Debugging per [1], did not show anything new. There just is no activity on the actual access of /home all I see is the trigger for /home registering at startup.
Startup: ubuntu@xenial-autofs-client:/$ sudo automount -f -v --debug Starting automounter version 5.1.1, master map /etc/auto.master using kernel protocol version 5.02 lookup_nss_read_master: reading master file /etc/auto.master parse_init: parse(sun): init gathered global options: (null) lookup_read_master: lookup(file): read entry +dir:/etc/auto.master.d lookup_nss_read_master: reading master dir /etc/auto.master.d lookup_read_master: lookup(dir): scandir: /etc/auto.master.d lookup_read_master: lookup(file): read entry /- master_do_mount: mounting /- automount_path_to_fifo: fifo name /var/run/autofs.fifo-- lookup_nss_read_map: reading map file /etc/auto.nfs parse_init: parse(sun): init gathered global options: nosymlink,fstype=nfs,nfsvers=3,rw,hard,intr,rsize=8192,wsize=8192 mounted direct on /home with timeouts disabled do_mount_autofs_direct: mounted trigger /home st_ready: st_ready(): state = 0 path /- It is the open syscall itself that fails: 0.000029 open("/home", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ELOOP (Too many levels of symbolic links) <0.000012> So we must have set up the kernel/trigger to be broken - no userspace component active at the time (although it might have set it up wrong before). But since I haven't found fixes in autofs maybe it is fixed in the kernel then? Yes, here I found a fix. Installing linux-virtual-hwe-16.04 (since I was in a VM to test) resolved the issue. With the same setup I can now mount /home just fine again on Xenial. On a bare metal system you likely want linux-generic-hwe-16.04 instead. I'm adding a kernel task to potentially identify and backport the fix to the 4.4 kernel, but since after so much time it isn't in the stable releases chances are that it is hard to backport. Until then you can get this issue resolved with the -hwe kernels. [1]: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Autofs#Debugging_Auto_Mount_Problems ** Also affects: linux (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Also affects: linux (Ubuntu Xenial) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Also affects: autofs5 (Ubuntu Xenial) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Also affects: linux (Ubuntu Bionic) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Also affects: autofs5 (Ubuntu Bionic) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Changed in: autofs5 (Ubuntu Bionic) Status: New => Invalid ** Changed in: autofs5 (Ubuntu Xenial) Status: New => Invalid ** Changed in: autofs5 (Ubuntu) Status: Confirmed => Invalid ** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu) Status: New => Fix Released ** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu Xenial) Status: New => Confirmed ** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu Bionic) Status: New => Fix Released -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to linux in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1827286 Title: autofs - "Too many levels of symbolic links" after apt upgrade Status in autofs5 package in Ubuntu: Invalid Status in linux package in Ubuntu: Fix Released Status in autofs5 source package in Xenial: Invalid Status in linux source package in Xenial: Confirmed Status in autofs5 source package in Bionic: Invalid Status in linux source package in Bionic: Fix Released Bug description: Description: Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS Release: 16.04 I moved to autofs this week as a workaround for Bug #1577575 failing to mount NFS entries at boot. This worked file until I ran 'apt upgrade' today. Now trying to access /vol/home mount results in the following error: root@chi:~# ls -la /vol/home/ ls: cannot access '/vol/home/': Too many levels of symbolic links root@chi:~# Oddly enough, the other two autofs entries work fine (output trimmed): root@chi:~# ls -la /vol/media total 4 ... root@chi:~# root@chi:~# ls -al /vol/temp/ total 24 ... root@chi:~# I have a scratch VM I can break tonight by performing upgrades individually and testing after each. Will provide that detail when available. Here is /var/log/apt/history.log Start-Date: 2019-05-01 17:37:00 Commandline: apt upgrade Upgrade: libdns-export162:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), libisccfg140:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), ureadahead:amd64 (0.100.0-19, 0.100.0-19.1), libldap-2.4-2:amd64 (2.4.42+dfsg-2ubuntu3.4, 2.4.42+dfsg-2ubuntu3.5), libirs141:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), bind9-host:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), dnsutils:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), libisc160:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), passwd:amd64 (1:4.2-3.1ubuntu5.3, 1:4.2-3.1ubuntu5.4), bind9utils:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), libisc-export160:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), liblwres141:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), login:amd64 (1:4.2-3.1ubuntu5.3, 1:4.2-3.1ubuntu5.4), iproute2:amd64 (4.3.0-1ubuntu3.16.04.4, 4.3.0-1ubuntu3.16.04.5), bind9:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), libdns162:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), unattended-upgrades:amd64 (0.90ubuntu0.10, 1.1ubuntu1.18.04.7~16.04.2), libisccc140:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), libbind9-140:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), uidmap:amd64 (1:4.2-3.1ubuntu5.3, 1:4.2-3.1ubuntu5.4), bind9-doc:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.12, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.14), tzdata:amd64 (2018i-0ubuntu0.16.04, 2019a-0ubuntu0.16.04) End-Date: 2019-05-01 17:37:24 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/autofs5/+bug/1827286/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : kernel-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp