[SOLVED] Systemd-Nspawn containers giving "exec format error"

7thCore · 2021-05-18 17:10:58

Long story short I have a few services in their own nspawn containers (Nextcloud, Plex, Transmission...). The os is running on a 500G ssd and because i want to have system snapshots with btrfs I had to resize the boot partition (systemd-boot) Before I wnt on this venture I hooked up an external ssd drive and transfered the btrfs subvolumes (root,home and /var/lib/machines) to it using btrfs send | btrfs receive.

After resizing the partitions, transfering the os back on to the ssd and reinstalling systemd-boot the system booted on the first go. The problem however are the nspawn containers. None of them start no matter what.

Here is the error i get from all of them if I try to start them:

root@Rocinante machines]# systemd-nspawn --boot --link-journal=try-guest --network-veth -U --settings=override --machine=Rocinante-Con-Transmission
Spawning container Rocinante-Con-Transmission on /var/lib/machines/Rocinante-Con-Transmission.
Press ^] three times within 1s to kill container.
Selected user namespace base 568197120 and range 65536.
Using default interface naming scheme 'v247'.
Network interface name 'vb-Rocinante-Con-Transmission' has been changed to 'vb-RocinantceXX' to fit length constraints.
execv(/usr/lib/systemd/systemd, /lib/systemd/systemd, /sbin/init) failed: Exec format error
Container Rocinante-Con-Transmission failed with error code 1.

Here is the .nspawn file i usually run with machinectl:

[Exec]
Boot=yes
PrivateUsers=568197120:65536
NotifyReady=yes
Hostname=Rocinante-Con-Transmission
Timezone=symlink
LinkJournal=try-guest
ResolvConf=copy-host

[Files]
PrivateUsersChown=true
BindReadOnly=/var/cache/pacman/pkg:/var/cache/pacman/pkg-host
BindReadOnly=/var/lib/machines/Rocinante-Con-Repo/var/cache/pacman/rocinante-repo:/var/cache/pacman/rocinante-repo
Bind=/nas/transmission:/transmission

[Network]
Private=yes
VirtualEthernet=yes
Bridge=nic0-bridge

Systemd status and journalctl throw out the same error and I can't find anything significant to indicate what the problem is.

Here is an ls -alis just so you know each container has it's own private user and group:

   256 0 drwx------ 1 root       root       216 maj 18 19:08 .
   262 0 drwxr-xr-x 1 root       root       206 maj 18 17:13 ..
272501 0 drwxr-xr-x 1  116129792  116129792 122 maj  4 22:22 Rocinante-Con-Games
   258 0 drwxr-xr-x 1 1181679616 1181679616 186 apr 28 03:02 Rocinante-Con-Nextcloud
   259 0 drwxr-xr-x 1  433782784  433782784 134 apr 28 12:28 Rocinante-Con-Plex
   257 0 drwxr-xr-x 1  296484864  296484864 122 apr 28 01:59 Rocinante-Con-Repo
   260 0 drwxr-xr-x 1  568197120  568197120 138 apr 28 23:34 Rocinante-Con-Transmission

If you need additional info let me know.

Last edited by 7thCore (2021-05-24 17:27:44)

7thCore · 2021-05-24 07:13:28

Found out that most of the system libs in the containers ware empty files after the move. Probably because I didn't realise that /var/lib/machines was a loopback volume of btrfs. That's the reason why I couldn't chroot in or fix it with pacman. Ended up rebuilding all of the containers and I made myself a proper machines subvolume and bootable snapshot/backup pacman hook for pre updating.

Marking as closed.

Last edited by 7thCore (2021-05-24 07:17:36)

WorMzy · 2021-05-24 10:36:38

Please do not use 'closed', use e.g. 'solved' or 'fixed'.

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … ow-to-post

7thCore · 2021-05-24 17:26:34

Understood. Thanks for letting me know.

Arch Linux

#1 2021-05-18 17:10:58

[SOLVED] Systemd-Nspawn containers giving "exec format error"

#2 2021-05-24 07:13:28

Re: [SOLVED] Systemd-Nspawn containers giving "exec format error"

#3 2021-05-24 10:36:38

Re: [SOLVED] Systemd-Nspawn containers giving "exec format error"

#4 2021-05-24 17:26:34

Re: [SOLVED] Systemd-Nspawn containers giving "exec format error"

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