upower.service fails to start and causes significant delays in system operation

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1

I have started a new thread, as the failure of this service and its incessant attempts to restart are the cause of the delays I’m experiencing with the launch of Dolphin and any application that requires the display of the directory tree. See previous thread regarding Long Delay for the launch of Dolphin.

A sample of the output from the system journal starting with a boot is as follows:

pepper:~ # journalctl -b -u upower
-- Logs begin at Fri 2018-09-14 22:37:06 BST, end at Tue 2018-10-02 12:13:30 BST. --
Oct 02 12:08:21 pepper systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Oct 02 12:08:21 pepper systemd[581]: upower.service: Failed to set up mount namespacing: No such file or directory
Oct 02 12:08:21 pepper systemd[581]: upower.service: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/lib/upower/upowerd: No such file or directory
Oct 02 12:08:21 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE
Oct 02 12:08:21 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 02 12:08:21 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[627]: upower.service: Failed to set up mount namespacing: No such file or directory
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[627]: upower.service: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/lib/upower/upowerd: No such file or directory
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 2.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[638]: upower.service: Failed to set up mount namespacing: No such file or directory
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[638]: upower.service: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/lib/upower/upowerd: No such file or directory
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 3.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[705]: upower.service: Failed to set up mount namespacing: No such file or directory
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[705]: upower.service: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/lib/upower/upowerd: No such file or directory
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 02 12:08:22 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 12:08:23 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Oct 02 12:08:23 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 4.
Oct 02 12:08:23 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 12:08:23 pepper systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Oct 02 12:08:23 pepper systemd[729]: upower.service: Failed to set up mount namespacing: No such file or directory
Oct 02 12:08:23 pepper systemd[729]: upower.service: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/lib/upower/upowerd: No such file or directory
Oct 02 12:08:23 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE
Oct 02 12:08:23 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 02 12:08:23 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 12:08:23 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Oct 02 12:08:23 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Oct 02 12:08:23 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 12:08:23 pepper systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...

above sequence repeats about 12 times and ends

Oct 02 12:12:57 pepper systemd[2366]: upower.service: Failed to set up mount namespacing: No such file or directory
Oct 02 12:12:57 pepper systemd[2366]: upower.service: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/lib/upower/upowerd: No such file or directory
Oct 02 12:12:57 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE
Oct 02 12:12:57 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 02 12:12:57 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 12:12:57 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Oct 02 12:12:57 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Oct 02 12:12:57 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 12:12:57 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Oct 02 12:12:57 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 02 12:12:57 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.

The corresponding systemctl log outputs:

pepper:~ # systemctl status -l dbus.service
● dbus.service - D-Bus System Message Bus
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/dbus.service; static; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2018-10-02 12:08:20 BST; 5min ago
     Docs: man:dbus-daemon(1)
 Main PID: 568 (dbus-daemon)
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 4586)
   CGroup: /system.slice/dbus.service
           └─568 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system --address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-activation --syslog-only

Oct 02 12:11:32 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.PackageKit'
Oct 02 12:11:40 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.UPower': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
Oct 02 12:11:40 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.UPower' unit='upower.service' requested>
Oct 02 12:12:05 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.UPower': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
Oct 02 12:12:05 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.UPower' unit='upower.service' requested>
Oct 02 12:12:30 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.UPower': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
Oct 02 12:12:30 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.UPower' unit='upower.service' requested>
Oct 02 12:12:55 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.UPower': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
Oct 02 12:12:56 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.UPower' unit='upower.service' requested>
Oct 02 12:13:21 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.UPower': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)

The repeated 25000ms timeouts are the cause of the significant delay in boot time. i.e. about 4 1/2 minutes.

