Debian – Install zfs on debian 9 stretch

aptdebianzfs

I tried to install zfs on debian 9.1, however I'm experiencing some errors.

My first installation was only of zfs-dkms however I read on the net that also the spl-dkms is required for zfs-dkms to run.

My steps were to change my sources.list adding the contrib non-free as follows:

/etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main contrib non-free

# stretch-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free

Done a classic apt-get update and then tried installing zfs with the following:

apt-get install spl-dkms

and only after

apt-get install zfs-dkms

As a result, I have these errors:

root@debian:/etc/apt# apt-get install zfs-dkms
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libnvpair1linux libuutil1linux libzfs2linux libzpool2linux zfs-zed zfsutils-linux

...

DKMS: install completed.
Setting up libzpool2linux (0.6.5.9-5) ...
Setting up libzfs2linux (0.6.5.9-5) ...
Setting up zfsutils-linux (0.6.5.9-5) ...
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/zfs-mount.service.wants/zfs-import-cache.service â /lib/systemd/system/zfs-import-cac
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/zfs.target.wants/zfs-import-cache.service â /lib/systemd/system/zfs-import-cache.serv
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/zfs-share.service.wants/zfs-mount.service â /lib/systemd/system/zfs-mount.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/zfs.target.wants/zfs-mount.service â /lib/systemd/system/zfs-mount.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/zfs.target.wants/zfs-share.service â /lib/systemd/system/zfs-share.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/zfs.target â /lib/systemd/system/zfs.target.
zfs-import-scan.service is a disabled or a static unit, not starting it.
Job for zfs-mount.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status zfs-mount.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
zfs-mount.service couldn't start.
Job for zfs-share.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status zfs-share.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
zfs-share.service couldn't start.
Setting up zfs-zed (0.6.5.9-5) ...
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/zed.service â /lib/systemd/system/zfs-zed.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/zfs.target.wants/zfs-zed.service â /lib/systemd/system/zfs-zed.service.
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-11+deb9u1) ...

Reading journalctl -xe as suggested I get:

root@debian:/etc/apt# journalctl -xe
Aug 02 23:13:13 debian systemd[1]: zfs-share.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Aug 02 23:13:13 debian systemd[1]: Failed to start ZFS file system shares.
-- Subject: Unit zfs-share.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://www.debian.org/support
--
-- Unit zfs-share.service has failed.
--
-- The result is failed.
Aug 02 23:13:13 debian systemd[1]: zfs-share.service: Unit entered failed state.
Aug 02 23:13:13 debian systemd[1]: zfs-share.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Aug 02 23:13:13 debian systemd[1]: Starting Mount ZFS filesystems...
-- Subject: Unit zfs-mount.service has begun start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://www.debian.org/support
--
-- Unit zfs-mount.service has begun starting up.
Aug 02 23:13:13 debian zfs[81481]: The ZFS modules are not loaded.
Aug 02 23:13:13 debian zfs[81481]: Try running '/sbin/modprobe zfs' as root to load them.
Aug 02 23:13:13 debian systemd[1]: zfs-mount.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Aug 02 23:13:13 debian systemd[1]: Failed to start Mount ZFS filesystems.
-- Subject: Unit zfs-mount.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://www.debian.org/support
--
-- Unit zfs-mount.service has failed.
--
-- The result is failed.
Aug 02 23:13:13 debian systemd[1]: zfs-mount.service: Unit entered failed state.
Aug 02 23:13:13 debian systemd[1]: zfs-mount.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Aug 02 23:13:13 debian systemd[1]: Starting ZFS file system shares...
-- Subject: Unit zfs-share.service has begun start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://www.debian.org/support
--
-- Unit zfs-share.service has begun starting up.
Aug 02 23:13:13 debian systemd[81483]: zfs-share.service: Failed at step EXEC spawning /usr/bin/rm: No such file or direc
-- Subject: Process /usr/bin/rm could not be executed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://www.debian.org/support
--
-- The process /usr/bin/rm could not be executed and failed.
--
-- The error number returned by this process is 2.

