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Bug 2082295 - dnf needs-restart does not work well on systems without a hardware clock
Summary: dnf needs-restart does not work well on systems without a hardware clock
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Classification: Red Hat
Component: dnf-plugins-core
Version: CentOS Stream
Hardware: aarch64
OS: Linux
unspecified
low
Target Milestone: rc
: ---
Assignee: Nicola Sella
QA Contact: swm-qe
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2022-05-05 18:18 UTC by alex
Modified: 2023-08-10 18:15 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2022-05-18 14:56:16 UTC
Type: Bug
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

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System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Issue Tracker RHELPLAN-121198 0 None None None 2022-05-05 18:30:03 UTC

Description alex 2022-05-05 18:18:50 UTC 
Description of problem:

This change:

https://github.com/rpm-software-management/dnf-plugins-core/commit/ece8e77155919409d344d405ec4ed19d16a522aa

Broke dnf-needs-restart on systems without a hardware clock, such as a Raspberry Pi 4. On such systems, the clock is 1970-01-01 on boot until time synchronizes over the network, and /proc/1 gets that date.

I would suggest mirroring what procps-ng/uptime does? That seems to work correctly on a Raspberry.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

python3-dnf-plugins-core-4.0.21-4.el8_5.noarch

How reproducible:

Run sudo dnf needs-restarting -r on any system without a hardware clock.

Actual results:

You are always prompted to reboot, because boot time

Expected results:

You are only prompted to reboot when needed.

Additional info:

See discussion at https://bugs.rockylinux.org/view.php?id=82 . Initially I thought this was an issue specific to Rocky Linux 8 on Raspberry Pi, but I believe this is really a DNF issue.
Comment 1 Nicola Sella 2022-05-18 14:56:16 UTC 
Hello, the issue seems too specific.

To solve it, my suggestion would be to create a specific patch
in downstream RockyLinux or releasing a dnf plugin that fixes it.

Currently, the team will not have enough capacity to target a
case like this, so, I will close it.

However, if you have a patch and would like to make a change
upstream, please don't hesitate to submit a PR, and we will be
more than happy to include the fix upstream.

Thank you.
Comment 2 alex 2022-05-18 15:08:54 UTC 
> However, if you have a patch and would like to make a change upstream, please don't hesitate to submit a PR, and we will be more than happy to include the fix upstream.

Just to be clear on this, if I submit a PR on GH to this file:

https://github.com/rpm-software-management/dnf-plugins-core/blob/master/plugins/needs_restarting.py#L202

Changing it so that it calculates the boot time in a different way (my intention could be to look at how uptime does it, which works correctly)...

Would it be feasible for such PR to make it to RHEL 8? Could I know what should happen in order for this to reach RHEL *8*?
Comment 3 Nicola Sella 2022-05-18 15:32:55 UTC 
Unfortunately, uptime does not work well with containers and virtual machines.
Generally, I would say that the first IF with needs-restarting code, is to 
understand where dnf is running, and that's not an easy task. If you are outside
a vm, that's easy and uptime works. Inside a vm... eeh.
That's why I believe that a plugin would be more appropriate. It can solve a
specific case without impacting on all RHEL customers (this line broke quite
some stuff).

Other bugs that are targeting similar issues are:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1914251
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1960437

The line is correct, and if you want more details about it and work on a PR,
I could also help you on dnf's IRC.
Comment 4 alex 2023-08-10 18:15:50 UTC 
BTW, if anyone is curious, it seems this was solved later here https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2137935 , and it has been included in EL9:

https://gitlab.com/redhat/centos-stream/rpms/dnf-plugins-core/-/blob/c9s/0006-Fix-boot-time-derivation-for-systems-with-no-rtc.patch?ref_type=heads

, but not in EL8.

So if anyone finds this by googling, likely updating to EL9 solves the issue.
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