This wouldn’t be so bad, if this occurred only at boot time, but for some inexplicable reason attempts are made to restart this service with the same resulting failure and delay when Dolphin (among other applications) is launched. This generally results in a 50 second delay as seen from the following output after a request to launch Dolphin was made:

Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[2754]: upower.service: Failed to set up mount namespacing: No such file or directory
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[2754]: upower.service: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/lib/upower/upowerd: No such file or directory
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 2.
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.

lines removed to meet post limits 

Oct 02 11:53:14 pepper systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Oct 02 11:53:14 pepper systemd[2787]: upower.service: Failed to set up mount namespacing: No such file or directory
Oct 02 11:53:14 pepper systemd[2787]: upower.service: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/lib/upower/upowerd: No such file or directory
Oct 02 11:53:14 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE
Oct 02 11:53:14 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 02 11:53:14 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 4.
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[2790]: upower.service: Failed to set up mount namespacing: No such file or directory
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[2790]: upower.service: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/lib/upower/upowerd: No such file or directory
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 02 11:53:15 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.

pepper:~ # systemctl status -l dbus.service
● dbus.service - D-Bus System Message Bus
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/dbus.service; static; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2018-10-02 12:08:20 BST; 12min left
     Docs: man:dbus-daemon(1)
 Main PID: 568 (dbus-daemon)
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 4586)
   CGroup: /system.slice/dbus.service
           └─568 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system --address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-activation --syslog-only

Oct 02 12:12:30 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.UPower' unit='upower.service' requested by ':1.3>
Oct 02 12:12:55 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.UPower': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
Oct 02 12:12:56 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.UPower' unit='upower.service' requested by ':1.4>
Oct 02 12:13:21 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.UPower': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
Oct 02 11:34:18 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Activating service name='org.opensuse.Snapper' requested by ':1.64' (uid=0 pid=2678 comm="/usr/lib/sna>
Oct 02 11:34:18 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.opensuse.Snapper'
Oct 02 11:52:48 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.UPower' unit='upower.service' requested by ':1.6>
Oct 02 11:53:13 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.UPower': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
Oct 02 11:53:14 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.UPower' unit='upower.service' requested by ':1.6>
Oct 02 11:53:39 pepper dbus-daemon[568]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.UPower': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)

Please note that the timestamp looks out of sequence, because the system starts with a +40 minute offset before re-adjusting to current time. (BTW The Locale Service isn’t starting for a similar namespacing reason as the upower service, so may be the cause of that.)

Since this is a desktop system without a battery, I have attempted to disable the service with the services manager or, at least, force it to only start at boot time, but it has a mind of its own and attempts to run regardless.

This issue appeared after a zypper update, but I’m not able to remember when. A zypper dup was run last week.

Any suggestions as to how to get this service to start or at least to prevent it looping or invoking the timeout will be appreciated. Thanks.

2

I am not able to decide what the sequence was. zypper up > error > zypper dup or zypper dup > zypper up > error.

In any case, you should not do a zypper update on Tumbleweed at all. Only zypper dup.
Whne you last was not a zypper dup, please do so.

3

You may check for zypper commands:

hofkirchen:~ # zgrep 'main.cc(main):75' /var/log/zypper.log-20181001.xz|grep dup
2018-09-28 17:15:01 <1> hofkirchen(7230) [zypper] main.cc(main):75 ===== 'zypper' 'dup' '--auto-agree-with-licenses' '--allow-vendor-change' =====
2018-09-29 20:54:23 <1> hofkirchen(6905) [zypper] main.cc(main):75 ===== 'zypper' 'dup' '--auto-agree-with-licenses' '--allow-vendor-change' =====
hofkirchen:~ #
4

Apologies for the delay in reply, but I didn’t see an email notifying me of your response.

I’m afraid there appears to be a misunderstanding regarding the use of the word ‘update’. To my knowledge I’ve only ever run zypper dup, as indicated in my post.

Either way, none of them have resolved the namespacing problem that causes upower to get into such a flap.

I have removed upower using zypper remove and, as suspected, all the delays encountered during boot and Dolphin launch have gone away - Dolphin launches in 1 - 2 secs.

