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 Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1410604 Title: ISST-LTE: unable to open rtc device To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-tools/+bug/1410604/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs