A single bad generation prevents systemd-boot-builder.py from building later generations

[colemickens]

Describe the bug

If you have a "bad generation" for certain reason, it can break your ability to fix by switching to a new generation.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Accidentally set as the system profile, and then run a switch-to-configuration switch on a system build that is meant for an aarch64.
2. Fix this.
3. Try to activate a proper new generation.

Expected behavior
It works. And systemd-boot-builder.py skips any generations that are bad.

Additional context
The problem basically came down to initrd-append-secrets failing as bad of the 'bad generation' as systemd-boot-builder.py iterates over all system generations to build the boot entries.

I would suggest that maybe systemd-boot-builder.py should emit warnings but ultimately continue on failures such as failing to run initrd-append-secrets.

[colemickens]

In my case, this was the exact issue:

raceback (most recent call last):
  File "/nix/store/nw6hfg5y5q9lbciq36awbhyigww0p0kx-systemd-boot-builder.py", line 256, in <module>
    main()
  File "/nix/store/nw6hfg5y5q9lbciq36awbhyigww0p0kx-systemd-boot-builder.py", line 225, in main
    write_entry(*gen, machine_id)
  File "/nix/store/nw6hfg5y5q9lbciq36awbhyigww0p0kx-systemd-boot-builder.py", line 95, in write_entry
    subprocess.check_call([append_initrd_secrets, "/boot%s" % (initrd)])
  File "/nix/store/7q4crsd8kvmma32ff2xw4w9ydj5k26cy-python3-3.8.3/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 359, in check_call
    retcode = call(*popenargs, **kwargs)
  File "/nix/store/7q4crsd8kvmma32ff2xw4w9ydj5k26cy-python3-3.8.3/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 340, in call
    with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as p:
  File "/nix/store/7q4crsd8kvmma32ff2xw4w9ydj5k26cy-python3-3.8.3/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 854, in __init__
    self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
  File "/nix/store/7q4crsd8kvmma32ff2xw4w9ydj5k26cy-python3-3.8.3/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 1702, in _execute_child
    raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg, err_filename)
OSError: [Errno 8] Exec format error: '/nix/store/0yjyqy39s4jflyiww0xcfqbp81x6h9lz-append-initrd-secrets/bin/append-initrd-secrets'

[flokli]

Yeah, some exception handling might need to be integrated in there.

[stale]

I marked this as stale due to inactivity. → More info

[colemickens]

still important to me

[stale]

I marked this as stale due to inactivity. → More info

[thiagokokada]

Still valid: #144811 (comment)

[superherointj]

I also had this issue.

Workaround I used:

To list generations:
nix-env -p /nix/var/nix/profiles/system --list-generations

To delete old generations:
nix-env -p /nix/var/nix/profiles/system --delete-generations old

Note: When using the live CD installer remember to update path with prefix of where your (not the live CD) system root partition was mounted. In my case, I had to add /mnt prefix because that is where I mounted my root partition.

[tejing1]

Just had to help another person get around this issue. It's a really ugly newbie trap.

[nixos-discourse]

This issue has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/need-help-on-failure-of-building-my-configuration/16842/26