Slow home-relabel.service after selinux updates

[SharkPlush]

Describe the bug
Anytime SELinux get an update the boot time can be very slow this can be observed with systemd-analyze blame.

Aeon@localhost:~> systemd-analyze blame
27.824s home-relabel.service
 6.698s sys-devices-LNXSYSTM:00-LNXSYBUS:00-INTC7001:00-tpmrm-tpmrm0.device
 6.698s dev-tpmrm0.device
 6.697s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-serial8250:0-serial8250:0.0-tty-ttyS0.device
 6.697s dev-ttyS0.device
 6.696s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-serial8250:0-serial8250:0.2-tty-ttyS2.device
 6.696s dev-ttyS2.device
 6.694s sys-devices-platform-serial8250-serial8250:0-serial8250:0.3-tty-ttyS3.device
...

To Reproduce
Have an update that has something with SELinux related.

Expected behavior
I expect the device to boot in a reasonable time, sometimes the service can take up to a minute.

Additional context
This issue is being opened as a "maybe there is a fix for it" I don't expect a fix since this kind of seems to be a "it's just how it has to be" type of situation, if there's no fix and this is just how it's going to have to be it's not the end of the world and feel free to close I'll understand.

[SharkPlush]

I did some research and I have an optional proposal.

openSUSE/microos-tools#30 (comment)

systemd.show_status=yes

If this keeps the boot silent during normal boots and shows important messages when needed then I think it should be used.

Personally I'd rather have my system tell me something is happening rather than me potentially missing out on a important event, even if its at the cost of a slightly uglier boot at certain times. Seems like a good middle ground?

Update:

Did a test, it isn't a silent boot at all sadly.

Update 2:

systemd.show_status=auto

This seems like a very viable option, I've tested a boot with it enabled and it was silent. I'll keep my system like this and next time a SELinux update triggers a relabel I'll update with what happens.

Sidenote: Since systemd.show_status=auto only shows logs upon an error or just important information it seems very useful it see some system errors the moment they happen that way bugs can be found out faster.

[sysrich]

hmm auto is finally working right? serious errors only? hmmmm... this is certainly food for thought...

[SharkPlush]

It does work but randomly on shutdown I will get a bunch of systemd text so either its a bug or something happens during normal usage of the system causing systemd to showing the text.

I want to say it related to #8 because that still happens but I don't know enough about systemd to just point my finger at that issue like that.

I still haven't gotten an SELinux related update for testing I'm still waiting on that and will report what happens.

Edit:

https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/systemd.1.html

"Takes a boolean argument or the constants error and auto.
Can be also specified without an argument, with the same effect as a positive boolean.
If enabled, the systemd manager (PID 1) shows terse service status updates on the console during bootup.
With error, only messages about failures are shown, but boot is otherwise quiet.
auto behaves like false until there is a significant delay in boot.
Defaults to enabled, unless quiet is passed as kernel command line option, in which case it defaults to error.
If specified overrides the system manager configuration file option ShowStatus=,"

I feel like I am experiencing a bug with systemd since if the documentation here is true. The functionality of the "auto" option is either for very specific scenarios (boot delay) or the documentation isn't finished.

I see no reason for systemd to show me the debug text on shutdown unless I'm experiencing an error with something but the documentation states "auto behaves like false until there is a significant delay in boot." No mention of "auto" handling errors?

Here is my current cmdline maybe I'm doing something wrong?

quiet loglevel=2 systemd.show_status=auto console=tty0 vt.global_cursor_default=0 ignition.platform.id=metal security=selinux selinux=1 root=UUID=bf5f785b-ee7a-4052-adfd-03a4d9dd1bdb

[SharkPlush]

I got an update that triggered relabel and it did it work-ish. When booting I got my typical "freeze" where the screen just does nothing and only on the last few seconds did I see the the debug part where it said relabeling, so it doesn't seem to happen instantly but it's better than nothing! This was roughly a 30 second relabel so maybe it probably needed more time.

I'm still getting the random debug screen on shutdown I don't know what that is about but once that gets solved I don't see an downsides to using auto.