[artix-general] [s6] random boot error -> setfont: ERROR kdfontop.c:232 put_font_kdfontop: ioctl(KDFONTOP): Input/output error

[Javier]

When booting, I'm randomly getting the following error:

> setfont:  ERROR kdfontop.c:232 put_font_kdfontop:  ioctl(KDFONTOP):  Input/output error

Notice that "sudo dmesg" doesn't show that message at all, and "grep -ri -e setfont -e kdfontop /var/log" don't show a single thing, so it's sort of hard to find out what's going on.  It happens whether on a HP laptop or mintbox2.  My mkinitcpio:

> % 'grep' '^[ \t]*[^#]' /etc/mkinitcpio.conf                                                                                                                                                                                        
> MODULES=(i915)
> BINARIES=()
> FILES=()
> HOOKS=(base udev block autodetect modconf keyboard keymap consolefont encrypt resume filesystems fsck)
> COMPRESSION="zstd"
> COMPRESSION_OPTIONS=(-T$(nproc --ignore 1))

I'm not sure if related to S6 (the init/supervisor system I use), but I believe it is.  It shows up on the 1st tty1, besides/after the 1st useless login prompt shows up when using S6, but it quickly goes away when tty1 gets over rendered or overwritten, showing a 2nd now useful prompt, so it goes away pretty fast.  And as you can see, it doesn't log anywhere it seems (at least not somewhere I'm used to look for logs).

Although it seems related to fonts, I don't know how harmless it is, since the "ioclt(...):  Input/output error" indicates there's an issue accessing disk, I'd guess.  Moreover, as it's random (sometimes it happens, but sometimes it doesn't), I'm kind of concerned.

Besides using early KMS, "consolefont" is one of the hooks I have included, given [1] suggestion.  Also I'm not finding many possible answers on the web for that specific error, but old [2] makes me think it's an issue with consolefont.  Notice as well:

> % cat /etc/vconsole.conf                                                                                                                                                                                                           
> KEYMAP=la-latin1
> FONT=ter-v14n

However, I've already tried removing "consolefont" from the mkinitcpio hooks list and rebuilding the initrd to then reboot, and that doesn't help a bit.  Knowing that, and considering the error shows up after the 1st prompt (useless one, since it gets replaced later) shows up, makes me almost sure this is not about initrd early user space bring up.  Perhaps the way S6 starts tty.

It's important to note, this started showing up just after recent upgrade with several S6 packages upgrading, including:  s6-scripts, s6-rc, cryptsetup-s6, kexec-tools and lvm2-s6, and I haven't noticed it before.  I also noticed s6-scripts includes several tty and console related stuff, though nothing specifically called "consolefont", but that might be called underneath.

BTW, my major concern, as mentioned is about the "ioctl Input/output error"...  So far it seems harmless, though if I have time, I prefer rebooting several times until booting without that error...

Any help understanding and fixing such error is appreciated.  In my mind, with S6 at least (not sure yet if S6 specific though), it should be easy to reproduce, since it's happening randomly on different machines (HP laptop with core i7, vs mintbox2 mini-pcs with core-i5).  However it's not as easy to see, given how fast the initial rendered tty1 is substituted by another one...

Thanks !

-- 
Javier


[1]  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Encrypting_an_entire_system#Configuring_mkinitcpio
[2]  https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-134911-start-0.html

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