It’s not a good solution, as there’s clearly something awry with namespacing, but I’ve not been able to find anything on the 'net that specifically addresses this issue. It’s odd, because a developer obviously envisaged the possibility that namespacing might fail. Otherwise, why write error messages to that effect.

5

In TW you upgrade not update since basically you get a new OS each time you do it.

6

The OP has already indicated he does use ‘zypper dup’.

7

This is kind of weird. Here, on my TW install, /usr/lib/upower/upowerd is present, executable and so on. The logs clearly state that upowerd does not exist on your system. Which makes me wonder what happens if you reinstall upower ?

8

Apologies for the delay in reply. For some reason, I’m not receiving all notifications.

I have removed upower and have then re-installed it. It appears in services, but attempts to start it immediately result in failure with the same output, as shown in this thread.

9

In validation of the above post, I have removed and re-installed upower.

pepper:~ # zypper remove upower
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Resolving package dependencies...

The following 2 packages are going to be REMOVED:
  upower upower-lang

2 packages to remove.
After the operation, 395.4 KiB will be freed.
Continue? [y/n/...? shows all options] (y): y
(1/2) Removing upower-lang-0.99.8-2.1.noarch ......................................................................................................[done]
(2/2) Removing upower-0.99.8-2.1.x86_64 ...........................................................................................................[done]

pepper:~ # zypper install upower
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Resolving package dependencies...

The following NEW package is going to be installed:
  upower

The following package is recommended, but will not be installed due to conflicts or dependency issues:
  upower-lang

1 new package to install.
Overall download size: 142.1 KiB. Already cached: 0 B. After the operation, additional 384.4 KiB will be used.
Continue? [y/n/...? shows all options] (y): y
Retrieving package upower-0.99.8-2.1.x86_64                                                                         (1/1), 142.1 KiB (384.4 KiB unpacked)
Retrieving: upower-0.99.8-2.1.x86_64.rpm ..........................................................................................................[done]
Checking for file conflicts: ......................................................................................................................[done]
(1/1) Installing: upower-0.99.8-2.1.x86_64 ........................................................................................................[done]

pepper:~ # cd /usr/lib/upower/
pepper:/usr/lib/upower # ls -l
total 252
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 256120 Aug 28 08:43 upowerd

pepper:/usr/lib/upower #

Detail from services manager log:


  ● upower.service - Daemon for power management
    Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/upower.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
    Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2018-10-15 12:41:32 BST; 11min ago
      Docs: man:upowerd(8)
   Process: 12540 ExecStart=/usr/lib/upower/upowerd (code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE)  
Main PID: 12540 (code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE)
 
Oct 15 12:41:32 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart. 
Oct 15 12:41:32 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5. 
Oct 15 12:41:32 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management. 
Oct 15 12:41:32 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Start request repeated too quickly. 
Oct 15 12:41:32 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. 
Oct 15 12:41:32 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.

Out of interest, the system-localed service also suffers a similar namespacing error:


● systemd-localed.service - Locale Service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-localed.service; static; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2018-10-15 12:44:35 BST; 30s ago
     Docs: man:systemd-localed.service(8)
           man:locale.conf(5)
           man:vconsole.conf(5)
           https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/localed
  Process: 13625 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-localed (code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE)
 Main PID: 13625 (code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE)


Oct 15 12:44:35 pepper systemd[1]: Starting Locale Service...
Oct 15 12:44:35 pepper systemd[13625]: systemd-localed.service: Failed to set up mount namespacing: No such file or directory
Oct 15 12:44:35 pepper systemd[13625]: systemd-localed.service: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-localed: No such file or directory
Oct 15 12:44:35 pepper systemd[1]: systemd-localed.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE
Oct 15 12:44:35 pepper systemd[1]: systemd-localed.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 15 12:44:35 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Locale Service.

