From 469de51c023911798c179467d7302690d73c8376 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: MickLesk <47820557+MickLesk@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2026 23:18:15 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Say when pct create fails because timedatectl does not answer

pct create reads the host's time zone through timedatectl. On five
hosts in a week D-Bus did not answer, and each run tried three times,
asked about verbose mode and ended in a generic creation failure.
Name the host problem and stop at the first attempt.
---
 pve/backend.func             | 9 +++++++++
 tests/pct-create-settings.sh | 7 +++++++
 2 files changed, 16 insertions(+)

diff --git a/pve/backend.func b/pve/backend.func
index da4bd73..4875074 100644
--- a/pve/backend.func
+++ b/pve/backend.func
@@ -3738,6 +3738,15 @@ create_lxc_container() {
   if ! _pct_create "$CTID" "${TEMPLATE_STORAGE}:vztmpl/${TEMPLATE}" $PCT_OPTIONS ${_PW_ARGS[@]+"${_PW_ARGS[@]}"} >"$LOGFILE" 2>&1; then
     msg_debug "Container creation failed on ${TEMPLATE_STORAGE}. Checking error..."
 
+    # pct create asks timedatectl for the host's time zone; when that fails, every retry fails with it.
+    if grep -q "command 'timedatectl show" "$LOGFILE"; then
+      msg_error "pct create could not read this host's time zone: timedatectl does not answer."
+      msg_custom "🔧" "${YW}" "On the Proxmox host, run 'systemctl restart systemd-timedated' and check that 'timedatectl' works, then retry."
+      msg_custom "💡" "${YW}" "If timedatectl still fails, D-Bus on the host is stuck; a reboot clears it."
+      _flush_pct_log
+      exit 209
+    fi
+
     if grep -qiE 'Compilation failed|Bareword.*not allowed' "$LOGFILE"; then
       msg_error "Container creation failed due to broken Perl modules on the PVE host."
       msg_custom "⚠️" "${YW}" "This usually happens after a partial PVE package upgrade."
diff --git a/tests/pct-create-settings.sh b/tests/pct-create-settings.sh
index ee3db28..b11a154 100644
--- a/tests/pct-create-settings.sh
+++ b/tests/pct-create-settings.sh
@@ -64,5 +64,12 @@ _cs_shield_hangup() { "$@"; }
 pveam() { [[ -d "$TEST_DIR/nas/template/cache" ]] && echo saved || echo "No such file or directory"; }
 expect "a storage without template/cache gets it before the download" saved "$(_pveam_download nas debian-13-standard_13.6-1_amd64.tar.zst)"
 
+# From the telemetry: five hosts, three futile attempts each.
+printf '%s\n' "Failed to parse bus message: Transport endpoint is not connected" \
+  "unable to create CT 110 - command 'timedatectl show '--property=Timezone' --value' failed: exit code 1" >"$TEST_DIR/pct.log"
+expect "a host whose timedatectl fails is named before any retry" 1 \
+  "$(awk '/First attempt/,/already exists\|already in use/' "$CORE_DIR/pve/backend.func" | grep -c "grep -q \"command 'timedatectl show\" \"\$LOGFILE\"")"
+expect "and the pattern matches what pct create prints" 0 "$(grep -q "command 'timedatectl show" "$TEST_DIR/pct.log"; echo $?)"
+
 printf '%s passed, %s failed\n' "$passed" "$failed"
 ((failed == 0))