I have had this on problem on different machines using Ubuntu 19.04 after recent updates, and I became intensly curious after my DVD and USB drives started having trouble mounting.
During the apt processing I see:
GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.systemd1.UnitMasked: Unit -.mount is masked.
This message comes-up at different times. I am concerned that it has something to do with a failure for removable media to automount recently. For example:
$ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu disco InRelease
Get:2 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu disco-updates InRelease [97.5 kB]
Get:3 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu disco-backports InRelease [88.8 kB]
Hit:4 https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian stable InRelease
Ign:5 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Get:6 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu disco-security InRelease [97.5 kB]
Hit:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/danielrichter2007/grub-customizer/ubuntu disco InRelease
Hit:8 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable Release
Hit:10 https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable InRelease
Hit:11 http://ppa.launchpad.net/teejee2008/ppa/ubuntu disco InRelease
Fetched 284 kB in 2s (168 kB/s)
Error: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.systemd1.UnitMasked: Unit -.mount is masked.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
After issuing a ...
$ sudo apt upgrade
... command this morning, none of my USB drives auto-mount when they are plugged-in to my laptop. I had this on my desktop yesterday (again following recent apt upgrade-ing). And I'm smelling something fishy.
Another issue that may be related is that (read-only) DVD-s can't be read correctly. First they won't mount unless I use Disks (GUI) to mount them and then VLC and dvd-backup don't seem to find the titles, etc.
Everything comes back to: "Unit -.mount is masked." (see later).
My understanding of things in the systemd world is that "-.mount" is root(/). I am looking for information to help me find a better solution that unmask-ing root.
Is there a way to put things right again?
related questions:
- Unit packagekit.service is masked
- In this case only
packagekit.serviceis reported masked.
- In this case only
- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57778341/error-gdbus-errororg-freedesktop-systemd1-unitmasked-unit-mount-is-masked
- Is also a problem with: "
Unit -.mount is masked." - No answer as yet -- So I have done some more looking.
- Is also a problem with: "
investigations:
I'm documenting troubleshooting I've looked at so far for this problem first before just re-enabling things before checking first?
I've done some digging because it was a surprise to me that I had things "UnitMasked" at all ... What is "masked"? From the man page --
$ man systemctrl
:
mask UNIT...
Mask one or more units, as specified on the command line. This will link these unit files to /dev/null, making it
impossible to start them. This is a stronger version of disable, since it prohibits all kinds of activation of the unit,
including enablement and manual activation. Use this option with care.
:
Which package or thing is giving me bother?
That's not a straightforward question to answer -- As I understand it the message I saw on the console was:
GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.systemd1.UnitMasked: Unit -.mount is masked.
Which begs the question, what is: '-.mount' in this context?
Mu review of the information so far in my inquirey is/was that a 'Unit' used by a SystemD 'package' has trouble with something called "-.mount". The first thing I thought to consider was to determine what package was having issues and that is definitely something that was surprisingly less simple to do with the tools I have to hand (or that I know about). Please suggest better tools for managing and troubleshooting systemd sfuff you have some recommendations.
For me I decided to look through all the active services and see which one(s) are generating that problem. I would up making a short bash script that xargs can invoke to poke the service {} status and add some formatting:
#!/bin/bash
# file: tmp.bash
################################
svice="${1}"
echo "------[${svice}]-----"
service "${svice}" status
echo " ======"
echo
And call this for each active service from systemd ...
service --status-all | fgrep "[ + ]" | awk -e '{ print $4 }' | xargs -i ./tmp/tmp.bash "{}" \; | less
I needed to add less to the end to avoid 22 of the automatic paging-s that the status command gives by default.
