Bug#398312: INITRDSTART='none' doesn't work

[martin f krafft]

severity 398312 important
tags 398312 unreproducible moreinfo
thanks

> even though i have INITRDSTART='none' in my /etc/default/mdadm and rebuilt >
the initrd, it still goes and does array discovery at boot time.

piper:/tmp/cdt.d.Ns8889# grep '^INITRD' /etc/default/mdadm
INITRDSTART='none'
piper:/tmp/cdt.d.Ns8889# update-initramfs -c -b . -k $(uname -r)
update-initramfs: Generating ./initrd.img-2.6.18-2-amd64
W: mdadm: /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf defines no arrays.
I: mdadm: using configuration file: /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
I: mdadm: no MD arrays will be started from the initial ramdisk.
I: mdadm: use `dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low mdadm` to change this.
update-initramfs -c -b . -k $(uname -r)  8.48s user 1.58s system 35% cpu 28.365 total
piper:/tmp/cdt.d.Ns8889# zcat initrd.img-2.6.18-2-amd64| cpio -i
27018 blocks
piper:/tmp/cdt.d.Ns8889# grep DEVS conf/md.conf
MD_DEVS=none

I get the same result whether I have arrays defined in
/etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf or not.

Also, if you look at /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/mdadm,
I cannot figure out how the behaviour you're seeing is even
possible:

[...]
  INITRDSTART=all
  [ -s $DEBIANCONFIG ] && . $DEBIANCONFIG
  [ -z "$INITRDSTART" ] && INITRDSTART=none
[...]
  if [ "$INITRDSTART" != none ] && [ -n "$devpairs" ]; then
    [...]
  else
    echo "MD_DEVS=none" >> $DESTCONFIG
    info "no MD arrays will be started from the initial ramdisk." >&2
  fi
[...]

Please try again after
  sed -i 's,set -eu,&x,' /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/mdadm
and post the output.

> this is marked grave because it can cause dataloss if drives with
> stale superblocks are put together in an unexpected manner
> resulting in an array rebuild.  (i.e. same reasoning as #398310)

Again, I don't see this as a grave bug but human error. I agree that
mdadm should do something against it, but it's not a grave problem
every time that it fails to prevent human error.

> and starting all arrays is a bad one.  if i built my initrd
> without an mdadm.conf i don't see why you would create one...
> maybe if you asked first "unable to find root device, should i try
> to autodiscover and start arrays?" or required an option on the
> kernel command line...

My goal with mdadm was to make it a smooth upgrade from 1.9.x.
I realise that it doesn't do everything it should, nor is it free of
hacks, but there was only so much I could do with it in time for
etch.

I am willing to consider alternatives once etch is out. However, an
interactive prompt during the startup sequence is not one of them.

Instead, as per #398310, I would like to make mdadm deal with
a matrix of devices and times when they should be assembled/stopped.

-- 
 .''`.   martin f. krafft <madduck at debian.org>
: :'  :  proud Debian developer, author, administrator, and user
`. `'`   http://people.debian.org/~madduck - http://debiansystem.info
  `-  Debian - when you have better things to do than fixing systems
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