What's wrong here? I missed something else? How is the zfs-linux package related to zfs installation?

What is the correct way to install zfs in debian 9 ?

Best Answer

The actual answer by @cas is good but have some corrections to be applied.

So let's take a fresh installation of Debian 9 and assuming that the contrib non-free repositories are also not enabled.

Step 0 - Enable the contrib non-free repositories

I used sed to find and replace the word main inside /etc/apt/sources.list

sed -i 's/main/main contrib non-free/g' /etc/apt/sources.list

apt-get update

Step 1 - ZFS Installation

Since the last fixes spl-dkms is correctly seen as zfs-dkms dependency so it's recalled automatically and it's not necessary to install it manually before zfs-dkms. The symbolic link is needed due to a bug inside the zfs distribution in Debian, that doesn't look for rm binary in the right position.

apt -y install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

ln -s /bin/rm /usr/bin/rm

apt-get -y install zfs-dkms

Step 2 - ZFS Restart

At this point zfs-dkms is installed but it throws errors in journalctl -xe; to start zfs properly use:

/sbin/modprobe zfs

systemctl restart zfs-import-cache
systemctl restart zfs-import-scan
systemctl restart zfs-mount
systemctl restart zfs-share

Step 3 - YOU MUST CREATE AT LEAST ONE ZPOOL

At this point I discovered that YOU must create a zpool before reboot otherwise zfs will not load the proper modules if there are no zpools. It's a sort of saving resources mechanism ( but even in that case this will still throw errors inside journalctl -xe )

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=864348

" We are not doing this because ZFS modules would taint the kernel, if there's no zpool available then it shouldn't be loaded. "

If you miss this part you have to start from Step 2

For example, by using the example provided by @cas, you can create this file based zpool or directly create your disk based ones.

truncate -s 100M /root/z1
truncate -s 100M /root/z2
zpool create tank /root/z1 /root/z2
zpool scrub tank
zpool status

then after a reboot everything will work with no errors in journalctl -xe

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About your requirements, Iceweasel is the supported Firefox derivative (fork), I'm currently running debian as my desktop OS at work and use iceweasel every day, no problem. Gnome3, I think it'll be available on the next stable release, BTW what release are you running? Squeeze? If so I think (IIRC) Wheezy will have it. And finally, about graphics performance/quality, that depends a lot on your graphics card and its driver, but if you think of it like having transparencies, windows closing with fancy effects and so on, you'll need a moderm desktop or compiz (work with gnome2) which I think its available on stable (wheeze).

I have modified a bit your sources.list for wheeze, do you mind to test it and report back?

deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze contrib non-free main
deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main

deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main non-free contrib
deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze/updates main

# squeeze-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in/debian/ squeeze-updates main non-free contrib
deb-src http://mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in/debian/ squeeze-updates main non-free contrib

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deb http://packages.dotdeb.org squeeze all
deb-src http://packages.dotdeb.org squeeze all
deb http://www.deb-multimedia.org squeeze main non-free

If you happen to be using wheezy or sid you'll have to change all squeeze ocurrences for the one you're using.

Please, backup your sources.list before replacing it, then test it as follows:

Refresh caches

# apt-get update

Search package

# apt-cache vlc

Install package

# apt-get install <package_name>

If find trouble, please report back with output for those three commands, or at least for the first and last.

Also, if you are already using Wheezy or sid, forget what I said about Gnome3 not being available, it should be there but wheezy is yet to be release and sid is always the development branch.

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deb http://packages.linuxmint.com rebecca main upstream import 
deb http://extra.linuxmint.com rebecca main
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty main restricted universe multiverse 
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-security main restricted universe multiverse 
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ trusty partner

My /etc/apt/sources.list is empty.