[kwlug-disc] Degraded systems (all of mine, yours too (probably))

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

I found that the systemd-networkd-wait-online service is disabled on 6 of
my machines, but enabled on another 2.

Examples where it is disabled:

foo
* systemd-networkd-wait-online.service - Wait for Network to be Configured
    Loaded: loaded
(/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-networkd-wait-online.service; disabled;
preset: enabled)
    Active: inactive (dead)
      Docs: man:systemd-networkd-wait-online.service(8)
bar
* systemd-networkd-wait-online.service - Wait for Network to be Configured
    Loaded: loaded
(/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-networkd-wait-online.service; disabled;
preset: enabled)
    Active: inactive (dead)
      Docs: man:systemd-networkd-wait-online.service(8)

On one machine that it is enabled, it runs fine:

Machine 1: wd1
* systemd-networkd-wait-online.service - Wait for Network to be Configured
     Loaded: loaded
(/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-networkd-wait-online.service; enabled;
preset: enabled)
    Drop-In: /run/systemd/system/systemd-networkd-wait-online.service.d
             `-10-netplan.conf
     Active: active (exited) since Sat 2026-04-04 11:47:36 EDT; 23h ago
       Docs: man:systemd-networkd-wait-online.service(8)
    Process: 1182 ExecStart=/lib/systemd/systemd-networkd-wait-online -i
*eno8303:degraded* (code=exited, status=0/*SUCCESS*)
    Process: 1740 ExecStart=/lib/systemd/systemd-networkd-wait-online --any
-o routable -i eno8303 (code=exited, status=0/*SUCCESS*)
   Main PID: 1740 (code=exited, status=0/*SUCCESS*)
        CPU: 11ms

Apr 04 11:47:31 wd1 systemd[1]: Starting
systemd-networkd-wait-online.service - Wait for Network to be Configured...
Apr 04 11:47:36 wd1 systemd[1]: Finished
systemd-networkd-wait-online.service - Wait for Network to be Configured.

On the other it times out and reports a failure:

Machine 2: w2
x systemd-networkd-wait-online.service - Wait for Network to be Configured
     Loaded: loaded
(/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-networkd-wait-online.service; enabled;
preset: enabled)
    Drop-In: /run/systemd/system/systemd-networkd-wait-online.service.d
             `-10-netplan.conf
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sat 2026-04-04 12:01:54 EDT;
23h ago
       Docs: man:systemd-networkd-wait-online.service(8)
    Process: 2447 ExecStart=/lib/systemd/systemd-networkd-wait-online
-i *eno8303:degraded
-i eno8403:degraded* (code=exited, status=1/*FAILURE*)
   Main PID: 2447 (code=exited, status=1/*FAILURE*)
        CPU: 17ms

Apr 04 11:59:54 w2 systemd[1]: Starting
systemd-networkd-wait-online.service - Wait for Network to be Configured...
Apr 04 12:01:54 w2 systemd-networkd-wait-online[2447]: Timeout occurred
while waiting for network connectivity.
Apr 04 12:01:54 w2 systemd[1]: systemd-networkd-wait-online.service: Main
process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Apr 04 12:01:54 w2 systemd[1]: systemd-networkd-wait-online.service: Failed
with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 04 12:01:54 w2 systemd[1]: Failed to start
systemd-networkd-wait-online.service - Wait for Network to be Configured.

The two machines are very similar in configuration, hardware and software.

Why only those two machines have that service enabled?
My guess is that they had a fresh install of Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS, and
not upgraded from earlier releases.

Most of the others that have the unit disabled were upgraded from 14.04 (or
earlier) through 22.04 and then 24.04.
A couple of them had a fresh install of Xubuntu 24.04 LTS, so maybe that is
how they are pre-configured.

I wouldn't be too concerned about it, except that it delays the booting of
this machine by a few minutes.

I can't glean much from the unit file itself.

The highlighted parts contain ids of the network interfaces.
Only one is actually used, and it runs fine.
No idea why it says "degraded" for both.

Can anyone shed more light on this?
Should I just disable that unit file?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.kwlug.org/pipermail/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org/attachments/20260405/1acb77ab/attachment.htm>