I believe I just observed the same issue again, and now have a log from that See below. I've also come accross a simular issue here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1699520 "plymouth --ping" is also hanging for me, I will attach a strace First the log which happoned as I used `apt` to install an other unrelated tool $ sudo apt install net-tools [sudo] password for skk: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: gyp javascript-common libc-ares2 libfprint-2-tod1 libjs-inherits libjs-is-typedarray libjs-psl libjs-typedarray-to-buffer libllvm9 libnode-dev libnode64 libpython2-stdlib libpython2.7-minimal libpython2.7-stdlib libssl-dev libuv1-dev nodejs-doc python-pkg-resources python2 python2-minimal python2.7 python2.7-minimal Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them. The following NEW packages will be installed: net-tools 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 16 not upgraded. 6 not fully installed or removed. Need to get 196 kB of archives. After this operation, 864 kB of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 net-tools amd64 1.60+git20180626.aebd88e-1ubuntu1 [196 kB] Fetched 196 kB in 0s (938 kB/s) Selecting previously unselected package net-tools. (Reading database ... 174869 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../net-tools_1.60+git20180626.aebd88e-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb ... Unpacking net-tools (1.60+git20180626.aebd88e-1ubuntu1) ... Setting up net-tools (1.60+git20180626.aebd88e-1ubuntu1) ... Setting up grub-common (2.04-1ubuntu26.3) ... update-rc.d: warning: start and stop actions are no longer supported; falling back to defaults Job for grub-common.service failed because a timeout was exceeded. See "systemctl status grub-common.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details. invoke-rc.d: initscript grub-common, action "restart" failed. ● grub-common.service - LSB: Record successful boot for GRUB Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/grub-common; generated) Active: failed (Result: timeout) since Wed 2020-09-09 08:32:40 CEST; 5ms ago Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8) Process: 1985200 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/grub-common start (code=killed, signal=TERM) Tasks: 6 (limit: 23958) Memory: 4.0M CGroup: /system.slice/grub-common.service ├─ 421180 plymouth --ping ├─ 423955 plymouth --ping ├─ 434262 plymouth --ping ├─ 444489 plymouth --ping ├─1923087 plymouth --ping └─1985208 plymouth --ping Sep 09 08:27:40 PC-5928-Linux-VM systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Record successful boot for GRUB... Sep 09 08:32:40 PC-5928-Linux-VM systemd[1]: grub-common.service: start operation timed out. Terminating. Sep 09 08:32:40 PC-5928-Linux-VM systemd[1]: grub-common.service: Failed with result 'timeout'. Sep 09 08:32:40 PC-5928-Linux-VM systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Record successful boot for GRUB. dpkg: error processing package grub-common (--configure): installed grub-common package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of grub-efi-amd64-bin: grub-efi-amd64-bin depends on grub-common (= 2.04-1ubuntu26.3); however: Package grub-common is not configured yet. dpkg: error processing package grub-efi-amd64-bin (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of grub-efi-amd64-signed: grub-efi-amd64-signed depends on grub-efi-amd64-bin (= 2.04-1ubuntu26.3); however: Package grub-efi-amd64-bin is not configured yet. dpkg: error processing package grub-efi-amd64-signed (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of grub2-common: grub2-common depends on grub-common (= 2.04-1ubuntu26.3); however: Package grub-common is not configured yet. dpkg: error processing package grub2-common (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuratiNo apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure. No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure. No apport repor t written because MaxReports is reached already No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already on of grub-pc-bin: grub-pc-bin depends on grub-common (= 2.04-1ubuntu26.3); however: Package grub-common is not configured yet. dpkg: error processing package grub-pc-bin (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of grub-pc: grub-pc depends on grub-common (= 2.04-1ubuntu26.3); however: Package grub-common is not configured yet. grub-pc depends on grub2-common (= 2.04-1ubuntu26.3); however: Package grub2-common is not configured yet. grub-pc depends on grub-pc-bin (= 2.04-1ubuntu26.3); however: Package grub-pc-bin is not configured yet. dpkg: error processing package grub-pc (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ... Errors were encountered while processing: grub-common grub-efi-amd64-bin grub-efi-amd64-signed grub2-common grub-pc-bin grub-pc E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) And the output of strace strace plymouth --ping execve("/bin/plymouth", ["plymouth", "--ping"], 0x7ffe1349c078 /* 54 vars */) = 0 brk(NULL) = 0x55ee36d2b000 arch_prctl(0x3001 /* ARCH_??? */, 0x7fff2a9e2b70) = -1 EINVAL (Invalid argument) 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=66920, ...