I am experiencing same error. For me plymouth --ping is continuing to hang. Here is the output of 'strace plymouth --ping' execve("/bin/plymouth", ["plymouth", "--ping"], [/* 52 vars */]) = 0 brk(NULL) = 0x5604650d1000 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3 fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=110875, ...}) = 0 mmap(NULL, 110875, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x7fc1ca007000 close(3) = 0 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libply.so.4", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3 read(3, "\177ELF\2\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0>\0\1\0\0\0000E\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832 fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=88632, ...}) = 0 mmap(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7fc1ca005000 mmap(NULL, 2185728, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7fc1c9be6000 mprotect(0x7fc1c9bfb000, 2093056, PROT_NONE) = 0 mmap(0x7fc1c9dfa000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x14000) = 0x7fc1c9dfa000 close(3) = 0 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3 read(3, "\177ELF\2\1\1\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0>\0\1\0\0\0\340\22\2\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832 fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=1960656, ...}) = 0 mmap(NULL, 4061792, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7fc1c9806000 mprotect(0x7fc1c99dc000, 2097152, PROT_NONE) = 0 mmap(0x7fc1c9bdc000, 24576, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x1d6000) = 0x7fc1c9bdc000 mmap(0x7fc1c9be2000, 14944, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7fc1c9be2000 close(3) = 0 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3 read(3, "\177ELF\2\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0>\0\1\0\0\0\0\"\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832 fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=31744, ...}) = 0 mmap(NULL, 2128864, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7fc1c95fe000 mprotect(0x7fc1c9605000, 2093056, PROT_NONE) = 0 mmap(0x7fc1c9804000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x6000) = 0x7fc1c9804000 close(3) = 0 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3 read(3, "\177ELF\2\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0>\0\1\0\0\0\220\16\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832 fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=14632, ...}) = 0 mmap(NULL, 2109712, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7fc1c93fa000 mprotect(0x7fc1c93fd000, 2093056, PROT_NONE) = 0 mmap(0x7fc1c95fc000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x2000) = 0x7fc1c95fc000 close(3) = 0 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3 read(3, "\177ELF\2\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0>\0\1\0\0\0\360a\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832 fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=144776, ...}) = 0 mmap(NULL, 2221160, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7fc1c91db000 mprotect(0x7fc1c91f5000, 2093056, PROT_NONE) = 0 mmap(0x7fc1c93f4000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x19000) = 0x7fc1c93f4000 mmap(0x7fc1c93f6000, 13416, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7fc1c93f6000 close(3) = 0 mmap(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7fc1ca003000 arch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, 0x7fc1ca004040) = 0 mprotect(0x7fc1c9bdc000, 16384, PROT_READ) = 0 mprotect(0x7fc1c93f4000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0 mprotect(0x7fc1c95fc000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0 mprotect(0x7fc1c9804000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0 mprotect(0x7fc1c9dfa000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0 mprotect(0x560465006000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0 mprotect(0x7fc1ca023000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0 munmap(0x7fc1ca007000, 110875) = 0 set_tid_address(0x7fc1ca004310) = 2076 set_robust_list(0x7fc1ca004320, 24) = 0 rt_sigaction(SIGRTMIN, {sa_handler=0x7fc1c91e0c70, sa_mask=[], sa_flags=SA_RESTORER|SA_SIGINFO, sa_restorer=0x7fc1c91ee150}, NULL, 8) = 0 rt_sigaction(SIGRT_1, {sa_handler=0x7fc1c91e0d00, sa_mask=[], sa_flags=SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART|SA_SIGINFO, sa_restorer=0x7fc1c91ee150}, NULL, 8) = 0 rt_sigprocmask(SIG_UNBLOCK, [RTMIN RT_1], NULL, 8) = 0 prlimit64(0, RLIMIT_STACK, NULL, {rlim_cur=8192*1024, rlim_max=RLIM64_INFINITY}) = 0 rt_sigaction(SIGPIPE, {sa_handler=SIG_IGN, sa_mask=[PIPE], sa_flags=SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART, sa_restorer=0x7fc1c983d140}, {sa_handler=SIG_DFL, sa_mask=[], sa_flags=0}, 8) = 0 brk(NULL) = 0x5604650d1000 brk(0x5604650f2000) = 0x5604650f2000 epoll_create1(EPOLL_CLOEXEC) = 3 pipe2([4, 5], O_CLOEXEC) = 0 epoll_ctl(3, EPOLL_CTL_ADD, 4, {EPOLLERR|EPOLLHUP, {u32=1695355712, u64=94576875213632}}) = 0 epoll_ctl(3, EPOLL_CTL_MOD, 4, {EPOLLIN|EPOLLERR|EPOLLHUP, {u32=1695355712, u64=94576875213632}}) = 0 openat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/cmdline", O_RDONLY) = 6 read(6, "BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-"..., 4096) = 130 close(6) = 0 socket(AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM|SOCK_CLOEXEC, 0) = 6 setsockopt(6, SOL_SOCKET, SO_PASSCRED, [1], 4) = 0 connect(6, {sa_family=AF_UNIX, sun_path=@"/org/freedesktop/plymouthd"}, 29 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here is my system info: lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 17.10 Release: 17.10 Codename: artful sudo fdisk -l Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 238.5 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disklabel type: gpt Disk identifier: C6DABEB9-3FAD-4556-BE55-40B16405A9AF Device Start End Sectors Size Type /dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 1026047 1024000 500M EFI System /dev/nvme0n1p2 1026048 1288191 262144 128M Microsoft reserved /dev/nvme0n1p3 1288192 289443839 288155648 137.4G Microsoft basic data /dev/nvme0n1p4 499159040 500115455 956416 467M Windows recovery environment /dev/nvme0n1p5 289443840 499159039 209715200 100G Linux filesystem /dev/nvme0n1p6 500115456 500117503 2048 1M Linux swap Partition table entries are not in disk order. df -h /dev/nvme0n1p5 Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/nvme0n1p5 98G 38G 56G 41% / uptime 13:46:44 up 1 day, 23:37, 1 user, load average: 0.29, 0.35, 0.36 free total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 16306228 5118772 5441476 1344236 5745980 10285520 Swap: 2097148 0 2097148