I mention it because it may, perhaps, point to a system issue rather than a specific application problem.

10

Some questions remarks:

  • Could it be that the reason /usr/lib/upower/upowerd and /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-localed are not found is that they are (normally) part of initramfs and that is not re-created after installing the upower package
  • You can recreate initramfs by running “mkinitrd”
  • Did you check, after the boot, were /usr/lib/upower/upowerd and /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-localed still available?
  • Likely unrelated but you never know, why did you get the message “The following package is recommended, but will not be installed due to conflicts or dependency issues” for upower-lang
11

Thank you for your comments.

I checked that neither service would start, ran mkinitrd and checked again, but the services still fail to start.

pepper:/var/log/zypp # service upower start
Job for upower.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status upower.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
pepper:/var/log/zypp # service system-localed start
service: no such service system-localed
pepper:/var/log/zypp # service systemd-localed start
Job for systemd-localed.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status systemd-localed.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
pepper:/var/log/zypp # mkinitrd
Creating initrd: /boot/initrd-4.18.11-1-default
dracut: Executing: /usr/bin/dracut --logfile /var/log/YaST2/mkinitrd.log --force --force-drivers "ahci xennet xenblk" /boot/initrd-4.18.11-1-default 4.18.11-1-default
dracut: *** Including module: bash ***
dracut: *** Including module: systemd ***
dracut: *** Including module: warpclock ***
dracut: *** Including module: systemd-initrd ***
dracut: *** Including module: i18n ***
dracut: *** Including module: drm ***
dracut: *** Including module: plymouth ***
dracut: *** Including module: kernel-modules ***
dracut: *** Including module: resume ***
dracut: *** Including module: rootfs-block ***
dracut: *** Including module: suse-xfs ***
dracut: *** Including module: terminfo ***
dracut: *** Including module: udev-rules ***
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 40-redhat.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 50-firmware.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 50-udev.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 91-permissions.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 80-drivers-modprobe.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 61-persistent-storage-compat.rules
dracut: *** Including module: dracut-systemd ***
dracut: *** Including module: haveged ***
dracut: *** Including module: ostree ***
dracut: *** Including module: usrmount ***
dracut: *** Including module: base ***
dracut: *** Including module: fs-lib ***
dracut: *** Including module: shutdown ***
dracut: *** Including module: suse ***
dracut: *** Including modules done ***
dracut: *** Installing kernel module dependencies and firmware ***
dracut: *** Installing kernel module dependencies and firmware done ***
dracut: *** Resolving executable dependencies ***
dracut: *** Resolving executable dependencies done***
dracut: *** Hardlinking files ***
dracut: *** Hardlinking files done ***
dracut: *** Stripping files ***
dracut: *** Stripping files done ***
dracut: *** Generating early-microcode cpio image ***
dracut: *** Constructing GenuineIntel.bin ****
dracut: *** Store current command line parameters ***
dracut: Stored kernel commandline:
dracut: rd.driver.pre=ahci
rd.driver.pre=xennet
rd.driver.pre=xenblk
dracut:  resume=UUID=1d8adb8c-5411-42c7-af67-ebea54c8158f
dracut:  root=UUID=436e2485-b613-43ce-9e5d-5bd26027fa77 rootfstype=ext4 rootflags=rw,relatime,stripe=32639
dracut: *** Creating image file '/boot/initrd-4.18.11-1-default' ***
dracut: *** Creating initramfs image file '/boot/initrd-4.18.11-1-default' done ***
Creating initrd: /boot/initrd-4.18.12-1-default
dracut: Executing: /usr/bin/dracut --logfile /var/log/YaST2/mkinitrd.log --force --force-drivers "ahci xennet xenblk" /boot/initrd-4.18.12-1-default 4.18.12-1-default
dracut: *** Including module: bash ***
dracut: *** Including module: systemd ***
dracut: *** Including module: warpclock ***
dracut: *** Including module: systemd-initrd ***
dracut: *** Including module: i18n ***
dracut: *** Including module: drm ***
dracut: *** Including module: plymouth ***
dracut: *** Including module: kernel-modules ***
dracut: *** Including module: resume ***
dracut: *** Including module: rootfs-block ***
dracut: *** Including module: suse-xfs ***
dracut: *** Including module: terminfo ***
dracut: *** Including module: udev-rules ***
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 40-redhat.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 50-firmware.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 50-udev.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 91-permissions.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 80-drivers-modprobe.rules
dracut: Skipping udev rule: 61-persistent-storage-compat.rules
dracut: *** Including module: dracut-systemd ***
dracut: *** Including module: haveged ***
dracut: *** Including module: ostree ***
dracut: *** Including module: usrmount ***
dracut: *** Including module: base ***
dracut: *** Including module: fs-lib ***
dracut: *** Including module: shutdown ***
dracut: *** Including module: suse ***
dracut: *** Including modules done ***
dracut: *** Installing kernel module dependencies and firmware ***
dracut: *** Installing kernel module dependencies and firmware done ***
dracut: *** Resolving executable dependencies ***
dracut: *** Resolving executable dependencies done***
dracut: *** Hardlinking files ***
dracut: *** Hardlinking files done ***
dracut: *** Stripping files ***
dracut: *** Stripping files done ***
dracut: *** Generating early-microcode cpio image ***
dracut: *** Constructing GenuineIntel.bin ****
dracut: *** Store current command line parameters ***
dracut: Stored kernel commandline:
dracut: rd.driver.pre=ahci
rd.driver.pre=xennet
rd.driver.pre=xenblk
dracut:  resume=UUID=1d8adb8c-5411-42c7-af67-ebea54c8158f
dracut:  root=UUID=436e2485-b613-43ce-9e5d-5bd26027fa77 rootfstype=ext4 rootflags=rw,relatime,stripe=32639
dracut: *** Creating image file '/boot/initrd-4.18.12-1-default' ***
dracut: *** Creating initramfs image file '/boot/initrd-4.18.12-1-default' done ***
pepper:/var/log/zypp #

pepper:/var/log/zypp # service upower start
Job for upower.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status upower.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.

pepper:/var/log/zypp # service systemd-localed start
Job for systemd-localed.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status systemd-localed.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
pepper:/var/log/zypp #

They are both where they are indicated to be.


pepper:/var/log/zypp # cd /usr/lib/upower/
pepper:/usr/lib/upower # ls -l
total 252
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 256120 Aug 28 08:43 upowerd

pepper:/usr/lib/upower # cd ../systemd
pepper:/usr/lib/systemd # ls -l

-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   39032 Oct  2 19:59 systemd-localed

pepper:/usr/lib/systemd #

Output from journal

pepper:/var/log/zypp # journalctl -xe
-- Automatic restarting of the unit upower.service has been scheduled, as the result for
-- the configured Restart= setting for the unit.
Oct 16 10:10:36 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
-- Subject: Unit upower.service has finished shutting down
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit upower.service has finished shutting down.
Oct 16 10:10:36 pepper systemd[1]: Starting Daemon for power management...
-- Subject: Unit upower.service has begun start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit upower.service has begun starting up.
Oct 16 10:10:36 pepper systemd[18931]: upower.service: Failed to set up mount namespacing: No such file or directory
Oct 16 10:10:36 pepper systemd[18931]: upower.service: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/lib/upower/upowerd: No such file or directory
-- Subject: Process /usr/lib/upower/upowerd could not be executed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- The process /usr/lib/upower/upowerd could not be executed and failed.
-- 
-- The error number returned by this process is 2.
Oct 16 10:10:36 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE
Oct 16 10:10:36 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 16 10:10:36 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
-- Subject: Unit upower.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit upower.service has failed.
-- 
-- The result is RESULT.
Oct 16 10:10:36 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Oct 16 10:10:36 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
-- Subject: Automatic restarting of a unit has been scheduled
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Automatic restarting of the unit upower.service has been scheduled, as the result for
-- the configured Restart= setting for the unit.
Oct 16 10:10:36 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
-- Subject: Unit upower.service has finished shutting down
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit upower.service has finished shutting down.
Oct 16 10:10:36 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Oct 16 10:10:36 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 16 10:10:36 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
-- Subject: Unit upower.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit upower.service has failed.
-- 
-- The result is RESULT.

I’ll contact Support at ‘systemd-devel Info Page’ and see if they’re able to provide any insight.

BTW. The upower-lang conflict was because I’d flagged it as not to be installed in Yast. Installing it hasn’t made a difference, but it might have been an issue. Thank you for pointing it out.

12

Did some searching for status=226/NAMESPACE . In a number of cases, the culprit was found to be a symlink from /var/tmp to /tmp, or /root to /home/root. Any such thing present on your system?

13

I have been in contact with support at freedesktop.org. and have tracked the failure to an attribute setting in the upower.service file.


pepper:/usr/lib/systemd/system # cat upower.service
[Unit]
Description=Daemon for power management
Documentation=man:upowerd(8)

[Service]
Type=dbus
BusName=org.freedesktop.UPower
ExecStart=/usr/lib/upower/upowerd
Restart=on-failure

# Filesystem lockdown
ProtectSystem=strict
ProtectKernelTunables=true
ProtectControlGroups=true
ReadWritePaths=-/var/lib/upower
ProtectHome=true
PrivateTmp=true

# Execute Mappings
MemoryDenyWriteExecute=true

# Modules
ProtectKernelModules=true

# Real-time
RestrictRealtime=true

# Privilege escalation
NoNewPrivileges=true

[Install]
WantedBy=graphical.target
pepper:/usr/lib/systemd/system #

Commenting out the ‘ProtectHome=true’ attribute in the service file allows the service to start and run and display as Active(running) in the Yast services manager. More to the point, Dolphin and the other applications that were slow to launch are now launching without significant delay.

However, one must imagine that there is an underlying cause for that issue, as this was working a couple of months ago, yet it is not now. Reading the systemd man pages, also indicates that this might add a level of vulnerability to the system, so it really isn’t a working solution, but may point the way to the error.

As mentioned in earlier posts, I had removed upower entirely, but then discovered that there were a number of libraries that were dependent on its presence - even though it wasn’t running - on which other applications, such as Amarok and an older version of Opera depended. So upower’s removal wasn’t a solution either.

While it doesn’t solve the basic problem, a workaround, of which I became aware with my communication with Harald at freedesktop, is to mask the service, as upower is pretty much redundant on a desktop, anyway.

pepper:/usr/lib/systemd/system # systemctl mask upower.service 
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/upower.service → /dev/null.

This can be undone with ‘unmask’.

In closing, I’m pleased to report that the system is now booting and running responsively, again. I hope this will be of some use to others who may experience the same or similar issues.

Thank you to all who have offered assistance with this problem.

14

There’s a link in the /var directory to /home/var/tmp, but I don’t see any in the / directory.

pepper:/var # ls -la
total 52
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 May 28 09:08 .
drwxr-xr-x 26 root root 4096 Oct  5 10:29 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  208 May 28 09:08 .updated
drwxr-xr-x 11 root root 4096 May 25 21:22 adm
drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 4096 Aug 29 08:39 cache
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 May 25 21:22 crash
drwxr-xr-x 74 root root 4096 Oct 12 11:19 lib
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   11 Jun 28  2017 lock -> ../run/lock
drwxrwxr-t  4 root lock 4096 Sep 24  2012 lock.lockmove~
drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 Oct 17  2018 log
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   10 May 25 21:22 mail -> spool/mail
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 May 25 21:22 opt
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root    6 Aug 14  2015 run -> ../run
drwxr-xr-x  7 root root 4096 Aug 14  2015 run.runmove~
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 4096 May 25 21:22 spool
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   13 May 25 21:22 tmp -> /home/var/tmp
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 Nov 17  2017 yp
pepper:/var #

