Failed at step EXEC spawning /bin/plymouth: No such file or directory

Question

Hi guys, Yet Another Plymouth Problem:
I just did a system update. Haven't done this for several months and problems with /bin happened, as expected. Anyway, after update completed, the system won't boot normally:
If I type ^d boot continues with no problems and all services are started as expected. I have trouble finding what causes the system to go to emergency mode. The /srv/nfs/trunk/ seems to be mounted at a second attempt.
An excerpt from journalctl -xb, right after the xfs messages :
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux systemd[1]: Startup finished in 2.322s (kernel) + 1.350s (userspace) = 3.672s.
-- Subject: System start-up is now complete
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- All system services necessary queued for starting at boot have been
-- successfully started. Note that this does not mean that the machine is
-- now idle as services might still be busy with completing start-up.
-- Kernel start-up required 2322291 microseconds.
-- Initial RAM disk start-up required INITRD_USEC microseconds.
-- Userspace start-up required 1350682 microseconds.
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux systemd[168]: Failed at step EXEC spawning /bin/plymouth: No such file or directory
-- Subject: Process /bin/plymouth could not be executed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- Documentation: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/catalog/641257651c1b4ec9a8624d7a40a9e1e7
-- The process /bin/plymouth could not be executed and failed.
-- The error number returned while executing this process is 2.
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux ntfs-3g[294]: Version 2013.1.13 external FUSE 29
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux ntfs-3g[294]: Mounted /dev/sdb6 (Read-Write, label "", NTFS 3.1)
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux ntfs-3g[294]: Cmdline options: rw,uid=1000,gid=100,dmask=022,fmask=133
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux ntfs-3g[294]: Mount options: rw,allow_other,nonempty,relatime,default_permissions,fsname=/dev/sdb6,blkdev,blk
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux ntfs-3g[294]: Global ownership and permissions enforced, configuration type 7
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux kernel: scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access Generic USB SD Reader 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux kernel: scsi 6:0:0:1: Direct-Access Generic USB CF Reader 1.01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux kernel: sd 6:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI removable disk
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux kernel: scsi 6:0:0:2: Direct-Access Generic USB SM Reader 1.02 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux kernel: sd 6:0:0:1: [sdf] Attached SCSI removable disk
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux kernel: scsi 6:0:0:3: Direct-Access Generic USB MS Reader 1.03 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux kernel: sd 6:0:0:2: [sdg] Attached SCSI removable disk
Sep 18 00:55:50 xxxlinux kernel: sd 6:0:0:3: [sdh] Attached SCSI removable disk
After I press ^d:
Sep 18 00:56:21 xxxlinux systemd[1]: Stopping Sound Card.
-- Subject: Unit sound.target has begun shutting down
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- Unit sound.target has begun shutting down.
Sep 18 00:56:21 xxxlinux systemd[1]: Stopped target Sound Card.
-- Subject: Unit sound.target has finished shutting down
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- Documentation: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/catalog/9d1aaa27d60140bd96365438aad20286
-- Unit sound.target has finished shutting down.
Sep 18 00:56:21 xxxlinux systemd[1]: Stopping Emergency Mode.
-- Subject: Unit emergency.target has begun shutting down
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- Unit emergency.target has begun shutting down.
Sep 18 00:56:21 xxxlinux systemd[1]: Stopped target Emergency Mode.
-- Subject: Unit emergency.target has finished shutting down
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- Documentation: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/catalog/9d1aaa27d60140bd96365438aad20286
-- Unit emergency.target has finished shutting down.
Sep 18 00:56:21 xxxlinux systemd[1]: Stopping Emergency Shell...
-- Subject: Unit emergency.service has begun shutting down
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- Unit emergency.service has begun shutting down.
And the system boots.
I found a thread explaining that there is a sysV runlevel specified in kernel boot line. I am not sure if I am looking at the proper file, but my /boot/grub/grub.cfg does not contain "runlevel".
I also found it may be a problem of software RAID, but I am not using it neither LVM, plain mounts by UUID.
I ran pacman -S linux, /etc/mkinitcpio.conf does not contain a reference to plymouth: HOOKS="base udev autodetect modconf block filesystems keyboard fsck"
Just checked with my laptop, both computers run systemd-204-3, neither have /bin/plymouth, but the laptop does not fail with this message
Just tell me if you need more information.

Answer 1

# Intel SSD 1
UUID=775642a3-f485-4cc6-b9d5-c336aa276c39 / xfs rw,relatime,attr2,inode64,noquota 0 1
# Intel SSD 2
UUID=75232369-0f3f-45f5-99fe-234089a1ea8e /boot xfs rw,relatime,attr2,inode64,noquota 0 2
# Intel SSD 3
UUID=595fa411-2c31-48e1-960b-fad259460248 /home xfs rw,relatime,attr2,inode64,noquota 0 2
# WD 1T 1
UUID=4fcb28a9-66fe-4463-9f31-e325d62d5017 /mnt/wd1 xfs rw,relatime,attr2,inode64,noquota 0 2
# WD 1T 2
UUID=4803c5db-72a3-4cd5-ad94-f7de2de2ea09 /mnt/wd2 xfs rw,relatime,attr2,inode64,noquota 0 2
# WD 1T 3
UUID=b937ce12-31a4-4816-9630-d53cab774a7e /mnt/wd3 xfs rw,relatime,attr2,inode64,noquota 0 2
# SG 320G 1 1
UUID=76fd28c6-1541-40bd-958b-cd05d787ff7b /mnt/sg1_1 xfs rw,relatime,attr2,inode64,noquota 0 2
# SG 320G 2 1
UUID=789845B4984571A4 /mnt/sg2_5 ntfs-3g uid=1000,gid=users,dmask=022,fmask=133 0 0
UUID=32BC47F9BC47B5DF /mnt/sg2_6 ntfs-3g uid=1000,gid=users,dmask=022,fmask=133 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nodev,nosuid,size=20G 0 0
# NFS mounts
/mnt/multimedia /srv/nfs/multimedia none bind 0 0
/mnt/images /srv/nfs/images none bind 0 0
/mnt/trunk /srv/nfs/trunk none bind 0 0
[2] ognyan@xxxlinux : ~ >ll /mnt/
total 40K
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 124 Jun 13 01:22 .
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 4.0K Sep 17 23:52 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Jun 4 17:16 images -> wd1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Jun 4 17:16 multimedia -> wd2
drwxr-xr-x 23 ognyan users 4.0K Sep 19 14:37 sg1_1
drwxr-xr-x 1 ognyan users 8.0K Mar 30 21:28 sg2_5
drwxr-xr-x 1 ognyan users 12K Mar 30 21:28 sg2_6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Jun 3 21:27 srv -> wd3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Jun 4 17:15 trunk -> sg1_1
drwxr-sr-x 203 ognyan users 8.0K Aug 4 20:53 wd1
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 41 Sep 19 10:32 wd2
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 76 Aug 31 23:13 wd3
Last edited by bigblondewolf (2013-09-19 22:15:36)