If you mask systemd-journald.service (and/or systemd-journald.socket, but masking the service is sufficient), you get unbootable system. Please note that rsyslog is installed on my system: $ systemctl status rsyslog.service rsyslog.service - System Logging Service Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/rsyslog.service; enabled) Active: active (running) since Mon 2013-03-04 09:18:08 CET; 6min ago Main PID: 736 (rsyslogd) CGroup: name=systemd:/system/rsyslog.service `-736 /sbin/rsyslogd -n -c 7 Can you change systemd so it can boot without working/available journald?
With the following upstream changes, the system will boot without a working journald: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/systemd/systemd/commit/?id=9d246da3c630559924a0262769c8493fa22c7acc http://cgit.freedesktop.org/systemd/systemd/commit/?id=47c1d80d844689c81faf2eede95803c1ed6eb4af I don't think it's going to get more optional than that.
Note that the journal isn't intended to be that optional in RHEL 7 - it's going to be what's feeding events to syslog, even if it's not storing data persistently.
Yes, it's not really that optional. systemd will still report any failures to connect stdout/stderr of services to the journal socket as errors. It's not meant as a supported configuration. But at least it will boot.
I'd actually suggest we turn persistence on on RHEL7, too, but limit it to something relatively small. That shouldn't hurt anybody, and is probably better than only have a tiny buffer in tmpfs... I turned persistency for the journal on in F19 today. This will be on, and rsyslog stays in the default install, but that should be OK.
systemd-201-2.fc18.1 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 18. https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/systemd-201-2.fc18.1
Package systemd-201-2.fc18.2: * should fix your issue, * was pushed to the Fedora 18 testing repository, * should be available at your local mirror within two days. Update it with: # su -c 'yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing systemd-201-2.fc18.2' as soon as you are able to. Please go to the following url: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2013-5452/systemd-201-2.fc18.2 then log in and leave karma (feedback).
Package systemd-201-2.fc18.4: * should fix your issue, * was pushed to the Fedora 18 testing repository, * should be available at your local mirror within two days. Update it with: # su -c 'yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing systemd-201-2.fc18.4' as soon as you are able to. Please go to the following url: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2013-5452/systemd-201-2.fc18.3 then log in and leave karma (feedback).
Package systemd-201-2.fc18.5: * should fix your issue, * was pushed to the Fedora 18 testing repository, * should be available at your local mirror within two days. Update it with: # su -c 'yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing systemd-201-2.fc18.5' as soon as you are able to. Please go to the following url: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2013-5452/systemd-201-2.fc18.5 then log in and leave karma (feedback).
systemd-201-2.fc18.6 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 18. https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2013-5452/systemd-201-2.fc18.6
Package systemd-201-2.fc18.6: * should fix your issue, * was pushed to the Fedora 18 testing repository, * should be available at your local mirror within two days. Update it with: # su -c 'yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing systemd-201-2.fc18.6' as soon as you are able to. Please go to the following url: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2013-5452/systemd-201-2.fc18.6 then log in and leave karma (feedback).
systemd-201-2.fc18.6 has been pushed to the Fedora 18 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.