Re: kern/54733: ZFS warnings during default boot, even if no ZFS is in use

[Brad Spencer <brad%anduin.eldar.org@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR kern/54733; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Brad Spencer <brad%anduin.eldar.org@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost
Cc: kern-bug-people%netbsd.org@localhost, gnats-admin%netbsd.org@localhost, netbsd-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost,
        martin%NetBSD.org@localhost
Subject: Re: kern/54733: ZFS warnings during default boot, even if no ZFS is in use
Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2019 09:22:20 -0500

 John Nemeth <jnemeth%cue.bc.ca@localhost> writes:
 
 > The following reply was made to PR kern/54733; it has been noted by GNATS.
 >
 
 [snip]
 
 >  } With /etc/rc.d/zfs trying to bring up ZFS pools early we now get scary
 >  } warnings at boot time on machines that never saw a ZFS:
 >  } 
 >  } root file system type: ffs
 >  } kern.module.path=/stand/evbarm/9.99.19/modules
 >  } WARNING: ZFS on NetBSD is under development
 >  } ZFS NOTICE: Prefetch is disabled by default if less than 4GB of RAM is present;
 >  } to enable, add "vfs.zfs.prefetch_disable=0" to /boot/loader.conf.
 >  } ZFS filesystem version: 5
 >  } Lid Switch: lid opened.
 >  
 >       The "ZFS NOTICE" is clearly a FreeBSD specific message.
 >  /boot/loader.conf doesn't exist on NetBSD.  Besides being noisy,
 >  it is wrong.
 >  
 >  } It would be better if trying to use ZFS would be triggered by some config
 >  } file, or the kernel be silent about the whole action (who cares what version
 >  } is in use if it is not in use?)
 >  
 >       It could also be triggered by the first attempt to actually
 >  use ZFS, i.e. the presence of a ZFS file system.
 >  
 >  } >How-To-Repeat:
 >  } Boot current.
 >  } 
 >  }-- End of excerpt from martin%NetBSD.org@localhost
 >  
 
 Some of this is probably my fault...  won't have time to mess with this
 right now, however...
 
 The line in /etc/rc.d/zfs for starting zfs up:
 
         if [ -x /sbin/zfs -a -f /etc/zfs/zpool.cache ]; then
 
 should probably be:
 
         if checkyesno zfs && [ -x /sbin/zfs -a -f /etc/zfs/zpool.cache ]; then
 
 I think that this will have the effect of not trying to start anything
 zfs if you have set not set zfs=YES in /etc/rc.conf.  I would still
 leave the stop function alone, as you may wish to stop zfs after
 changing a /etc/rc.conf.  My original assumption was that
 /etc/zfs/zpool.cache would not exist if you had never used it, but there
 is the case of it existing, but then disabling zfs use later in
 /etc/rc.conf (not setting zfs=YES) and not removing the cache file.
 
 I won't comment on the kernel message... yes, it has FreeBSDism in it
 that does not apply.
 
 
 
 
 -- 
 Brad Spencer - brad%anduin.eldar.org@localhost - KC8VKS - http://anduin.eldar.org