On Thu, Jul 15, 2021 at 12:55:11PM +0300, Reco wrote: > "nofail" is really needed for removable devices, because whoever > designed systemd made an "interesting" decision to halt the boot process > (i.e. host is inaccessible by network, console access only) even if a > single filesystem mentioned in fstab fails to mount.
This was the traditional behavior before systemd, so one can't really fault systemd for continuing the practice. It's assumed that all file systems mentioned in /etc/fstab are essential to the correct operation of the system (unless otherwise specified). If one of them doesn't mount, it means a disk is broken to the point where human intervention is required, so the operating system decides to play it safe and not continue.
