fix(install): don't abort when journald settings are absent

[ChuckBuilds]

Problem

first_time_install.sh dies in Step 13 ("Apply performance optimizations") at line 1748, exit 1, on every fresh Raspberry Pi OS image. Reproduced on a Pi 4 (hdpi) — three consecutive install runs all failed at the identical spot.

The journald-persistence block greps the effective journald config for Storage= and SystemMaxUse=. Both settings are optional and stock images ship them commented out (#SystemMaxUse=), so grep exits 1. Under the script's set -Eeuo pipefail, that fails the command-substitution assignment and the ERR trap aborts the whole install.

Storage= happens to survive on current Raspberry Pi OS only because the image ships a Storage=volatile drop-in; the SystemMaxUse= lookup fails on essentially every system that hasn't set an explicit cap.

Fix

Guard the four optional-lookup pipelines with || true so an absent setting reads as an empty string instead of aborting:

• journald_storage= and journald_cap= assignments (the crash site)
• the journald_now= re-read after writing the drop-in
• the cat fallback inside journald_effective() (fails if neither config path exists)

Downstream logic already handles empty values ([ -n "$journald_cap" ] decides whether to write SystemMaxUse=64M), so no other changes are needed.

Verification

• bash -n passes.
• Reproduced the failing input (Storage=volatile present, SystemMaxUse= commented) under set -Eeuo pipefail with an ERR trap: unpatched pipelines fire the trap; patched ones yield storage=volatile, cap="" and continue.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01YF7Q48EYCCkU1Vs932uDY1

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Improved installation reliability when journald configuration settings are missing or commented out.
  • Prevented valid installations from stopping unexpectedly while reading or verifying journald settings.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: edc7452a-7376-4af8-adae-b0ac0a181b54

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between eae0637 and 732a0c6.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• first_time_install.sh

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The installer now handles missing or commented-out journald settings without exiting during initial configuration reads or post-write verification.

Changes

Journald configuration read handling

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Tolerate absent journald settings first_time_install.sh	The journald fallback read and setting-extraction pipelines now continue when Storage= or SystemMaxUse= is missing. Post-write verification also returns an empty value when Storage= is unset.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 732a0

The installer now tolerates absent optional journald settings instead of aborting during setup. No actionable merge-blocking risk remains beyond normal checks and review.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the main change: preventing installation from aborting when journald settings are absent.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	Docstring coverage is 100.00% which is sufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 1 functions across 1 files.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch fix/install-journald-grep-pipefail

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[codacy-production]

Up to standards ✅

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