update-initramfs complains about missing /sbin/fsck.btrfs

[Anders Kaseorg]

/sbin/fsck.btrfs moved to /bin/fsck.btrfs with btrfs-tools 4.0-2 (http://bugs.debian.org/784234), which causes

$ sudo update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.1.0-3-generic
Warning: /sbin/fsck.btrfs doesn't exist, can't install to initramfs, ignoring.

I assume this means that fsck won’t run on a btrfs /, which seems bad.

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

The copy of fsck.btrfs is triggered by the hook script carried in btrfs-tools. This is therefore not a initramfs-tools bug. This appears to be fixed in the following btrfs-tools upload:

  btrfs-tools (4.0-2) unstable; urgency=medium

    * Adjust initramfs hooks and udev rules for move of all binaries to
      /bin. (Closes: #784234)

   -- Dimitri John Ledkov <email address hidden> Mon, 04 May 2015 18:51:07 +0100

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

You might think that, but in fact the hook shipped with btrfs-tools only copies in /bin/fsck.btrfs if /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/fsck is not executable. It is executable, so this has no effect.

I have checked on current wily with / on btrfs that my initramfs really is missing fsck.btrfs (in either /bin or /sbin).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Jonni (jonni-egarden)]

I'm running an up-to-date Wily installation and
sudo update-initramfs -u
gives warning:
Warning: /sbin/fsck.btrfs doesn't exist, can't install to initramfs, ignoring.
the warning comes from /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/fsck script
dpkg -S /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/fsck
shows that the file belongs to the initramfs-tools package. And here is info about the currently installed initramfs-tools:
$ apt-cache policy initramfs-tools
initramfs-tools:
  Installed: 0.120ubuntu5
  Candidate: 0.120ubuntu5
  Version table:
 *** 0.120ubuntu5 0
        500 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ wily/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Nazar Mokrynskyi (nazar-pc)]

It still happens for me on Wily. It was reported almost 2 months ago, is it so difficult to fix?

[Barafu-albino-cheetah (barafu-albino-cheetah)]

Don't be so impatient. If bug does not prevent Unity from starting it will linger for years. Anyway, here is workaround. The /bin/fsck.btrfs exists. If it is not there, reinstall btrfs-tools. Then,
    sudo ln -s /bin/fsck.btrfs /sbin/fsck.btrfs
and all is fine.

[Jason Straight (jason-jeetkunedomaster)]

btrfs fsck is currently a last resort to recovery of a btrfs filesystem.

You don't want it to run and "fix" as a first resort on reboot with problems detected.

https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Btrfsck

[Sasa Paporovic (melchiaros)]

Still to observe in Ubuntu16.04(xenial). Adding tag.

[Guy Rouillier (guy-rouillier)]

I'm still seeing this message in Ubuntu Mate 20.04 on December 22,2020:

"W: /sbin/fsck.btrfs doesn't exist, can't install to initramfs"

Has the released fix just not been incorporated into the distros after 18 months?

[Benjamin Drung (bdrung)]

Commit 371221bf2f8ed19423aa2253a302c69a54c93b58 uses command to find the path of the fsck.${type} binary. This commit is part of initramfs-tools 0.121 and therefore fixed in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa".

You can still see this error message in case btrfs-progs is not installed. So please install btrfs-progs in that case. If you still experience this failure, please open a new bug report.