Boot fails with LVM logging in file on RHEL5.5

Issue

• Since lvm2-2.02.56-8.el5, LVM commands do not accept a non-writable log file [ lvm.conf : log { file = "/var/log/lvm2.log" } ]. Any command will refuse to process. The result is that LVM will fail VG activation during boot as root is still read-only during activation. Snippet of  lvm.conf :

  log {
      file = "/var/log/lvm2.log"
  }
  

• Depending of the fstab configuration, machine may or may not boot. For example, when checking the filesystem ( ... 1 2 in fstab), boot will fail in such a way :

  Setting hostname test:                               [  OK  ]
  Setting up Logical Volume Management:   /var/log/lvm2.log: fopen failed: Read-only file system
      Logging initialised at Wed May 12 20:33:18 2010
      Set umask to 0077
      Wiping internal VG cache
                                                             [FAILED]
  Checking filesystems
  /dev/vgroot/lvroot: clean, 10043/2097152 files, 255446/2097152 blocks
  /boot: clean, 61/128520 files, 56818/514048 blocks
  /dev/vgroot/lvtmp: clean, 307/1048576 files, 89974/1048576 blocks
  /dev/vgroot/lvvar: clean, 1454/2097152 files, 176852/2097152 blocks
  /dev/vgroot/lvusr: clean, 141414/2097152 files, 828635/2097152 blocks
  /dev/vgroot/lvopt: clean, 16/2097152 files, 100791/2097152 blocks
  /dev/vgroot/lvhome: clean, 598/1048576 files, 69220/1048576 blocks
  /dev/vgdata/lvdvd is mounted.  e4fsck: Cannot continue, aborting.
  /dev/vgdata/lvbackup is mounted.  e4fsck: Cannot continue, aborting.
  /dev/mapper/vgdata-lvrepository is mounted.  e4fsck: Cannot continue, aborting.
  /dev/vgoracle/lvoracle is mounted.  e4fsck: Cannot continue, aborting.
  
  
                                                             [FAILED]
  
  *** An error occurred during the file system check.
  *** Dropping you to a shell; the system will reboot
  *** when you leave the shell.
  Give root password for maintenance
  (or type Control-D to continue):