MP review complete, uploaded with minor modifications to Hirsute and submitted the same to Debian. Once complete in 21.04 we can think about how far we want to backport this.
** Description changed: + [Impact] + + * /var/cache is expected to be able to be cleared for a reboot without + drawbacks. But the directory of pollinate is a classic cache, yet it + only is created in postinst. That leads to the service failing on + reboot after the path was cleared. + For example the cockpit images are affected by that + + * The Fix for that is to instruct systemd to (if needed) create that path + under the same permissions. + + [Test Case] + + * sudo rm -rf /var/cache/pollinate + * sudo reboot + * systemctl status pollinate + + Without the fix it will fail to start missing the directory (but + complaining about a wrong user). With the fix it works as systemd + recreates that directory if needed. + + [Where problems could occur] + + * We modify the service file, so issues would be around the + /var/cache/pollinate creation/usage or the start/stop/restart + of the service. + + [Other Info] + + * the postinst bits doeing the mkdir are not removed to easen backport to + e.g. Xenial where this systemd feature does not exist. + + + ---- + In a standard Ubuntu 19.10 cloud image install, pollinate fails to start: ● pollinate.service - Pollinate to seed the pseudo random number generator Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/pollinate.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2019-10-20 12:17:10 EEST; 3 months 4 days ago Docs: https://launchpad.net/pollinate Main PID: 665 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) Oct 20 12:17:10 ubuntu systemd[1]: Starting Pollinate to seed the pseudo random number generator... Oct 20 12:17:10 ubuntu pollinate[708]: ERROR: should execute as the [pollinate] user Oct 20 12:17:10 ubuntu systemd[1]: pollinate.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE Oct 20 12:17:10 ubuntu systemd[1]: pollinate.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. Oct 20 12:17:10 ubuntu systemd[1]: Failed to start Pollinate to seed the pseudo random number generator. The user does exist: # id pollinate uid=110(pollinate) gid=1(daemon) groups=1(daemon) and the unit has "User=pollinate" This happens outside of systemd as well: # sudo -u pollinate /usr/bin/pollinate <13>Jan 24 09:31:05 pollinate[21456]: ERROR: should execute as the [pollinate] user set -x shows why: + [ ! -w /var/cache/pollinate ] + error should execute as the [pollinate] user This directory doesn't exist. So (1) this is a bad error message, and (2) pollinate.service is missing "CacheDirectory=pollinate". When adding that, it works. pollinate 4.33-2ubuntu1 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1848923 Title: pollinate.service fails to start: ERROR: should execute as the [pollinate] user -- missing CacheDirectory= To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pollinate/+bug/1848923/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
