Public bug reported: I just upgraded from 16.04 to 18.04. The upgrade broke. The error, from systemd, was:
"Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/journal, refusing." That directory was empty. The fix was "chmod root:root /var". Yes, it's weird that my /var wasn't owned by root, but upgrade breaking errors should say something useful. panic:~# chown darxus:darxus /var panic:~# dpkg-reconfigure systemd Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/spool/rsyslog, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/lib/colord, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/lib/colord/icc, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/cache/man, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/run/opendkim, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/lib/systemd, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/lib/systemd/coredump, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/wtmp, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/btmp, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/lastlog, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/auth.log, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/mail.err, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/mail.log, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/kern.log, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/syslog, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/journal, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/journal, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/journal, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/journal, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/journal/6118992be5f52430d74ed66e4cc8d590, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/journal/6118992be5f52430d74ed66e4cc8d590, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/journal/6118992be5f52430d74ed66e4cc8d590, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/journal/6118992be5f52430d74ed66e4cc8d590, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/journal/6118992be5f52430d74ed66e4cc8d590/system.journal, refusing. Unsafe symlinks encountered in /var/log/journal/6118992be5f52430d74ed66e4cc8d590/system.journal, refusing. panic:~# chown root:root /var panic:~# dpkg-reconfigure systemd I found the fix here: https://askubuntu.com/a/1095796 Showing that I'm not the only one encountering this. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04 Package: systemd 237-3ubuntu10.42 Uname: Linux 5.6.14-x86_64-linode135 x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.16 Architecture: i386 Date: Wed Aug 12 15:58:33 2020 Lsusb: Error: command ['lsusb'] failed with exit code 1: MachineType: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009) ProcKernelCmdLine: root=/dev/sda console=tty1 console=ttyS0 ro devtmpfs.mount=1 ProcModules: SourcePackage: systemd UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2020-08-12 (0 days ago) dmi.bios.date: 04/01/2014 dmi.bios.vendor: SeaBIOS dmi.bios.version: rel-1.12.0-0-ga698c8995f-prebuilt.qemu.org dmi.chassis.type: 1 dmi.chassis.vendor: QEMU dmi.chassis.version: pc-q35-3.1 dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnSeaBIOS:bvrrel-1.12.0-0-ga698c8995f-prebuilt.qemu.org:bd04/01/2014:svnQEMU:pnStandardPC(Q35+ICH9,2009):pvrpc-q35-3.1:cvnQEMU:ct1:cvrpc-q35-3.1: dmi.product.name: Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009) dmi.product.version: pc-q35-3.1 dmi.sys.vendor: QEMU ** Affects: systemd (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: apport-bug bionic i386 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1891394 Title: systemd breaks upgrade with useless error if /var is not owned by root To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/+bug/1891394/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
