Failed to start Setup Virtual Console

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Hello,

I have recently installed openSuse Leap 15. Yesterday, I reboot after a “zypper patch” , encountering a black screen with the following error:

“Failed to start Setup Virtual Console
Starting Show Plymouth Boot Screen…
Entering emergency mode.”

And that’s all, I cannot access even the login screen.

Can anyone help me? I am pretty new with this operating system, any help would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance

#2

If this is a brand new system,
After installing you should have done a

zypper update

And not a patch.
The diff is that a patch only installs security fixes whereas a proper update installs not only security fixes, but also new features and all fixes.

Recommend re-installing instead of trying troubleshoot what you have.
First remove all existing partitions using fdisk after booting to a CD (almost any LiveCD, rescue CD, DVD install, etc), then with no partitions re-install

TSU

#3

Thank you for your answer, I will reinstall the operating system. One last question, what I did was:


zypper refresh
zypper update
zypper patch

The system was updated before the patching. Next time after reinstall, should I avoid doing the “zypper patch” at the end?

#4

It is harmless, and should take very little time to discover that there is nothing to patch. The “zypper update” should already have taken care of that.

#5

I get the same boot error on my desktop, my laptop and my Intel NUC, but everything seems fine. From what I could find on the 'Net, it’s nothing to worry about. Nobody seems to know why it happens, from what I’ve read. I hope someone does know, I am curious about what causes it. But I haven’t noticed any problems.

#6

I tried to figure out what could be the problem , it seem that it happened suddenly after updating but I am gonna ignore it until find some solution there.
more about virtual consoles

#7

Could you try the following with plymouth enabled:

  • modify /usr/lib/systemd/system/plymouth-start.service in order to have:

    Wants=systemd-ask-password-plymouth.path

    IOW remove systemd-vconsole-setup.service from Wants=

  • regenerate the initrd with “mkinitrd”

  • reboot and see if the error is gone (with plymouth enabled)

#8

yeah . . . I’ve also started to see this error on boot after an update in the last day or two.
Everything seems fine though - but curious to know what the cause is.

#9

I have just been ignoring that Virtual Console failure message. The message was already there before Leap 15.0 was released. And Tumbleweed was giving the same message. It does not seem to cause any problems, and the virtual consoles do work.

#10

Same here; maybe a timing race between Plymouth and Virtual Consoles?

#11

FYI there’s an open bug for this message: https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1055834

I’m getting the same, but as said here already: “Only” a message, virtual consoles are working fine

#12

Thank you for your messages. In my case is not only a message I can ignore, because I can’t “go forward” , I am stuck in a console where I can’t even edit a file. If I exit that console, the screen gets frozen.

I don’t have any problem reinstalling the system (I will probably do it when I have a little time), but I am curious about this error, because I have hardly done anything after installing, only updating. Therefore I am worried that this issue will happen again when reinstalling.

In response to l4k1 :

Could you try the following with plymouth enabled:

  • modify /usr/lib/systemd/system/plymouth-start.service in order to have:

Wants=systemd-ask-password-plymouth.path

IOW remove systemd-vconsole-setup.service from Wants=

  • regenerate the initrd with “mkinitrd”
  • reboot and see if the error is gone (with plymouth enabled)

I have tried that. After editing the file, when I run mkinitrd the following message appears:

“No kernel found in /boot or bad modules dir in /lib/modules”

#13

I just had this exact same problem when installing the current Tumbleweed Snapshot-20180828 and happened to stumble on a solution by sheer coincidence.

The issue has something to do with English language system keyboard layouts.

The default keyboard layout for an installation happens to be English (US) which I had forgotten to change in the first screen where the user is prompted to accept the licensing agreement. Upon first booting I was immediately greeted by the the “Failed to start Setup Virtual Console” error message discussed in this tread. The good news is that I was able to hit Ctrl-D to bypass the error. In Yast I then changed the system keyboard configuration to German to match my keyboard. The error no longer appeared after rebooting. The bad news is that this issue seems to affect all English language keyboard layouts: UK/UK and US International.

I hope this was somewhat helpful.

John

#14

Tried this on two machines – one desktop and one laptop – both AMD hardware …
BTW, the laptop wasn’t exhibiting the issue but, the desktop was – the desktop’s /var/log/boot.msg had numerous “Failed to start Setup Virtual Console” entries with red coloured marks …

Removing ‘systemd-vconsole-setup.service’ “Want” from the Plymouth start service fixed the issue on the desktop and didn’t affect the laptop – the laptop booted as normal … Both machines are exhibiting no issues with respect the Virtual Terminals tty1 … tty6.