The outcome of scanning this output for "-.mount" was:
------[dbus]-----
● dbus.service - D-Bus System Message Bus
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/dbus.service; static; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2019-09-11 17:32:39 AEST; 1 weeks 1 days ago
Docs: man:dbus-daemon(1)
Main PID: 1011 (dbus-daemon)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 4915)
Memory: 5.7M
CGroup: /system.slice/dbus.service
└─1011 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system --address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-activation --syslog-only
Sep 20 10:32:50 4TELLT70 dbus-daemon[1011]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.PackageKit' unit='packagekit.service' requested by ':1.6013' (uid=0 pid=23179 comm="/usr/bin/gdbus call --system --dest org.freedeskto" label="kernel")
Sep 20 10:32:50 4TELLT70 dbus-daemon[1011]: [system] Activation via systemd failed for unit 'packagekit.service': Unit -.mount is masked.
Sep 20 10:32:53 4TELLT70 dbus-daemon[1011]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.fwupd' unit='fwupd.service' requested by ':1.367' (uid=1000 pid=9453 comm="/usr/bin/gnome-software --gapplication-service " label="kernel")
Sep 20 10:32:53 4TELLT70 dbus-daemon[1011]: [system] Activation via systemd failed for unit 'fwupd.service': Unit -.mount is masked.
Sep 20 10:36:08 4TELLT70 dbus-daemon[1011]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.PackageKit' unit='packagekit.service' requested by ':1.6057' (uid=0 pid=24456 comm="/usr/bin/gdbus call --system --dest org.freedeskto" label="kernel")
Sep 20 10:36:08 4TELLT70 dbus-daemon[1011]: [system] Activation via systemd failed for unit 'packagekit.service': Unit -.mount is masked.
Sep 20 10:36:08 4TELLT70 dbus-daemon[1011]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.PackageKit' unit='packagekit.service' requested by ':1.6057' (uid=0 pid=24456 comm="/usr/bin/gdbus call --system --dest org.freedeskto" label="kernel")
Sep 20 10:36:08 4TELLT70 dbus-daemon[1011]: [system] Activation via systemd failed for unit 'packagekit.service': Unit -.mount is masked.
Sep 20 10:36:14 4TELLT70 dbus-daemon[1011]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.fwupd' unit='fwupd.service' requested by ':1.367' (uid=1000 pid=9453 comm="/usr/bin/gnome-software --gapplication-service " label="kernel")
Sep 20 10:36:14 4TELLT70 dbus-daemon[1011]: [system] Activation via systemd failed for unit 'fwupd.service': Unit -.mount is masked.
======
Which can be summarised as the following packages:
- packagekit.service
- fwupd.service
Following that-up I found this natty little command:
systemctl list-unit-files
Which gives a HUGE list of units and status. Looking for unmasked unit-s seemed a fair question...
$ systemctl list-unit-files | fgrep "masked"
-.mount masked-runtime
boot-efi.mount masked-runtime
boot.mount masked-runtime
:
56 results
:
umountroot.service masked
x11-common.service masked
$ systemctl list-unit-files | fgrep masked | fgrep fwupd
$ systemctl list-unit-files | fgrep masked | fgrep package
And this give me 56 units to scan. None are: packagekit nor fwupd.
The unit syntax: -.mount threw me until I saw this: "with slashes changed to dashes" under .mount in the article[1] linked below:
- .mount: This unit defines a mountpoint on the system to be managed by systemd. These are named after the mount path, with slashes changed to dashes. Entries within /etc/fstab can have units created automatically.
- .automount: An .automount unit configures a mountpoint that will be automatically mounted. These must be named after the mount point they refer to and must have a matching .mount unit to define the specifics of the mount.
A key thing for me is that the dash("-") is said to represent the slash(/) in the path -- making this root.
As I understand this, then: "-.mount" is: "/" (root). Is that not so?
With this knowledge in hand I attempted the unmask and restart activity
$ sudo systemctl unmask packagekit.service
$ sudo service packagekit restart
Failed to restart packagekit.service: Unit -.mount is masked.
$ sudo systemctl restart packagekit.service
Failed to restart packagekit.service: Unit -.mount is masked.
Update one
There was an Ubuntu update today. The problem persists. I have previously found that the DVD issue was to do with codec and that's resolved.
Also I am showing the listing requested
lsblk -fcat /etc/fstab
Toward the end of the upgrade there was again an error relating to umount issues.
$ sudo apt upgrade -y
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
bluez bluez-cups bluez-obexd e2fsprogs libbluetooth3 libcom-err2 libext2fs2 libsdl2-2.0-0 libss2 libssl1.1 netplan.io openssl
qemu-block-extra qemu-kvm qemu-system-common qemu-system-data qemu-system-gui qemu-system-x86 qemu-utils tzdata yarn
21 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.
Need to get 13.2 MB of archives.
After this operation, 66.6 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu disco-updates/main amd64 libext2fs2 amd64 1.44.6-1ubuntu0.1 [160 kB]
Get:2 https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian stable/main amd64 yarn all 1.19.0-1 [890 kB]
Current default time zone: 'Australia/Sydney'
Local time is now: Fri 4 Oct 00:04:06 AEST 2019.
Universal Time is now: Thu Oct 3 14:04:06 UTC 2019.
Run 'dpkg-reconfigure tzdata' if you wish to change it.
Setting up bluez (5.50-0ubuntu2.1) ...
Failed to restart bluetooth.service: Unit -.mount is masked.
invoke-rc.d: initscript bluetooth, action "restart" failed.
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2019-09-19 08:26:47 AEST; 2 weeks 0 days ago
Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
Main PID: 1451 (bluetoothd)
Status: "Running"
Tasks: 1 (limit: 4915)
Memory: 2.8M
CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
└─1451 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd
Oct 03 07:29:21 woodypear bluetoothd[1451]: Endpoint unregistered: sender=:1.15593 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource
Oct 03 07:29:21 woodypear bluetoothd[1451]: Endpoint unregistered: sender=:1.15593 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink
Oct 03 07:29:25 woodypear bluetoothd[1451]: Loading LTKs timed out for hci0
Oct 03 07:29:25 woodypear bluetoothd[1451]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.15593 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource
Oct 03 07:29:25 woodypear bluetoothd[1451]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.15593 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink
Oct 03 20:36:54 woodypear bluetoothd[1451]: Endpoint unregistered: sender=:1.15593 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource
Oct 03 20:36:54 woodypear bluetoothd[1451]: Endpoint unregistered: sender=:1.15593 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink
Oct 03 20:36:58 woodypear bluetoothd[1451]: Loading LTKs timed out for hci0
Oct 03 20:36:58 woodypear bluetoothd[1451]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.15593 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource
Oct 03 20:36:58 woodypear bluetoothd[1451]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.15593 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink
dpkg: error processing package bluez (--configure):
installed bluez package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Setting up libss2:amd64 (1.44.6-1ubuntu0.1) ...
Setting up qemu-system-data (1:3.1+dfsg-2ubuntu3.5) ...
Setting up bluez-cups (5.50-0ubuntu2.1) ...
Setting up libbluetooth3:amd64 (5.50-0ubuntu2.1) ...
Setting up yarn (1.19.0-1) ...
Setting up libsdl2-2.0-0:amd64 (2.0.9+dfsg1-1ubuntu1.19.04.1) ...
Setting up openssl (1.1.1b-1ubuntu2.4) ...
Setting up qemu-block-extra:amd64 (1:3.1+dfsg-2ubuntu3.5) ...
Setting up qemu-system-common (1:3.1+dfsg-2ubuntu3.5) ...
Failed to restart qemu-kvm.service: Unit -.mount is masked.
Failed to try-restart qemu-kvm.service: Unit -.mount is masked.
Setting up qemu-system-x86 (1:3.1+dfsg-2ubuntu3.5) ...
Setting up e2fsprogs (1.44.6-1ubuntu0.1) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Setting up qemu-utils (1:3.1+dfsg-2ubuntu3.5) ...
Setting up qemu-kvm (1:3.1+dfsg-2ubuntu3.5) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.5-2) ...
Processing triggers for dbus (1.12.12-1ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.29-0ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (240-6ubuntu5.7) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.131ubuntu19.1) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.2.9-050209-generic
Errors were encountered while processing:
bluez
Error: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.systemd1.UnitMasked: Unit -.mount is masked.
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Block devices / lsblk -f:
I would have excised the snap related mounts except that this may actually be related. I have not been able to use lxd and the only install available seems to be the snap.
$ sudo lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
loop0 squashfs 0 100% /snap/lxd/11985
loop1 squashfs 0 100% /snap/core/7396
loop2 squashfs 0 100% /snap/fwupd/880
loop3 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gnome-system-monitor/100
loop5 squashfs 0 100% /snap/core18/1098
loop6 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/296
loop7 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/92
loop8 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/73
loop9 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/67
loop10 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/317
loop11 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/406
loop12 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1313
loop13 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1198
loop15 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/90
loop16 squashfs 0 100% /snap/core/7713
loop17 squashfs
loop18 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gnome-system-monitor/95
loop19 squashfs 0 100% /snap/core18/1144
loop20 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/71
loop21 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/501
loop22 btrfs default ea3db848-1e70-4c8a-b602-66f3efXXXX
loop23 squashfs 0 100% /snap/fwupd/1023
loop24 squashfs 0 100% /snap/lxd/11964
loop25 squashfs 0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/81
sda
├─sda1 vfat 5888-2C75 1013.2M 1% /boot/efi
├─sda2 ext4 fa69a588-5a3c-4f5d-beff-d5c5f7XXXX 30.5G 46% /
├─sda3 ext4 Backup 81b6a1e3-0674-4c8c-b5ff-80010fXXXX 104.8G 46% /Backup
└─sda5 ext4 Moort c88ac1c9-9c80-4d56-9faf-5a3210XXXX 115.6G 87% /Moort
sdb
└─sdb1 btrfs zpanda 353f4608-a9be-464e-b9e5-6e53771XXX 779.3G 79% /mnt/Zpanda
sdc
└─sdc1 ntfs Xpanda 7CF02B31F02AXXX 1.5T 17% /mnt/Xpanda
sdd
└─sdd1 vfat ALEX-06 38BF-XXX 8.2G 86% /media/username/AAAAA
sde
└─sde1 exfat GGGGGG C3EC-XXX 117.2G 2% /media/username/GGGGGG
sr0
The USB labeled "GGGGGG" didn't auto-mount. It is inconsistient in this way. Sometimes it automounts, others not. It was formatted with the Ubutnu supplied exfat that come with the drives utility.
Mounts / cat /etc/fstab:
I believe the mount error refers to systemd modules not drives (however it is OK with me to discover I'm not on the right track).
$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
#
# / was on /dev/sda2 during installation
#
UUID=fa69a588-5a3c-4f5d-beff-d5c5f70XXXX / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
##
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda1 during installation
#
UUID=5888-XXXX /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1
##
# /Moort partition
#
UUID=c88ac1c9-9c80-4d56-9faf-5a3210XXXX /Moort ext4 defaults 0 1
/Moort/work /work none bind
##
# /Backup partition
#
UUID=81b6a1e3-0674-4c8c-b5ff-80010XXXX /Backup ext4 defaults 0 2
##
# /mnt/Xpanda partition
#
UUID=7CF02B31F0XXXX /mnt/Xpanda ntfs umask=007,fmask=137,dmask=027,uid=XXXX,gid=XXXXX,nls=utf8,utf8 0 2
##
# /mnt/Zpanda partition
#
UUID=353f4608-a9be-464e-b9e5-6e53771XXXX /mnt/Zpanda btrfs defaults 0 1
##
#
/swapfile none swap sw 0 0
references:
man systemdman sysctrl- Linux Systemd Essentials: Working with Services, Units, and the Journal
libdvdcssinstall. It is unlikely to be related. One of those conicidences I guess.sudo lsblk -fandcat /etc/fstabplease.