Problem enabling transient /etc in fedora-based bootc image: rpm-ostree-fix-shadow-mode.service failed

[maringuyot]

Hello, while deploying an instance using the standard fedora:42 bootc image with transient etc enabled (an the initramfs re-generated) two systemd units relating to bootc and its ecosystem fail (in order):

1. rpm-ostree-fix-shadow-mode.service
2. bootc-fetch-apply-updates.service

After investigating a bit on my end, the only error message I was able to extract was the following:

[root@fedora]# rpm-ostree fix-shadow-perms
error: Remounting /boot read-write: Invalid argument

The same error appears when executing bootc upgrade --apply:

[root@fedora] # bootc upgrade --apply
error: Upgrading: Initializing storage: Acquiring sysroot: Remounting /boot read-write: Invalid argument

From what I gathered it looks more like an argument parsing issue than an actual /boot mount error. Digging into the rpm-ostree source code, the only place I think the error may be coming from is in the "fix_shadow_perms_entrypoint" function of the passwd.rs file. I stopped looking there, as that function calls some low level C/C++ bindings.

Additional information:

Fedora version: 42
Bootc version: 1.8.0
ostree/rpm-ostree versions: 2025.6

Would it be possible for your team to investigate on your end? /etc is crucial for us, and it is strongly recommended in your documentation.

Thanks in advance!

[maringuyot]

Link to discussion thread with some additional context: #1435