Here is the section from rc.log when I did a cold boot with parallel = YES, and X did not start:
rc boot logging started at Thu Nov 4 09:13:54 2021
modules | * Loading module crypto_user ...
termencoding | * Setting terminal encoding [UTF-8] ...
[ ok ]
keymaps | * Setting keyboard mode [UTF-8] ...
[ ok ]
[ ok ]
keymaps | * Loading key mappings [us] ...
[ ok ]
hwclock | * Setting system clock using the hardware clock [UTC] ...
[ ok ]
hostname | * Setting hostname to x360 from /etc/hostname ...
[ ok ]
loopback | * Bringing up network interface lo ...
sysctl | * Configuring kernel parameters ...
[ ok ]
[ ok ]
procfs | * Mounting misc binary format filesystem ...
fsck | * Checking local filesystems ...
[ ok ]
fsck |fsck.fat 4.2 (2021-01-31)
fsck |/dev/nvme0n1p1: 348 files, 22938/65536 clusters
fsck |/dev/nvme0n1p8: clean, 282242/1966080 files, 2493814/7864320 blocks
binfmt | * Loading custom binary format handlers ...
fsck |/dev/nvme0n1p12: clean, 612/5898240 files, 2674770/23592960 blocks
[ ok ]
fsck |/dev/nvme0n1p6: clean, 11/1966080 files, 167453/7864320 blocks
fsck |/dev/nvme0n1p9: clean, 12680/6553600 files, 731524/26214400 blocks
fsck |fsck.ext4: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/mapper/home
fsck |Possibly non-existent device?
fsck |/dev/nvme0n1p11: clean, 951102/23789568 files, 17073022/95145728 blocks
fsck | * Operational error
[ !! ]
root | * Remounting filesystems ...
[ ok ]
mtab | * Updating /etc/mtab ...
mtab | * Creating mtab symbolic link
[ ok ]
swap | * Activating swap devices ...
[ ok ]
localmount | * Mounting local filesystems ...
[ ok ]
opensysusers | * Setting up sysusers.d entries ...
urandom | * Initializing random number generator ...
[ ok ]
opentmpfiles-setup| * Setting up tmpfiles.d entries ...
[ ok ]
[ ok ]
bootmisc | * Creating user login records ...
[ ok ]
bootmisc | * Wiping /tmp directory ...
[ ok ]
consolefont | * Setting console font [default8x16] ...
save-keymaps | * Saving key mapping ...
save-termencoding | * Saving terminal encoding ...
dbus | * Starting dbus ...
[ ok ]
[ ok ]
[ ok ]
net.lo | * Bringing up interface lo
net.lo | * Caching network module dependencies
[ ok ]
consolefont |setfont: INFO setfont.c:627 save_font: Found nothing to save
elogind | * Starting elogind ...
[ ok ]
net.lo | * 127.0.0.1/8 ...
[ ok ]
net.lo | * Adding routes
net.lo | * 127.0.0.0/8 via 127.0.0.1 ...
[ ok ]
[ ok ]
rc boot logging stopped at Thu Nov 4 09:13:55 2021
rc default logging started at Thu Nov 4 09:13:55 2021
syslog-ng | * Checking your configfile (/etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf) ...
connmand | * Starting connmand ...
[ ok ]
netmount | * Mounting network filesystems ...
[ ok ]
avahi-daemon | * Starting avahi-daemon ...
[ ok ]
[ ok ]
syslog-ng | * Starting syslog-ng ...
[ ok ]
cronie | * Starting cronie ...
[ ok ]
cupsd | * Starting cupsd ...
acpid | * Starting acpid ...
[ ok ]
[ ok ]
lightdm | * Starting lightdm ...
[ ok ]
sshd | * Starting sshd ...
[ ok ]
local | * Starting local ...
[ ok ]
rc default logging stopped at Thu Nov 4 09:13:56 2021
rc default logging started at Thu Nov 4 09:13:55 2021
syslog-ng | * Checking your configfile (/etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf) ...
connmand | * Starting connmand ...
[ ok ]
netmount | * Mounting network filesystems ...
[ ok ]
avahi-daemon | * Starting avahi-daemon ...
[ ok ]
[ ok ]
syslog-ng | * Starting syslog-ng ...
