Comment 32 for bug 1804603

To supplement the issue I will add more relevant links:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/+bug/1804847
https://forum.armbian.com/topic/8852-ssh-doesnt-work-on-orange-pi-zero/
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/+bug/1811580

For me the issue also appeared with 229-4ubuntu21.9. Was fixed with 229-4ubuntu21.10 and now appeared again with 229-4ubuntu21.15. I'm on Armbian with ext4 and have the issue now again.

Distribution / Kernel
Linux xxx 3.4.113-sun8i #2 SMP PREEMPT Sat Jan 12 15:54:26 CET 2019 armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS
Release: 16.04
Codename: xenial

Output of journalctl -b 0 -u systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service

Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd[1]: Starting Create Volatile Files and Directories...
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd-tmpfiles[581]: [/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/var.conf:14] Duplicate line for path "/var/log", ignoring.
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd-tmpfiles[581]: Failed to validate path /var: Bad file descriptor
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd-tmpfiles[581]: Failed to validate path /var/log: Bad file descriptor
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd-tmpfiles[581]: Failed to validate path /var/lib: Bad file descriptor
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd-tmpfiles[581]: Failed to validate path /run/sendsigs.omit.d: Bad file descriptor
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd-tmpfiles[581]: Failed to validate path /home: Bad file descriptor
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd-tmpfiles[581]: Failed to validate path /srv: Bad file descriptor
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd-tmpfiles[581]: Failed to validate path /run/lock/subsys: Bad file descriptor
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd-tmpfiles[581]: Failed to validate path /var/run/lighttpd: Bad file descriptor
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd-tmpfiles[581]: Failed to validate path /var/cache: Bad file descriptor
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd-tmpfiles[581]: Failed to validate path /var/cache/man: Bad file descriptor
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd-tmpfiles[581]: Failed to validate path /run/openvpn: Bad file descriptor
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd[1]: systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd[1]: Failed to start Create Volatile Files and Directories.
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd[1]: systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service: Unit entered failed state.
Jän 14 11:01:51 xxx systemd[1]: systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Affected services:

# dnsmasq.service loaded failed failed dnsmasq - A lightweight DHCP and caching DNS server
# lighttpd.service loaded failed failed Lighttpd Daemon
# <email address hidden> loaded failed failed OpenVPN connection to server
# ssh.service loaded failed failed OpenBSD Secure Shell server
# systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service loaded failed failed Create Static Device Nodes in /dev
# systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service loaded failed failed Create Volatile Files and Directories