

$ sudo systemctl status systemd-vconsole-setup.service 
● systemd-vconsole-setup.service - Setup Virtual Console
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-vconsole-setup.service; static)
     Active: active (exited) since Mon 2022-11-21 19:33:26 -03; 4s ago
       Docs: man:systemd-vconsole-setup.service(8)
             man:vconsole.conf(5)
    Process: 11535 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-vconsole-setup (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 11535 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
        CPU: 7ms

nov 21 19:33:26 eos systemd[1]: Starting Setup Virtual Console...
nov 21 19:33:26 eos systemd[1]: Finished Setup Virtual Console.
7

On Arch with Grub:

$ systemctl status systemd-vconsole-setup.service 
○ systemd-vconsole-setup.service - Setup Virtual Console
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-vconsole-setup.service; static)
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:systemd-vconsole-setup.service(8)
             man:vconsole.conf(5)

“Things” work fine.

8 
  Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-vconsole-setup.service; static)

static says that you can not manually enable disable the service it is only triggered by other services…

even masking seems not to work for me… so i need to find out from where it is getting triggered…

not that easy on static services… it should show this in status but it doe snot…

9

yea my system is running fine too … only that i want this service to not load … looks like systemd is going to far :wink:

1 Like
10

Looking at the manual, might give a clue? Not sure if it’s a good idea to not load/disable it :thinking:

What do you think?


SYSTEMD-VCONSOLE-SETUP.SERVICE(8)                                                                     systemd-vconsole-setup.service                                                                    SYSTEMD-VCONSOLE-SETUP.SERVICE(8)


NAME
      systemd-vconsole-setup.service, systemd-vconsole-setup - Configure the virtual consoles

SYNOPSIS
      systemd-vconsole-setup.service

      /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-vconsole-setup [TTY]

DESCRIPTION
      systemd-vconsole-setup sets up and configures either all virtual consoles, or — if the optional TTY parameter is provided — a specific one. When the system is booting up, it's called by systemd-udevd(8) during VT console
      subsystem initialization. Also, systemd-localed.service(8) invokes it as needed when language or console changes are made. Internally, this program calls loadkeys(1) and setfont(8).

      Execute systemctl restart systemd-vconsole-setup.service in order to apply any manual changes made to /etc/vconsole.conf.

      See vconsole.conf(5) for information about the configuration files and kernel command line options understood by this program.

SEE ALSO
      systemd(1), vconsole.conf(5), loadkeys(1), setfont(8), systemd-localed.service(8)

systemd 252                                                                                                                                                                                             SYSTEMD-VCONSOLE-SETUP.SERVICE(8)

When the system is booting up, it’s called by systemd-udevd(8) during VT console
subsystem initialization.

11

yes but seems not needed i have no issues with my console font.

1 Like
12

could be it should run once on boot and it fails here caused by a BUG related to qwertz layout… i will see if i do some more research the next days :wink:

13

It seems so, since…

Then everything works fine. So the issue should be inside the image.

The error fails to find an include/layout, which normally exists:

ls -1R /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/*  | grep -E "/|qwertz" | grep -B1 '\.inc'                                                                                                          
/usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/include:
qwertz-layout.inc
--
/usr/share/kbd/keymaps/mac/include:
mac-qwertz-layout.inc
--
/usr/share/kbd/keymaps/ppc/include:
mac-qwertz-layout.inc

What exactly is configured?

localectl

On my Arch system, there is no sign of vconsole or that service in the journal. Only this:

journalctl -b | grep 'console'
Νοε 21 11:20:34 psarch kernel: printk: console [tty0] enabled
Νοε 21 11:20:34 psarch kernel: i915 0000:00:02.0: vgaarb: deactivate vga console
Νοε 21 17:37:28 psarch kernel: printk: Suspending console(s) (use no_console_suspend to debug)
Νοε 22 00:22:43 psarch kernel: printk: Suspending console(s) (use no_console_suspend to debug)
Νοε 22 14:21:42 psarch kernel: printk: Suspending console(s) (use no_console_suspend to debug)
Νοε 22 23:54:21 psarch kernel: printk: Suspending console(s) (use no_console_suspend to debug)

No dracut :sweat_smile: or qwertz though…

$ grep . /etc/vconsole.conf 
FONT=eurlatgr
KEYMAP=us
KEYMAP_TOGGLE=gr

$ localectl
   System Locale: LANG=el_GR.UTF-8
       VC Keymap: us
VC Toggle Keymap: gr
      X11 Layout: us,gr
       X11 Model: pc105
     X11 Variant: ,
     X11 Options: terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp,grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll
14 
[12:01:18] joekamprad :: SLIMSHADY64  ➜  ~ » localectl
System Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
    VC Keymap: de-latin1-nodeadkeys
   X11 Layout: de

My bet is that i may need to include something on dracut image to make it able to run …

15

Are you excluding anything in dracut?

16

nah only that i use german qwertz :wink: could be not included in a way?
Would be in /etc/dracut.conf.d/ something ?

omit_dracutmodules+=" network "
compress="zstd"

only these 2 …

I think that i saw a BUG report on suse about qwertz not working but can not find it again currently…

17

Then it should be included. That stuff is usually included by default.

Are you sure this is a dracut issue?

18

no clue… also do not want to mess with this setup that much as it is may daily driver currently…
i could try reproduce in a VM

log of building dracut images:
https://0x0.st/oUXv.txt
(added Plymouth and cifs to not get used… )

19

You can see it is including i18n. I suspect that is what you need.

I am not at a PC right now but I think the Gentoo wiki has a description of all the modules.

20

yes its only a side tinkering for me it causes no issue so i will research and try tracking it …