networking: relax networkd-wait-online to avoid multi-NIC timeouts

[igorpecovnik]

Relax systemd-networkd-wait-online to prevent timeouts on multi-NIC boards

What / Why

On multi-NIC SBCs and appliances it is common that one or more ports are unplugged (no-carrier). With the default behavior, systemd-networkd-wait-online waits for all managed interfaces to become online. This often leaves the system in:

Online state: partial

and causes a timeout.

Services and timers that depend on network-online.target (notably apt-daily-upgrade and unattended-upgrades) then fail and skip execution, even though at least one interface is already fully routable.

This is a common situation on boards like NanoPi R6S and other router-style devices with multiple Ethernet ports.

---

Change

Ship a systemd drop-in override for systemd-networkd-wait-online.service that relaxes the “online” criteria:

• Use --any so one routable interface is sufficient
• Reduce the waiting time with --timeout=20

Installed file:

/etc/systemd/system/systemd-networkd-wait-online.service.d/override.conf

Content:

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/lib/systemd/systemd-networkd-wait-online --any --timeout=20

---

Result

• Unused or unplugged interfaces no longer block network-online.target
• systemd-networkd-wait-online succeeds as soon as one interface is routable
• apt-daily-upgrade and unattended upgrades no longer fail due to timeouts
• Keeps the intended “wait for network” semantics without being overly strict

---

Reproducer (before)

• Multi-NIC board with only one connected interface
• networkctl status shows:

Online state: partial

• systemd-networkd-wait-online fails with a timeout
• apt-daily-upgrade.service logs:

systemd-networkd-wait-online returned error code (1)

---

Validation (after)

systemctl start systemd-networkd-wait-online.service
systemctl status systemd-networkd-wait-online.service

Should succeed quickly.

systemctl start apt-daily-upgrade.service

Should no longer fail because of wait-online.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Chores
  • Updated system network readiness so startup waits for any network interface with a 20‑second timeout.
  • Installer now deploys the network readiness override into the target system so the updated startup behavior is applied automatically.

_{✏️ Tip: You can customize this high-level summary in your review settings.}

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Adds a systemd drop-in to override systemd-networkd-wait-online to use --any with a 20s timeout, and updates the packaging script to copy such override files into the guest filesystem during pre-install configuration.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Systemd Service Configuration extensions/network/config-networkd/systemd/system/systemd-networkd-wait-online.service.d/armbian-any-interface.conf	New systemd drop-in that clears default ExecStart and sets ExecStart=/lib/systemd/systemd-networkd-wait-online --any --timeout=20.
Packaging / Install Script extensions/network/net-systemd-networkd.sh	In pre_install_kernel_debs__configure_systemd_networkd, create drop-in destination dir if missing and copy override files from the extension config into the guest filesystem.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~10 minutes

Poem

🐇 I hopped where units wait in line,
I tucked a tiny drop-in fine,
Any interface gets a try,
Twenty seconds — then say hi,
Networks dance, and I nibble a rhyme. 🥕

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 2 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (2 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately describes the main change: installing a systemd drop-in override to relax networkd-wait-online from requiring all interfaces online to requiring any single interface, thereby avoiding timeouts on multi-NIC systems.

_{✏️ Tip: You can configure your own custom pre-merge checks in the settings.}

✨ Finishing touches

• 📝 Generate docstrings

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment
• Commit unit tests in branch wait-online

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Fix all issues with AI agents

In `@extensions/network/net-systemd-networkd.sh`:
- Around line 40-45: The two local variable names use hyphens which are invalid
in Bash; change both declarations to use underscores (e.g., rename
networkd-wait-online-override_src_folder →
networkd_wait_online_override_src_folder and
networkd-wait-online-override_dst_folder →
networkd_wait_online_override_dst_folder), and update every subsequent reference
(mkdir -p and the run_host_command_logged cp invocation) to use the new
underscore variable names so the script no longer fails under set -e.

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Fix all issues with AI agents

In `@extensions/network/net-systemd-networkd.sh`:
- Around line 41-45: The source-folder variable
networkd_wait_online_override_src_folder is missing a trailing slash so the cp
glob in run_host_command_logged cp -v
"${networkd_wait_online_override_src_folder}"*
"${networkd_wait_online_override_dst_folder}" will match the directory name
prefix instead of its contents; fix by appending a trailing slash to
networkd_wait_online_override_src_folder (make it consistent with other src
folder vars) so the glob expands to files inside the directory, and verify the
cp invocation still uses the updated variable exactly as named to avoid a
non-zero exit abort under set -e.