Build error: Unable to find free loop device about build

[AaronNGray]

I found a solution to my issue it appears snaps was causing an issue with eating loop devices on my machine :-

https://ashrafur.medium.com/how-to-clean-up-old-snap-revisions-and-remove-loop-devices-93e38f1ad1f8

[hqnicolas]

First try some officially supported target like generic x86 / arm64 image. tvboxes are untested ...

you have a point! but the V24.02 solve everything

I will start to advice the unnoficial people and the chinese shitboxes to use this:

git clone --depth 1 --branch v24.0.2 https://github.com/armbian/build armbian

[github-actions]

Jira ticket: AR-2108

[AaronNGray]

deleting the cache directory and rebooting seems to solve it.

[AaronNGray]

Still getting this issue after failed builds :-

https://paste.armbian.com/yarohanuzi

@igorpecovnik - Its like loop devices are not being freed if a build fails !

[AaronNGray]

I will install another version of Ubuntu on a new drive and test whether the problem is specific to this install or not.

This seems to solve the issue temporarily.

How to clean up old Snap revisions and remove loop devices :-

https://ashrafur.medium.com/how-to-clean-up-old-snap-revisions-and-remove-loop-devices-93e38f1ad1f8

[hqnicolas]

Same here, clear cache don't help

$ lsb_release -a
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
Release: 22.04
Codename: jammy

$ uname -a
Linux 6.5.0-26-generic #26~22.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Mar 12 10:22:43 UTC 2 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Clean install linux solve....
for 1 build.....

[igorpecovnik]

This loop devices problem is related to host and its kernel. 6.5.x kernel with Jammy should work (better). We have many build runners, some on stock Jammy, some on Armbian Jammy, thus with our kernel. Perhaps try this https://github.com/armbian/sdk ...

/dev/loop devices makes us troubles too, here and there, automation breaks in random manner due to that and which is why we need to repeate few builds here and there.

Also check if you have enough of those loop devices. I have added max_loop=96 to my build machine kernel as otherwise I ran out of them. But due to building several images in parallel.

[igorpecovnik]

Clean install linux solve....
for 1 build.....

It only works once after fresh install and reboot doesn't help??

[hqnicolas]

@igorpecovnik

It only works once after fresh install and reboot doesn't help??

reboot with clean armbian cache doesn't help

i Was trying to build: JP_TVBOX 3566 on V6.6 with jammy 22.04 desktop cinnamon

today I will use the armbian v24.0.2 and so far, so good (first run OK) 15:11 GMT

git clone --depth 1 --branch v24.0.2 https://github.com/armbian/build armbian

[igorpecovnik]

i Was trying to build: JP_TVBOX 3566 on V6.6 with jammy 22.04 desktop cinnamon

First try some officially supported target like generic x86 / arm64 image. tvboxes are untested ...

[edumeneses]

Hello everyone, and thanks for this awesome project.

I tested with a Pop!_OS host (Ubuntu 22.04) and found that it cannot find a free loop when using the main branch. It works fine if you checkout to v24.0.2.

Also, I found that building using docker works on the main branch (on my machine) when I modified line 229 in the partitioning.sh file. I changed the old amount (10) to 30:

[[ $FIND_LOOP_CYCLES -gt 30 ]] && exit_with_error "Unable to find free loop device"

A lsblk call in my terminal showed more than 20 loop devices in use (blaming Snap for that). Could the assumption of a free loop under 10 be the reason for the error ?

[MegaArman]

Also having this issue on ubuntu 22.04 jammy, kernel 6.5.0-26-generic . I gave no commandline argument to ./compile.sh. My target was the Le Potato board and I had just loaded a .config that I previously saved.

I saw this loopback error after 2 hours, seemed the kernel compiled OK otherwise.

I will give branch v24.0.2 a try:
git clone --depth 1 --branch=v24.02 https://github.com/armbian/build armbian

Update:
this time (again near the end of process) got "Error 2 occurred in mainshell"

Update (solution):
losetup -a <- see which loopback devices you have
sudo umount /dev/loop# <- unmount loopback device of that # if not needed

I unmounted firefox and the snap store.

For good measure, I also added the line
"options loop max_loop=64"
to /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf
and rebooted.

I didn't confirm if that had any effect, but it worked. Was able to complete the build. I am using Ubuntu Desktop, perhaps the Ubuntu server image wouldn't have had this issue.