[ ok ]
cronie | * Starting cronie ...
[ ok ]
cupsd | * Starting cupsd ...
acpid | * Starting acpid ...
[ ok ]
[ ok ]
lightdm | * Starting lightdm ...
[ ok ]
sshd | * Starting sshd ...
[ ok ]
local | * Starting local ...
[ ok ]
rc default logging stopped at Thu Nov 4 09:13:56 2021
And here is with parallel = NO:
rc boot logging started at Thu Nov 4 09:16:04 2021
* Loading module crypto_user ...
[ ok ]
* Setting system clock using the hardware clock [UTC] ...
[ ok ]
* Mounting misc binary format filesystem ...
[ ok ]
* Loading custom binary format handlers ...
[ ok ]
* Checking local filesystems ...
fsck.fat 4.2 (2021-01-31)
/dev/nvme0n1p1: 348 files, 22938/65536 clusters
/dev/nvme0n1p8: clean, 282242/1966080 files, 2493814/7864320 blocks
/dev/nvme0n1p12: clean, 612/5898240 files, 2674770/23592960 blocks
/dev/nvme0n1p6: clean, 11/1966080 files, 167453/7864320 blocks
/dev/nvme0n1p9: clean, 12680/6553600 files, 731524/26214400 blocks
fsck.ext4: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/mapper/home
Possibly non-existent device?
/dev/nvme0n1p11: clean, 951102/23789568 files, 17073022/95145728 blocks
* Operational error
[ !! ]
* Remounting filesystems ...
[ ok ]
* Updating /etc/mtab ...
* Creating mtab symbolic link
[ ok ]
* Activating swap devices ...
[ ok ]
* Mounting local filesystems ...
[ ok ]
* Configuring kernel parameters ...
[ ok ]
* Creating user login records ...
[ ok ]
* Wiping /tmp directory ...
[ ok ]
* Setting terminal encoding [UTF-8] ...
[ ok ]
* Setting console font [default8x16] ...
[ ok ]
setfont: INFO setfont.c:627 save_font: Found nothing to save
* Starting dbus ...
[ ok ]
* Starting elogind ...
[ ok ]
* Setting hostname to x360 from /etc/hostname ...
[ ok ]
* Setting keyboard mode [UTF-8] ...
[ ok ]
* Loading key mappings [us] ...
[ ok ]
* Bringing up network interface lo ...
[ ok ]
* Bringing up interface lo
* Caching network module dependencies
* 127.0.0.1/8 ...
[ ok ]
* Adding routes
* 127.0.0.0/8 via 127.0.0.1 ...
[ ok ]
[ ok ]
* Setting up sysusers.d entries ...
[ ok ]
* Setting up tmpfiles.d entries ...
[ ok ]
* Saving key mapping ...
[ ok ]
* Saving terminal encoding ...
[ ok ]
* Initializing random number generator ...
[ ok ]
rc boot logging stopped at Thu Nov 4 09:16:07 2021
rc default logging started at Thu Nov 4 09:16:07 2021
* Checking your configfile (/etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf) ...
[ ok ]
* Starting syslog-ng ...
[ ok ]
* Starting acpid ...
[ ok ]
* Starting connmand ...
[ ok ]
* Starting cronie ...
[ ok ]
* Starting avahi-daemon ...
[ ok ]
* Starting cupsd ...
[ ok ]
* Mounting network filesystems ...
[ ok ]
* Starting lightdm ...
[ ok ]
* Starting sshd ...
[ ok ]
* Starting local ...
[ ok ]
rc default logging stopped at Thu Nov 4 09:16:08 2021
Although I am still disturbed by the warm-vs-cold boot differences, I am in agreement that there is some synchronization / race condition. However, since I am not troubled by the extra 2 seconds (+/-) required by parallel = NO, I'm completely happy to go that route.
I don't tend to reboot often... the number of times I rebooted yesterday made me feel like I was using windows, which I avoid like the plague. Hopefully it won't take me long to figure out how to mount an encrypted partition at boot time (but that's another story) and then I should be good to go. Having said that, if the above rc.log information causes anyone to have a brilliant idea and they would like another test or more information, just let me know.
Cheers.