Bug 496706 – app-emulation/xen-4.3.1-r1 fails to create symlink on FAT32 UEFI partition

• Status: RESOLVED CANTFIX
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description DJ Dunn 2014-01-01 21:45:52 UTC]

xen fails to install with 

>>> Performing suid scan in /var/tmp/portage/app-emulation/xen-4.3.1-r1/image/
--- /boot/  
!!! failed to properly create symlink:
!!! /boot/xen-4.3.gz -> xen-4.3.1.gz
!!! [Errno 1] Operation not permitted
!!! Failed to move file.
!!! /boot/xen-4.3.gz -> xen-4.3.1.gz


it fails to create a symlink because /boot is a uefi partition and you cant make symlinks on a fat32 partition

[Comment 1 DJ Dunn 2014-01-01 22:11:03 UTC]

i worked around this by mounting a tmpfs on /boot installing it and coping xen-4.3.1.gz for each symlink so theres 4 copies of the file with 4 different names rather than 3 symlinks pointing to the file

[Comment 2 Tomáš Mózes 2014-01-02 11:58:39 UTC]

Mount it as vfat and emerge with USE="-xattr".

[Comment 3 Yixun Lan 2014-01-27 14:23:23 UTC]

vfat filesystem do not support symbolic link.

can you enable USE=efi, and emerge again? it will try to copy images instead of creating symbolic link.

[Comment 4 Ian Delaney (RETIRED) 2014-02-07 05:16:05 UTC]

yes as above.  The USE=efi flag was made for the purpose of managing this exact scenario and the ebuild adjusted to copy in place of symlink in a vfat partition.  This is a case of the user need be aware enough to observe the options made available for an efi boot which I did a long time ago.  It's not something fixable since it isn't broken, hence CANTFIX