Description

The latest stable release, 3975.2.0, is taking a considerably longer time to boot compared to previous releases.

E.g.

core@localhost ~ $ systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 1.787s (kernel) + 1min 31.064s (initrd) + 4.103s (userspace) = 1min 36.956s
multi-user.target reached after 4.103s in userspace.

vs. the previous release:

Startup finished in 1.309s (kernel) + 2.089s (initrd) + 4.278s (userspace) = 7.677s
multi-user.target reached after 4.254s in userspace.

This has resulted in a delay at boot of roughly 1min 30sec compared to the previous release.

Impact

When building images with image-builder the default boot wait time is 60s after which Packer will start typing out the boot command. As this happens before the OS has finished booting the flatcar-install script isn't actually run correctly and can result in the OS not being correctly set up in an environment such as VSphere (it doesn't install the vmtools for example). With image-builder this then results in it hanging at Waiting for IP... as vcenter is unable to retrieve the IP from the guest OS as no vmtools have been installed.

Environment and steps to reproduce

1. Set-up: Flatcar 3975.2.0 on VSphere via image-builder
2. Task: Packer stuck trying to get the IP address of the VM
3. Action(s):
   a. With image-builder run: make build-node-ova-vsphere-flatcar
   b. The 3975.2.0 image is used to launch a new VM (https://stable.release.flatcar-linux.net/amd64-usr/3975.2.0/flatcar_production_iso_image.iso)
   c. The VM boots but vcenter fails to retrieve the IP address due to lack of vmtools on the guest OS
4. Error: Waiting for IP...

Expected behavior

The OS boots in under 60 seconds. Ideally back down below 10s like the previous release.

Additional information

This issue was previously about open-vm-tools not being installed but after debugging with @tormath1 on Slack (see thread) we learnt that it was actually due to the delay in boot that was causing the problem so I updated the issue to reflect that.