GNU bug report logs - #76288
Infinite reboot loop due to mcron package changes

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "Murilo" <murilo <at> disroot.org>
To: <bug-guix <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Infinite reboot loop due to mcron package changes
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2025 10:30:32 -0300

Hi, I (and a friend too) have been getting an infinite reboot loop when trying
to boot into guix system.
Going back a generation fixes it, but doesn't solve the issue as I cannot
upgrade guix any further.

I could bisect the issue to e3459bff0039fbaaaf521fb8c8d406dc29986a8e.
I don't know what causes it, but I don't have such
'/run/privileged/bin/sendmail' file in my system (and, quiet honestly, I don't
want to have it, to keep the system minimal).

It worked just fine before that commit, and I can confirm that reverting it on
latest guix solves the issue for me.

Message #8 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Tomas Volf <~@wolfsden.cz>
To: "Murilo" via Bug reports for GNU Guix <bug-guix <at> gnu.org>
Cc: Murilo <murilo <at> disroot.org>, 76288 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#76288: Infinite reboot loop due to mcron package changes
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2025 21:20:30 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hello,

thank you for the bug report.

"Murilo" via Bug reports for GNU Guix <bug-guix <at> gnu.org> writes:

> Hi, I (and a friend too) have been getting an infinite reboot loop when trying
> to boot into guix system.
> Going back a generation fixes it, but doesn't solve the issue as I cannot
> upgrade guix any further.
>
> I could bisect the issue to e3459bff0039fbaaaf521fb8c8d406dc29986a8e.
> I don't know what causes it, but I don't have such
> '/run/privileged/bin/sendmail' file in my system (and, quiet honestly, I don't
> want to have it, to keep the system minimal).

Do you get any error message or any indication why the reboot happens?
I did not manage to reproduce it locally, and single shepherd service
(mcron) failing should *not* lead to system reboot.

>
> It worked just fine before that commit, and I can confirm that reverting it on
> latest guix solves the issue for me.

-- 
There are only two hard things in Computer Science:
cache invalidation, naming things and off-by-one errors.

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #14 received at 76288 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "Murilo" <murilo <at> disroot.org>
To: "Tomas Volf" <~@wolfsden.cz>
Cc: 76288 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#76288: Infinite reboot loop due to mcron package changes
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2025 09:02:31 -0300

Hi, thanks for taking some of your time to help.

On Fri Feb 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM -03, Tomas Volf wrote:
> Do you get any error message or any indication why the reboot happens?

I gc'ed my logs since then, but there was a bunch of 'sendmail: no such file
or directory' errors on '/var/log/mcron.log', and no relevant logs at all from
shepherd.

> (mcron) failing should *not* lead to system reboot.

Yes, I find it really strange as well. When I was bisecting (and still now) I
couldn't believe that was the commit causing the issue.

What is even stranger is I just pulled once again today and everything works,
no boot issues. Honestly I have no idea why, besides gc'ing I've done nothing on
my system since, I just pulled and it magically works once again, and I couldn't
find any related commits in master since then.
In any case, I hope it stays this way :)

I'm closing the issue because, weirdly enough, I cannot reproduce it anymore and
so does the friend I mentioned, but feel free to reopen if the issue persists
for anyone else.

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