/usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth failed with return 1 due to warning in ldd output

This is very similar to bug #2037879 but with a slightly different error title.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-tools/+bug/2037879

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The relevant dpkg terminal log says:

E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth failed with return 1.

Sadly there is no error message explaining the exit code 1. Can you edit /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth and add "set -x" (without the quotes) to the script and then run update-initramfs to get more log output?

sudo nano /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth
sudo update-initramfs -u

Please attach the output to the bug report then.

I appended 'set -x' directly after the existing 'set -e' in plymouth, then ran 'sudo update-initramfs -u'. The result is attached in output.txt and written below:

update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.2.0-34-generic
+ OPTION=FRAMEBUFFER
+ PREREQ=
+ prereqs
+ echo
+ exit 0
+ OPTION=FRAMEBUFFER
+ PREREQ=
+ . /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hook-functions
+ update-alternatives --query default.plymouth
+ sed -e /^Value:/!d -e s/^Value: \(.*\)/\1/
+ THEME_PATH=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth
+ basename /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth .plymouth
+ THEME=bgrt
+ THEMES=/usr/share/plymouth/themes
+ [ -n /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth ]
+ grep ImageDir *= * /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth
+ sed s/ImageDir *= *//
+ IMAGE_PATH=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner
+ [ -n /usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner ]
+ [ /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth != /usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner ]
+ basename /usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner
+ IMAGE_NAME=spinner
+ mkdir -p /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_SWWOCa//usr/share/plymouth/themes
+ [ -n bgrt ]
+ [ bgrt != none ]
+ THEME_NAME=bgrt
+ THEME=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth
+ ln -s /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_SWWOCa//usr/share/plymouth/themes/default.plymouth
+ plymouth --get-splash-plugin-path
+ PLUGIN_PATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth/
+ update-alternatives --query text.plymouth
+ sed -e /^Value:/!d -e s/^Value: \(.*\)/\1/
+ TEXTTHEME_PATH=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-text/ubuntu-text.plymouth
+ basename /usr/share/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-text/ubuntu-text.plymouth .plymouth
+ TEXTTHEME=ubuntu-text
+ [ ubuntu-text != none ]
+ TEXTTHEME_NAME=ubuntu-text
+ TEXTTHEME=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-text/ubuntu-text.plymouth
+ + ln -s /usr/share/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-text/ubuntu-text.plymouth /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_SWWOCa//usr/share/plymouth/themes/text.plymouth
[ -n ubuntu-text ]
+ [ ! -r /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth ]
+ currthemes=bgrt ubuntu-text spinner
+ PLUGINS=details.so label.so
+ sed -n s/^ModuleName=\(.*\)/\1/p /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth
+ MODULE=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so
+ [ ! -e /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so ]
+ copy_exec /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so
+ local src target x nonoptlib ret
+ src=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so
+ target=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so
+ copy_file binary /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so
+ local type src target link_target
+ type=binary
+ src=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so
+ target=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so
+ [ -f /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so ]
+ [ -d /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_SWWOCa//usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so ]
+ [ -e /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_SWWOCa//usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so ]
+ mkdir -p /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_SWWOCa//usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth/
+ [ -h /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so ]
+ [ n = y ]
+ cp -pP /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so /var/...

Thanks. That allows debugging. Which plymouth packages do you have installed? Please post the output of "dpkg -l | grep plymouth". Can you also post the output of "update-alternatives --query default.plymouth"?

Analysis:

The script uses the Value field from the "update-alternatives --query default.plymouth" output to determine the theme. In this case it's /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth which then maps to THEME=bgrt and then to currthemes="bgrt ubuntu-text spinner". The failing code is:

for currtheme in $currthemes
do
 [...]
 MODULE="${PLUGIN_PATH}/$(sed -n 's/^ModuleName=\(.*\)/\1/p' ${THEMES}/${currtheme}/${currtheme}.plymouth 2>/dev/null || true).so"
 [...]
 # copy plugin and images for current theme
 copy_exec "${MODULE}"

The script derives MODULE=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so from reading /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth (which is shipped by plymouth-theme-spinner), but fails to copy /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so (which is shipped by plymouth-theme-spinner as well). The shipped files between focal and jammy hasn't changed.

So the installed plymouth-theme-spinner seems to be broken.

Sure!

$ dpkg -l | grep plymouth
ii libplymouth5:amd64 0.9.5+git20211018-1ubuntu3 amd64 graphical boot animation and logger - shared libraries
ii plymouth 0.9.5+git20211018-1ubuntu3 amd64 boot animation, logger and I/O multiplexer
ii plymouth-label 0.9.5+git20211018-1ubuntu3 amd64 boot animation, logger and I/O multiplexer - label control
ii plymouth-theme-spinner 0.9.5+git20211018-1ubuntu3 amd64 boot animation, logger and I/O multiplexer - spinner theme
ii plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text 0.9.5+git20211018-1ubuntu3 amd64 boot animation, logger and I/O multiplexer - ubuntu text theme

$ update-alternatives --query default.plymouth
Name: default.plymouth
Link: /usr/share/plymouth/themes/default.plymouth
Status: auto
Best: /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth
Value: /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth

Alternative: /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth
Priority: 110

The installed plymouth packages look correct and the default.plymouth is the default configuration.

Can you check with debsums if these packages are correctly installed?

sudo apt install debsums
debsums --silent plymouth plymouth-label plymouth-theme-spinner plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text

If they report failures, you ran re-install those packages (sudo apt install --reinstall $package).

The only output from debsums is that there's a change in /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth, which of course is the 'set -x' that we added.

Now it gets into the strange territory. What is the output of "debsums plymouth-theme-spinner"? Can you "stat /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth/two-step.so" and "sha256sum /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth/two-step.so"?

$ debsums plymouth-theme-spinner
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth/two-step.so OK
/usr/share/doc/plymouth-theme-spinner/copyright OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0001.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0002.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0003.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0004.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0005.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0006.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0007.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0008.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0009.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0010.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0011.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0012.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0013.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0014.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0015.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0016.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0017.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0018.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0019.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0020.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0021.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0022.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0023.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0024.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0025.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0026.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0027.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0028.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0029.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0030.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0031.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0032.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0033.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0034.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0035.png OK
/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/animation-0036.png OK
/usr/sha...

That looks correct. Is "sudo update-initramfs -u" still failing? If not, can you check /var/log/apt/history.log and /var/log/apt/term.log to figure out what ran since then?

It still fails with the same output as in comment #4.

I tried to reproduce it in a chroot environment:

```
schroot-wrapper -p linux-image-6.2.0-34-generic,initramfs-tools,plymouth-theme-spinner,plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text,vim -u root -c jammy
echo FRAMEBUFFER=y >> /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
vim /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth
update-initramfs -u > log 2>&1
```

Then diffed the output:

```
sed -i 's/mkinitramfs_EXUmcb/mkinitramfs_SWWOCa/g' log
diff -u log comment-4.txt > log.diff
```

The output starts to differ from here. Your log:

```
+ env --unset=LD_PRELOAD ldd /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so
+ sed -e
  /\//!d;
  /linux-gate/d;
  /=>/ {s/.*=>[[:blank:]]*\([^[:blank:]]*\).*/\1/};
  s/[[:blank:]]*\([^[:blank:]]*\) (.*)/\1/
+ echo /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so:
```

My log:

```
+ env --unset=LD_PRELOAD ldd /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so
+ sed -e
  /\//!d;
  /linux-gate/d;
  /=>/ {s/.*=>[[:blank:]]*\([^[:blank:]]*\).*/\1/};
  s/[[:blank:]]*\([^[:blank:]]*\) (.*)/\1/
+ echo /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6
```

Can you paste the output of `env --unset=LD_PRELOAD ldd /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so` please?

Output in my chroot:

```
 linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffdaff39000)
 libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007f4381028000)
 libply.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libply.so.5 (0x00007f438100a000)
 libply-splash-core.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libply-splash-core.so.5 (0x00007f4380fe7000)
 libply-splash-graphics.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libply-splash-graphics.so.5 (0x00007f4380fd6000)
 libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f4380dae000)
 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f4381128000)
 libudev.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libudev.so.1 (0x00007f4380d82000)
 libpng16.so.16 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng16.so.16 (0x00007f4380d47000)
 libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007f4380d2b000)
```

ldd comes from libc-bin. Can you tell me the libc-bin version and `sha256sum /usr/bin/ldd`?

$ env --unset=LD_PRELOAD ldd /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so: /usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng16.so.16: no version information available (required by /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libply-splash-graphics.so.5)
 linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffc0f9fe000)
 libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007f349dd70000)
 libply.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libply.so.5 (0x00007f349dd52000)
 libply-splash-core.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libply-splash-core.so.5 (0x00007f349dd2f000)
 libply-splash-graphics.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libply-splash-graphics.so.5 (0x00007f349dd1e000)
 libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f349daf6000)
 /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f349de84000)
 libudev.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libudev.so.1 (0x00007f349daca000)
 libpng16.so.16 => /usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng16.so.16 (0x00007f349da7e000)
 libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007f349da62000)

$ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6
GNU C Library (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.35-0ubuntu3.5) stable release version 2.35.
Copyright (C) 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Compiled by GNU CC version 11.4.0.
libc ABIs: UNIQUE IFUNC ABSOLUTE
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/glibc/+bugs>.

$ sha256sum /usr/bin/ldd
66e9c5fed478b359116104c2a737eb9508290843330aef0516c7c2079e9f378e /usr/bin/ldd

There we found it. ldd prints a warning and the initramfs-tools shell code stumbles upon it:

/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so: /usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng16.so.16: no version information available (required by /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libply-splash-graphics.so.5)

Can you check if that output is printed on stdout or stderr? "env --unset=LD_PRELOAD ldd /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plymouth//two-step.so > /dev/null"

Can you attach /usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng16.so.16 to this bug report? Then I can test the fix for it.

The output was printed on stdout as it was redirected with > and not 2>.
Please find the requested file attached.

Thanks for helping debugging it. I could reproduce it after placing your library into /usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng16.so.16 and running ldconfig.

It will be fixed in the upcoming Ubuntu release. The fix: https://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-tools/commit/?id=e6ee680de31442ba54e73d3221c37804b9e0ddce

You can apply the fix by editing /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hook-functions and adding "| grep -P '^\t' " after the ldd call.

Also forwarded to Debian: https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/initramfs-tools/-/merge_requests/88

Thanks, Benjamin!

I just made the fix but it still doesn't work. The issue seems to be that the script tries to execute the command '4972' which of course is not found. I've attached the stderr output of 'sudo update-initramfs -u' in '127.txt'.

This bug was fixed in the package initramfs-tools - 0.142ubuntu19

---------------
initramfs-tools (0.142ubuntu19) noble; urgency=medium

  * copy_exec: ignore ldd output lines not starting with a tab (LP: #2046570)

 -- Benjamin Drung <email address hidden> Tue, 19 Dec 2023 15:28:14 +0100

That error message looks like '4972' was accidentally added to /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth. Can you restore the content of the file by reinstalling it?

sudo apt install --reinstall plymouth

Yes, that fixed it. Thank you for the help.