Only one thing, " journalctl --this-boot | grep -E ’ Virtual|vconsole| console| tty| Locale|Display Manager| Network | wicked managed | Command Scheduler’ " on the laptop (Network Manager) reveals:


Aug 30 17:05:54 yyy kernel: console [tty0] enabled
Aug 30 17:05:54 yyy systemd-udevd[219]: Network interface NamePolicy= disabled by default.
Aug 30 17:05:54 yyy systemd-udevd[219]: Network interface NamePolicy= disabled by default.
Aug 30 17:05:54 yyy systemd-vconsole-setup[313]: KD_FONT_OP_GET failed while trying to get the font metadata: Function not implemented
Aug 30 17:05:54 yyy systemd-vconsole-setup[313]: Fonts will not be copied to remaining consoles
Aug 30 17:06:04 yyy systemd-udevd[452]: Network interface NamePolicy= disabled by default.
Aug 30 17:06:09 yyy kernel: kvm: Nested Virtualization enabled
Aug 30 17:06:12 yyy systemd[1]: Starting VirtualBox Linux kernel module...
Aug 30 17:06:12 yyy vboxdrv.sh[1236]: vboxdrv.sh: Starting VirtualBox services.
Aug 30 17:06:12 yyy avahi-daemon[1250]: Network interface enumeration completed.
Aug 30 17:06:12 yyy vboxdrv.sh[1274]: Starting VirtualBox services.
Aug 30 17:06:12 yyy systemd[1]: Reached target Host and Network Name Lookups.
Aug 30 17:06:14 yyy vboxdrv.sh[1403]: VirtualBox services started.
Aug 30 17:06:14 yyy systemd[1]: Started VirtualBox Linux kernel module.
Aug 30 17:06:14 yyy systemd[1]: Reached target Network (Pre).
Aug 30 17:06:14 yyy systemd[1]: Starting Network Manager...
Aug 30 17:06:15 yyy systemd[1]: Started Network Manager.
Aug 30 17:06:15 yyy systemd[1]: Reached target Network is Online.

The same journal search on the desktop (Wicked) journal doesn’t reveal any vconsole-setup entries:


Aug 30 13:34:29 xxx kernel: console [tty0] enabled
Aug 30 13:34:29 xxx kernel: 00:03: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4, base_baud = 115200) is a 16550A
Aug 30 13:34:29 xxx systemd-udevd[218]: Network interface NamePolicy= disabled by default.
Aug 30 13:34:29 xxx systemd-udevd[218]: Network interface NamePolicy= disabled by default.
Aug 30 13:34:31 xxx systemd-udevd[450]: Network interface NamePolicy= disabled by default.
Aug 30 13:34:32 xxx kernel: kvm: Nested Virtualization enabled
Aug 30 13:34:37 xxx systemd[1]: Starting VirtualBox Linux kernel module...
Aug 30 13:34:37 xxx vboxdrv.sh[1023]: vboxdrv.sh: Starting VirtualBox services.
Aug 30 13:34:37 xxx vboxdrv.sh[1101]: Starting VirtualBox services.
Aug 30 13:34:37 xxx avahi-daemon[1046]: Network interface enumeration completed.
Aug 30 13:34:37 xxx systemd[1]: Reached target Host and Network Name Lookups.
Aug 30 13:34:37 xxx vboxdrv.sh[1136]: VirtualBox services started.
Aug 30 13:34:37 xxx systemd[1]: Started VirtualBox Linux kernel module.
Aug 30 13:34:38 xxx systemd[1]: Reached target Network (Pre).
Aug 30 13:34:38 xxx systemd[1]: Starting wicked managed network interfaces...
Aug 30 13:34:49 xxx systemd[1]: Started wicked managed network interfaces.
Aug 30 13:34:50 xxx systemd[1]: Reached target Network is Online.

To date I haven’t found what’s calling the vconsole-setup service on the laptop. Any ideas?

#15

So you are suggesting that if I switch to a German keyboard, that message will go away.

I think I’ll just continue ignoring the message.

#16

Confirming this, removing ‘systemd-vconsole-setup.service’ “Want” fixes the issue on my laptop (with Network Manager). Nothing suspicious on the journal here, using Italian system KBD BTW.

Maybe the German layout is just a lucky corner case, I was seeing the vconsole error with Italian layout. Out of curiosity I switched to the German layout and the error disappeared…

#17

I suspect not:

  • systemd reads ‘/etc/locale.conf’
  • vconsole-setup reads ‘/etc/vconsole.conf’ which is usually created by the systemd-localed.service
    and modified by localectl.

But, I’ve just at this moment compared the locale.conf on this laptop which didn’t have an issue with vconsole-setup and the locale.conf on the desktop which did have an issue with the vconsole-setup:

  • The laptop had only suffered upgrades from Leap 42.1 to 42.2 to 42.3 to 15.0.
  • The desktop had suffered upgrades from 13.2 via Leap 42.2 and 42.3 to 15.0.