}) = 0 mmap(NULL, 66920, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x7f790c946000 close(3) = 0 openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libply.so.5", 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\0Z\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832 fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=113360, ...}) = 0 mmap(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f790c944000 mmap(NULL, 121376, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7f790c926000 mmap(0x7f790c92b000, 61440, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x5000) = 0x7f790c92b000 mmap(0x7f790c93a000, 28672, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x14000) = 0x7f790c93a000 mmap(0x7f790c941000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x1a000) = 0x7f790c941000 mmap(0x7f790c943000, 2592, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f790c943000 close(3) = 0 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\360q\2\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832 pread64(3, "\6\0\0\0\4\0\0\0@\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 784, 64) = 784 pread64(3, "\4\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\5\0\0\0GNU\0\2\0\0\300\4\0\0\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 32, 848) = 32 pread64(3, "\4\0\0\0\24\0\0\0\3\0\0\0GNU\0cBR\340\305\370\2609W\242\345)q\235A\1"..., 68, 880) = 68 fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=2029224, ...}) = 0 pread64(3, "\6\0\0\0\4\0\0\0@\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@\0\0\0\0\0\0\0@\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 784, 64) = 784 pread64(3, "\4\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\5\0\0\0GNU\0\2\0\0\300\4\0\0\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 32, 848) = 32 pread64(3, "\4\0\0\0\24\0\0\0\3\0\0\0GNU\0cBR\340\305\370\2609W\242\345)q\235A\1"..., 68, 880) = 68 mmap(NULL, 2036952, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7f790c734000 mprotect(0x7f790c759000, 1847296, PROT_NONE) = 0 mmap(0x7f790c759000, 1540096, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x25000) = 0x7f790c759000 mmap(0x7f790c8d1000, 303104, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x19d000) = 0x7f790c8d1000 mmap(0x7f790c91c000, 24576, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x1e7000) = 0x7f790c91c000 mmap(0x7f790c922000, 13528, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f790c922000 close(3) = 0 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 \22\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832 fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=18816, ...}) = 0 mmap(NULL, 20752, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7f790c72e000 mmap(0x7f790c72f000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x1000) = 0x7f790c72f000 mmap(0x7f790c731000, 4096, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x3000) = 0x7f790c731000 mmap(0x7f790c732000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x3000) = 0x7f790c732000 close(3) = 0 mmap(NULL, 12288, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f790c72b000 arch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, 0x7f790c72b740) = 0 mprotect(0x7f790c91c000, 12288, PROT_READ) = 0 mprotect(0x7f790c732000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0 mprotect(0x7f790c941000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0 mprotect(0x55ee34fac000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0 mprotect(0x7f790c984000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0 munmap(0x7f790c946000, 66920) = 0 rt_sigaction(SIGPIPE, {sa_handler=SIG_IGN, sa_mask=[PIPE], sa_flags=SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART, sa_restorer=0x7f790c77a210}, {sa_handler=SIG_DFL, sa_mask=[], sa_flags=0}, 8) = 0 brk(NULL) = 0x55ee36d2b000 brk(0x55ee36d4c000) = 0x55ee36d4c000 epoll_create1(EPOLL_CLOEXEC) = 3 pipe2([4, 5], O_CLOEXEC) = 0 epoll_ctl(3, EPOLL_CTL_ADD, 4, {EPOLLERR|EPOLLHUP, {u32=919778176, u64=94481610355584}}) = 0 epoll_ctl(3, EPOLL_CTL_MOD, 4, {EPOLLIN|EPOLLERR|EPOLLHUP, {u32=919778176, u64=94481610355584}}) = 0 openat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/cmdline", O_RDONLY) = 6 read(6, "BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-4"..., 4095) = 118 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