'Failed to whiteout' error in 14.04 with 3.19 kernel and LXC 1.0.7

[Thomas Müller]

When cloning an unprivileged container with the "-s -B overlayfs" flags, then starting this container and running a command like ``apt-get update`` in the new container, a kernel error "Failed to whiteout" is produced.

- Kernel error: http://pastebin.com/iajXHbHZ
- Kernel version: 3.19.0-25-generic #26~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 24 21:16:20 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
- LXC version: 1.0.7

- Commands to reproduce:

lxc-clone -s -B overlayfs base test
lxc-start -n test -d
lxc-attach -n test
apt-get update

When executing the above commands, your terminal will hang, and you won't be able to destroy/stop the container anymore. The kernel log then also has the error linked above.

[oleg (overlayfs)]

I can reproduce the 'failed to whiteout' error on ubuntu-14.04 with the lts-vivid kernel.

The issue seems to be that lxc-1.0.7 does not support the use of overlayfs in conjunction with newer kernels (3.18+) such as linux-generic-lts-vivid (3.19). This is likely to cause problems, since ubuntu-14.04.3 is based upon the lts-vivid kernel.

Newer versions of lxc such as the daily-build do support all the kernels available in the ubuntu-trusty repository.

Some possible options for resolving this issue include:
(1) upgrading the version of lxc in ubuntu-trusty.
(2) staying with lxc-1.0.7, and adding a dependency on kernel <= 3.17

[Nelson Lago (lago)]

Actually, this bug affects me with lts-utopic kernel too (version 3.16, IIRC). I am using unpriviledged containers, but starting them as root. Things (apparently) work ok on the original trusty kernels (3.13).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[oleg (overlayfs)]

I can no longer reproduce this bug, following the release of fixes for bugs #1531747, #1534961 and #1535150 .