The ProtectHome=true directive (please refer to my post above) in the upower.service file according to the reference in

https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.exec.html

prevents access to /home, /root and /run/user, so if this is a false and unnecessary link then that may perhaps explain the issue. Especially since commenting out the directive allows upower to start. It would also, perhaps, explain why it appears to be a problem with my system alone.

What would be the likely harm of deleting the symlink?

15

The symlink tmp -> /home/var/tmp in /var is not on my system. Could you remove it, then unmask the upower service with the ProtectHome=true ? My gut feeling is that that is the culprit.

16

I would have gone with that also, but removing the symlink hasn’t, I’m sorry to say, made a difference. [ProtectHome=true]


pepper:/var # rm tmp
pepper:/var # ls -l
total 44
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  208 May 28 09:08 .updated
drwxr-xr-x 11 root root 4096 May 25 21:22 adm
drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 4096 Aug 29 08:39 cache
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 May 25 21:22 crash
drwxr-xr-x 74 root root 4096 Oct 12 11:19 lib
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   11 Jun 28  2017 lock -> ../run/lock
drwxrwxr-t  4 root lock 4096 Sep 24  2012 lock.lockmove~
drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 Oct 17 10:54 log
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   10 May 25 21:22 mail -> spool/mail
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 May 25 21:22 opt
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root    6 Aug 14  2015 run -> ../run
drwxr-xr-x  7 root root 4096 Aug 14  2015 run.runmove~
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 4096 May 25 21:22 spool
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 Nov 17  2017 yp
pepper:/var # systemctl unmask upower.service
Removed /etc/systemd/system/upower.service.
pepper:/var # systemctl daemon-reload
pepper:/var # systemctl restart upower
Job for upower.service failed because of unavailable resources or another system error.
See "systemctl status upower.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
pepper:/var # systemctl status upower.service 
● upower.service - Daemon for power management
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/upower.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: resources) since Wed 2018-10-17 18:53:21 BST; 44s ago
     Docs: man:upowerd(8)

Oct 17 18:53:21 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
Oct 17 18:53:21 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Oct 17 18:53:21 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Oct 17 18:53:21 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
Oct 17 18:53:21 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Oct 17 18:53:21 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'resources'.
Oct 17 18:53:21 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
pepper:/var # journalctl -xe
-- Subject: Unit upower.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit upower.service has failed.
-- 
-- The result is RESULT.
Oct 17 18:53:21 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.
Oct 17 18:53:21 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 4.
-- Subject: Automatic restarting of a unit has been scheduled
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Automatic restarting of the unit upower.service has been scheduled, as the result for
-- the configured Restart= setting for the unit.
Oct 17 18:53:21 pepper systemd[1]: Stopped Daemon for power management.
-- Subject: Unit upower.service has finished shutting down
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit upower.service has finished shutting down.
Oct 17 18:53:21 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed to run 'start' task: No such file or directory
Oct 17 18:53:21 pepper systemd[1]: upower.service: Failed with result 'resources'.
Oct 17 18:53:21 pepper systemd[1]: Failed to start Daemon for power management.
-- Subject: Unit upower.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit upower.service has failed.
-- 
-- The result is RESULT.

Thank you for your continued interest in trying to solve this problem. As indicated, I have a workaround by masking the service, so if you feel inclined to call it a day that would be OK by me.

17

LOL, you might need a reboot for it, maybe even a rebuild of the initrd. And yes, after repairing a hacked website/-app today, calling it a day and enjoying an awfully cold beer is the plan for the rest of the day :).
Anyway, AFAICS from what I’ve read, masking upower won’t hurt your system.