Thanks for the journal. This shows that the error message happens way earlier than userspace/pid 1 starts. So it's either the kernel itself, or the initramfs. I can indeed see this error message in our ppc64el scalingstack instances as well.
So I went through the initramfs-tools hooks and scripts and found /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/local-premount/fixrtc, which indeed does call "hwclock -s || true" (-s == --hctosys). However, while that's promising that isn't it: That code only runs if "fixrtc" is on the command line, which it isn't (at least for me). Adding a set -x there also shows that it runs after the error message: [ 0.625781] evm: HMAC attrs: 0x1 [ 0.625920] hctosys: unable to open rtc device (rtc0) [ 0.626595] Freeing unused kernel memory: 6144K (c000000000e80000 - c000000001480000) Loading, please wait... starting version 229 [ 0.637968] random: udevadm urandom read with 1 bits of entropy available Begin: Loading essential drivers ... done. Begin: Running /scripts/init-premount ... done. Begin: Mounting root file system ... Begin: Running /scripts/local-top ... done. Begin: Running /scripts/local-premount ... + PREREQ= + BROKEN_CLOCK= + ROOTDEV= + SYSTEMPART= + cat /proc/cmdline + value=UUID=9f6cb10b-904a-4b22-b9e1-80455f176cc2 + ROOTDEV=/dev/disk/by-uuid/9f6cb10b-904a-4b22-b9e1-80455f176cc2 + [ -z /dev/disk/by-uuid/9f6cb10b-904a-4b22-b9e1-80455f176cc2 -a -n ] + [ -n -a -n /dev/disk/by-uuid/9f6cb10b-904a-4b22-b9e1-80455f176cc2 ] + exit 0 done. Warning: fsck not present, so skipping root file system [ 2.608767] EXT4-fs (vda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null) done. Begin: Running /scripts/local-bottom ... done. Begin: Running /scripts/init-bottom ... done. [ 2.657889] systemd[1]: systemd 229 running in system mode. (+PAM +AUDIT +SELINUX +IMA +APPARMOR +SMACK +SYSVINIT +UTMP +LIBCRYPTSET UP +GCRYPT +GNUTLS +ACL +XZ -LZ4 +SECCOMP +BLKID +ELFUTILS +KMOD -IDN) ** Package changed: util-linux (Ubuntu) => initramfs-tools (Ubuntu) ** Changed in: initramfs-tools (Ubuntu) Status: Incomplete => Triaged -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to initramfs-tools in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1410604 Title: ISST-LTE: unable to open rtc device Status in initramfs-tools package in Ubuntu: Triaged Bug description: == Comment: #0 - Chanh H. Nguyen <chngu...@us.ibm.com> - 2015-01-09 17:30:08 == We use DVD to install Ubuntu 15.04 kernel 3.18.0-8-generic version on our PowerVM system. After install, I am seeing this error "/build/buildd/linux-3.18.0/drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device" on the dmesg log... root@pole1lp3:~# uname -a Linux pole1lp3 3.18.0-8-generic #9-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jan 5 22:52:15 UTC 2015 ppc64le ppc64le ppc64le GNU/Linux root@pole1lp3:~# dmesg |grep rtc [ 0.556763] /build/buildd/linux-3.18.0/drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device (rtc0) [ 3.296241] rtc-generic rtc-generic: rtc core: registered rtc-generic as rtc0 root@pole1lp3:~# == Comment: #2 - David Heller <helle...@us.ibm.com> - 2015-01-13 20:53:50 == It must be an order of operations thing: something is trying to do the hctosys before the driver is loaded. A few seconds later the driver loads and it seems fine after that. root@pole1lp3:~# dmesg | grep rtc [ 0.551202] /build/buildd/linux-3.18.0/drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device (rtc0) [ 3.353719] rtc-generic rtc-generic: rtc core: registered rtc-generic as rtc0 root@pole1lp3:~# find /dev -name \*rtc\* /dev/rtc /dev/rtc0 root@pole1lp3:~# hwclock Tue 13 Jan 2015 07:36:15 PM CST -0.779773 seconds root@pole1lp3:~# hwclock --hctosys root@pole1lp3:~# date Tue Jan 13 19:38:05 CST 2015 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-tools/+bug/1410604/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp