[Bug 559127] Re: various packages failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: unable to make backup link of <some file> before installing new version: Input/output error

[TJ]

I've just encountered this with 16.04 whilst developing a bash script
that cross-builds (on amd64) a complete custom armhf RasPi 2/3
installation image.

It triggered when linux-image packages were being unpacked by 'dpkg' to
the chroot target /boot/ directory.

The amd64 system has qemu-user-static and binfmt-support installed so
that commands can be executed in the armhf target chroot.

The command:

$ sudo chroot /mnt/raspi dpkg -i /var/local/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-4.5.0-v7+_4.5.0-v7+-2_armhf.deb
(Reading database ... 30501 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../linux-image-4.5.0-v7+_4.5.0-v7+-2_armhf.deb ...
Unpacking linux-image-4.5.0-v7+ (4.5.0-v7+-2) over (4.5.0-v7+-2) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/local/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-4.5.0-v7+_4.5.0-v7+-2_armhf.deb (--install):
 unable to make backup link of './boot/config-4.5.0-v7+' before installing new version: Operation not permitted
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/local/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-4.5.0-v7+_4.5.0-v7+-2_armhf.deb

and strace reveals:

13605 utimes("/boot/config-4.5.0-v7+.dpkg-new", {{1462489111, 0}, {1458064430, 0}}) = 0
13605 link("/boot/config-4.5.0-v7+", "/boot/config-4.5.0-v7+.dpkg-tmp") = -1 EPERM (Operation not permitted)

RasPi images require the boot file-system to be VFAT:

$ mount | grep /mnt/raspi/boot
/dev/mapper/VG_DATA-raspi1 on /mnt/raspi/boot type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)

$ sudo blkid /dev/mapper/VG_DATA-raspi1
/dev/mapper/VG_DATA-raspi1: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL="RASPI_4084" UUID="C5B8-3907" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="primary" PARTUUID="009a2020-4eec-451a-9bb7-b18241729fd1"

As far as I recall it isn't possible to hard link on VFAT.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/559127

Title:
  various packages failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: unable to
  make backup link of <some file> before installing new version:
  Input/output error

Status in dpkg package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Fresh installation of Beta 2, and I got this error while updating for
  the first time.  Hopefully any other necessary information will be
  automatically included, but if not, I'll gladly help debug however I
  can.

  ProblemType: Package
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
  Package: libglibmm-2.4-1c2a 2.24.0-0ubuntu1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-19.28-generic 2.6.32.10+drm33.1
  Uname: Linux 2.6.32-19-generic x86_64
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Fri Apr  9 11:15:14 2010
  ErrorMessage: ErrorMessage: unable to make backup link of `./usr/share/doc/libglibmm-2.4-1c2a/README' before installing new version: Input/output error
  LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta amd64 (20100406.1)
  SourcePackage: glibmm2.4
  Title: package libglibmm-2.4-1c2a 2.24.0-0ubuntu1 failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: unable to make backup link of `./usr/share/doc/libglibmm-2.4-1c2a/README' before installing new version: Input/output error

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