[LL-user]

System Specs

Operating System – Linux Lite	Linux Lite 8.0
CPU / Processor	2 virtual CPUs
Memory (RAM)	6 GB
Storage	Other / not listed
Graphics (GPU)	VirtualBox Graphics Adapter
Network device	Intel 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Code:

# systemctl status logrotate × logrotate.service - Rotate log files Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/logrotate.service; static) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since ... * Invocation: ********************* TriggeredBy: ● logrotate.timer Docs: man:logrotate(8) man:logrotate.conf(5) Process: 364821 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) Main PID: 364821 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) Mem peak: 3M CPU: 60ms     systemd[1]: Starting logrotate.service - Rotate log files...     logrotate[364821]: error: cloud-init-base:1 duplicate log entry for /var/log/cloud-init*.log     logrotate[364821]: error: found error in file cloud-init-base, skipping     systemd[1]: logrotate.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE     systemd[1]: logrotate.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.     systemd[1]: Failed to start logrotate.service - Rotate log files.

So, the logrotate configuration file named cloud-init-base has a duplicate log rotation entry for /var/log/cloud-init*.log.

The path of addressing this failure depends on the answer to the question whether cloud-init needs to/should be available in Linux Lite? cloud-init is an initialization system designed for cloud instances (AWS EC2, Azure VMs, Google Cloud, OpenStack, etc.).

For people not using cloud-init functionality (I expect it to be the vast majority of Linux Lite users), the resolution can be to just remove cloud-init:

Code:

sudo apt purge cloud-init -y && sudo apt autoremove -y sudo rm -rf /etc/cloud /etc/logrotate.d/cloud-init-base

Otherwise, the duplicate logrotate entry needed to be fixed.

Same seems to apply to the next version of Linux Lite 8.2 - remove or fix

[valtam]

cloud-init get's pulled in by open-vm-tools which we need to keep so people can test drive LL in a VM before deciding if they like it or not.

[LL-user]

Thanks, Jerry, for the info.

It only gets pulled in with additional flag --install-suggests.
I haven't properly tested it, but from the info I found leaving cloud-init out shouldn't affect development/testing VM installations. According to the description it's primarily helpful for cloud deployment to avoid manual configuration?
I wouldn't even have noticed the presence if logrotate didn't break. I still think the one way or the other it should be addressed to make sure logrotate is working properly, shouldn't it?

[valtam]

Here’s what’s going on.

logrotate is failing because two config files both claim the same log:

logrotate[...]: error: cloud-init-base:1 duplicate log entry for /var/log/cloud-init*.log

Upstream split the cloud-init package into cloud-init + cloud-init-base and moved the logrotate rule into -base.

On systems that were upgraded (rather than freshly installed), the old pre-split file /etc/logrotate.d/cloud-init gets left behind, so it and the new /etc/logrotate.d/cloud-init-base both try to rotate /var/log/cloud-init*.log. logrotate refuses the duplicate and the service reports failed. Everything else still rotates normally — only cloud-init’s logs are skipped.

Fix it by removing the leftover file (only if it’s an unowned orphan):

Code:

ls /etc/logrotate.d/cloud-init* # you should see BOTH cloud-init and cloud-init-base dpkg -S /etc/logrotate.d/cloud-init # expect "no path found" = orphaned, safe to remove sudo rm /etc/logrotate.d/cloud-init sudo systemctl start logrotate.service # should now succeed

If dpkg -S instead names a package, stop — don’t delete it, and let us know which package.

Freshly-installed Linux Lite 8.0 systems don’t have this (only cloud-init-base ships the file there), so it’s purely an upgrade leftover. We’ve added an automatic cleanup to Lite Patch — a coming update (via Install Updates) will remove the orphaned file for you on upgraded systems, so you won’t have to touch it by hand.

[LL-user]

Thanks, Jerry, very detailed and informative!

[valtam]

No problemo!