Almalinux 8: nfs-utils fails to update

Support
1

Hi all,

I launch a ``dnf update``` this morning on my Almalinux 8 laptop and it fails for nfs-utils package:

Running transactionPreparing :
Running scriptlet: nfs-utils-1:2.3.3-64.el8_10.x86_64 Running scriptlet: nfs-utils-1:2.3.3-64.el8_10.x86_64 Upgrading : nfs-utils-1:2.3.3-64.el8_10.x86_64 Error unpacking rpm package nfs-utils-1:2.3.3-64.el8_10.x86_64
Verifying : nfs-utils-1:2.3.3-64.el8_10.x86_64 Verifying : nfs-utils-1:2.3.3-59.el8.x86_64 Failed:nfs-utils-1:2.3.3-59.el8.x86_64 nfs-utils-1:2.3.3-64.el8_10.x86_64

With LANG set to fr_FR.UTF-8 I have an additionnal information about the failure:
erreur : échec du déballage de l’archive dans fichier /usr/lib/systemd/system/nfs-blkmap.service;68df7906 : cpio: rename échec - Trop de niveaux de liens symboliques

Patrick

2

Hello

Trop de niveaux de liens symboliques (French)

↓

Too many levels of symbolic links (English)

/usr/lib/systemd/system/nfs-blkmap.service

Could it be that too many symbolic links are pointing to this file, preventing the upgrade?
Removing the symbolic links should resolve the issue.

Thank you

3

There should be no symlinks on that path (on typical system):

# X=/usr/lib/systemd/system/nfs-blkmap.service
# while [[ -a $X ]] ; do ls -ld $X ; X=${X%/*} ; done
-rw-r–r–. 1 root root 295 Apr  1  2023 /usr/lib/systemd/system/nfs-blkmap.service
drwxr-xr-x. 30 root root 32768 Oct  3 12:28 /usr/lib/systemd/system
drwxr-xr-x. 16 root root 4096 Dec 25  2024 /usr/lib/systemd
dr-xr-xr-x. 38 root root 4096 Aug  4  2024 /usr/lib
drwxr-xr-x. 13 root root 4096 Dec 16  2021 /usr
4

Thank you for the quick answer.
So the problem is not in the nfs-utils package but with the / filesystem of the laptop :sob: .
I will soon reboot in rescue mode (or on a USB stick) to [try to] fix it. :+1:

5

https://www.baeldung.com/linux/too-many-levels-of-symlinks seems to explain the typical reason for the error message.

The question is, how to find the troublesome symlinks?

6

A boot on an USB stick and a xfs_repair on the / partition solve the problem. The update was then successfull.
Thank.

7

That’s great!!
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask anytime.
Thank you