On the desktop, ‘locale.conf’ contains a “LANG=” value.
On the laptop, ‘locale.conf’ contains a “LC_CTYPE=” value.
The contents of ‘vconsole.conf’ is the same on both machines:


KEYMAP=de-latin1-nodeadkeys
FONT=eurlatgr.psfu
FONT_MAP=none

I’ll revert this laptop to the original Plymouth start service “Wants” values, and then change the desktop ‘locale.conf’ value plus reverting the Plymouth start service – I’ll be back soon … >:)

#18

Back on the desktop – reverted the Plymouth start service to “Wants” systemd-ask-password-plymouth.path and systemd-vconsole-setup.service – changed the contents of locale.conf from LANG= to LC_CTYPE= – rebooted.

  • No “Failed to start Setup Virtual Console” entry on tty1 or in the boot log.

Reverted locale.conf content back to LANG= – rebooted – the vconsole misbehaviour remained absent – it didn’t reappear …
I’ve reverted the locale.conf back to LC_CTYPE= for now – will wait a few days to see if the issue reappears …
At the last boot (locale.conf contains LC_CTYPE= ) filtered journal entries look like this:


 # journalctl --this-boot | grep -E ' Virtual|vconsole| console| tty| Locale|Display Manager| Network | wicked managed | Command Scheduler'
Aug 30 19:21:40 xxx kernel: console [tty0] enabled
Aug 30 19:21:40 xxx kernel: 00:03: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4, base_baud = 115200) is a 16550A
Aug 30 19:21:40 xxx systemd-udevd[218]: Network interface NamePolicy= disabled by default.
Aug 30 19:21:40 xxx systemd-udevd[218]: Network interface NamePolicy= disabled by default.
Aug 30 19:21:42 xxx systemd-udevd[423]: Network interface NamePolicy= disabled by default.
Aug 30 19:21:42 xxx systemd[1]: Started Setup Virtual Console.
Aug 30 19:21:42 xxx systemd[1]: Starting Setup Virtual Console...
Aug 30 19:21:43 xxx kernel: kvm: Nested Virtualization enabled
Aug 30 19:21:43 xxx systemd[1]: Started Setup Virtual Console.
Aug 30 19:21:46 xxx systemd[1]: Starting VirtualBox Linux kernel module...
Aug 30 19:21:46 xxx systemd[1]: Reached target Host and Network Name Lookups.
Aug 30 19:21:46 xxx avahi-daemon[1032]: Network interface enumeration completed.
Aug 30 19:21:46 xxx vboxdrv.sh[1029]: vboxdrv.sh: Starting VirtualBox services.
Aug 30 19:21:46 xxx vboxdrv.sh[1093]: Starting VirtualBox services.
Aug 30 19:21:47 xxx vboxdrv.sh[1120]: VirtualBox services started.
Aug 30 19:21:47 xxx systemd[1]: Started VirtualBox Linux kernel module.
Aug 30 19:21:47 xxx systemd[1]: Reached target Network (Pre).
Aug 30 19:21:47 xxx systemd[1]: Starting wicked managed network interfaces...
Aug 30 19:21:56 xxx systemd[1]: Started wicked managed network interfaces.
Aug 30 19:21:56 xxx systemd[1]: Reached target Network is Online.
Aug 30 19:21:56 xxx systemd[1]: Starting Autostart Headless Virtual Box VMs...
Aug 30 19:21:56 xxx vboxes.sh[2231]: Starting Virtualbox machines: no virtual machines configured
Aug 30 19:21:57 xxx systemd[1]: Started Autostart Headless Virtual Box VMs.
Aug 30 19:21:57 xxx systemd[1]: Started Command Scheduler.
Aug 30 19:21:57 xxx systemd[1]: Starting X Display Manager...
Aug 30 19:21:57 xxx display-manager[2335]: /etc/vconsole.conf available
Aug 30 19:21:57 xxx systemd[1]: Starting Locale Service...
Aug 30 19:21:57 xxx systemd[1]: Started Locale Service.
Aug 30 19:22:01 xxx systemd[1]: Started Getty on tty1.
Aug 30 19:22:01 xxx systemd[1]: Started X Display Manager.
Aug 30 19:22:18 xxx systemd[2464]: Starting Virtual filesystem service...
Aug 30 19:22:18 xxx systemd[2464]: Started Virtual filesystem service.
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#19

Hi, there!
I have the same boot error. (Anyway, virtual console is working fine.)

#20

??WHAT??

No sense of adventure?:slight_smile: