At linuxrc:1425-1430 we're (trying to) restoring the kernel loglevel set before the script starts: --- if ! is_quiet && [[ "${CONSOLE_LOGLEVEL}" != "${GK_CONSOLE_LOGLEVEL}" ]] then good_msg "Restoring console log level (${CONSOLE_LOGLEVEL}) ..." echo ${CONSOLE_LOGLEVEL} > /proc/sys/kernel/printk \ && log_msg "COMMAND: 'echo \"${CONSOLE_LOGLEVEL}\" > /proc/sys/kernel/printk'" fi --- CONSOLE_LOGLEVEL is set at initrd.defaults:54 : --- CONSOLE_LOGLEVEL=$(cut -b1 /proc/sys/kernel/printk 2>/dev/null || echo 7) --- The issue is that initrd.defaults is sourced at linuxrc:4, before it mounts /proc at linuxrc:35: --- . /etc/initrd.defaults [...] mount -t proc -o noexec,nosuid,nodev proc /proc >/dev/null 2>&1 --- Because of that "cut -b1 /proc/sys/kernel/printk" fails, and CONSOLE_LEVEL is set to the default value 7. This was introduced in commit 60ecb8b6d85b70d07e9aacb12771dde7cd86adf3 - "linuxrc: Move global variables to initrd.defaults", which moved setting of console loglevel from linuxrc (after mounting /proc) to initrd.defaults (sourced before mounting /proc).
