/boot is not allowing symbolic link creation
by rnturn from LinuxQuestions.org on (#587QG)
I've got two openSUSE systems: one running Tumbleweed (current as of a few days ago) and another running Leap 15.1 (some pending updates).
The Tumbleweed system will not allow any symbolic links to be created in /boot. This has caused some system updates to fail -- specifically Xen -- because there are missing symbolic links in /boot. I've tried to recreate them ``by hand'' but cannot---even as root (see below). Not having Xen updated is not critical as I selected it during the initial installation but have never used it. Zypper updates have a problem due to the missing symbolic links (which I have to ignore).
Comparing the two systems:
The output of "mount" for the two systems:
Leap:
Code:# mount | grep boot
/dev/sde1 on /boot/efi type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)TW:
Code:# mount | grep boot
/dev/sdc1 on /boot type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)Other than the mount point, I see nothing different. Both mounted read/write.
At the filesystem level I see:
Leap:
Code:# ls -dl /boot
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Sep 5 11:46 /bootTW:
Code:# ls -dl /boot
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 16384 Dec 31 1969 /bootThe links column initially looked odd but the TW system has no /boot/efi directory. (And the date is pretty strange as well. If memory serves, the system was built w/o any network connection available so no NTP access.) Again, both are mounted read/write. But when I try to touch a file and link to it in /boot on both systems, what I see is:
Leap:
Code:# touch /tmp/a.file
# cd /boot
# ln -s /tmp/a.file .
#TW:
Code:# touch /tmp/a.file
# cd /boot
# ln -s /tmp/a.file .
ln: failed to create symbolic link './a.file': Operation not permittedWhich sort of makes sense in that I've always been operating under the assumption that vfat filesystems didn't support symbolic links anyway. Yet... there they are in the /boot directory on the Leap system. [scratches head}
I've run fsck.vfat on the Tumbleweed system's /boot filesystem but all it reported was not having been properly umounted. (Surely from the power failure a while back.) It did not change the behavior when attempting to create a symlink in /boot.
One more tidbit: I have plans to move the Tumbleweed system to Leap 15.2 in the near future. The system is "transitioning" from simply a LAN file server to one hosting web sites as well as its (light) file serving duties and I'm looking to run it with an OS that isn't getting a large number of updates every week (I'd rather spend time on the web sites and not on patching quite so frequently). Maybe living with the strange boot partition is OK until that transition takes place?
Any thoughts?
Any simple fixes?
Any information I've forgotten that would be useful?
TIA...
The Tumbleweed system will not allow any symbolic links to be created in /boot. This has caused some system updates to fail -- specifically Xen -- because there are missing symbolic links in /boot. I've tried to recreate them ``by hand'' but cannot---even as root (see below). Not having Xen updated is not critical as I selected it during the initial installation but have never used it. Zypper updates have a problem due to the missing symbolic links (which I have to ignore).
Comparing the two systems:
The output of "mount" for the two systems:
Leap:
Code:# mount | grep boot
/dev/sde1 on /boot/efi type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)TW:
Code:# mount | grep boot
/dev/sdc1 on /boot type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)Other than the mount point, I see nothing different. Both mounted read/write.
At the filesystem level I see:
Leap:
Code:# ls -dl /boot
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Sep 5 11:46 /bootTW:
Code:# ls -dl /boot
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 16384 Dec 31 1969 /bootThe links column initially looked odd but the TW system has no /boot/efi directory. (And the date is pretty strange as well. If memory serves, the system was built w/o any network connection available so no NTP access.) Again, both are mounted read/write. But when I try to touch a file and link to it in /boot on both systems, what I see is:
Leap:
Code:# touch /tmp/a.file
# cd /boot
# ln -s /tmp/a.file .
#TW:
Code:# touch /tmp/a.file
# cd /boot
# ln -s /tmp/a.file .
ln: failed to create symbolic link './a.file': Operation not permittedWhich sort of makes sense in that I've always been operating under the assumption that vfat filesystems didn't support symbolic links anyway. Yet... there they are in the /boot directory on the Leap system. [scratches head}
I've run fsck.vfat on the Tumbleweed system's /boot filesystem but all it reported was not having been properly umounted. (Surely from the power failure a while back.) It did not change the behavior when attempting to create a symlink in /boot.
One more tidbit: I have plans to move the Tumbleweed system to Leap 15.2 in the near future. The system is "transitioning" from simply a LAN file server to one hosting web sites as well as its (light) file serving duties and I'm looking to run it with an OS that isn't getting a large number of updates every week (I'd rather spend time on the web sites and not on patching quite so frequently). Maybe living with the strange boot partition is OK until that transition takes place?
Any thoughts?
Any simple fixes?
Any information I've forgotten that would be useful?
TIA...