Log file used on usb is not used upon device reboot

reza · October 18, 2025, 7:17pm

I want to keep my logs so I am trying to use logrotate.

when I set the file path for log file in /etc/config/system and then restart the log service, then logs are written to the file I specified on the attacked usb drive.

but when I restart the device the logs are not written to it and I need to manually restart log service again.

I know the usb drive probably loads after the log service is running but I thought log service took care of it if I changed log file path to usb.

what am I doing wrong?

frollic · October 18, 2025, 7:18pm

How are you mounting the external storage?

reza · October 18, 2025, 7:38pm

from luci mount points.

“Mount Points

Mount Points define at which point a memory device will be attached to the filesystem”

cshoredaniel · October 19, 2025, 6:35am

This is fixed in the development branch

github.com/openwrt/openwrt

ubox: fix logging to external filesystem

main ← danielfdickinson:fix-log-to-external-file-not-started-on-boot

opened 05:12AM - 19 Feb 25 UTC

danielfdickinson

+5 -1

As described in #13873, from 23.05.0 onwards logging to a file on an external fi…lesystem fails. This occurs because the log initscript had code added to prevent start logging to an external filesystem on boot, and added a trigger to start said logging when the external filesystem gets mounted. The issue is that for filesystems mount with fstab uci, the fstab scripts runs at START=11 while log runs at START=12, which means the external filesystem is already mounted by the time the log initscript runs. Since the external filesystem is already mounted it does not trigger a hotplug event to trigger starting logging. This combination means the logging never automatically starts when the logfile is on an external filesystem. We therefore add a check for the presence of a mounted filesystem when the log file is being sent to an fstab mounted filesystem. If the filesystem is mounted, we don't skip starting logging during boot. If the filesystem is not mounted then file logging is not started and the trigger will start the logging when the filesystem is mounted. Signed-off-by: Daniel F. Dickinson <dfdpublic@wildtechgarden.ca>

but has not been backported to stable.

You can copy the version of the initscript in the above pull request (or from the current development branch) to /etc/init.d/log . To preserve across sysupgrade add /etc/init.d/log to /etc/sysupgrade.conf But don’t forget to remove it once development becomes the stable branch.

reza · October 19, 2025, 6:56am

thank you for the answer.

right now I got the issue “fixed” by adding

logread >> /mnt/usb/mylog
/etc/init.d/log restart

to the local startup scripts (rc.local)

will remove it once new release is done.

by the way is there any roadmap or release table for next version of openwrt?

also, where should I report bugs? here or on github?

is here more suitable for general bug reports and questions that can’t be narrowed down to components?

cshoredaniel · October 20, 2025, 11:25pm

That’s a nice workaround. I do not know of a timetable of any kind, but I also am not an active OpenWrt developer - in recent years that one PR is all I have submitted. I am hoping to do more, but time gets away from me.

For someone who is not a developer the general recommended course of action is to first post on the forum (to verify that it is a code bug and not a configuration error or missing, incomplete, or incorrect documentation - those some of those count as another kind of bug). For an actual bug, I think the usual place now is GitHub Issues on the appropriate repo.

For the final question, it depends on the nature of the bug (if a bug indeed). Questions are preferred to be asked on the forum (or in rare cases, the developer mailing list) rather than entered as an issue.

HTH.