Service fails to start on some fresh Ubuntu 14 installs due to symlink conflict

[willneumob]

Recipe: modules::config
  * apt_package[kmod] action install (up to date)
  * directory[/etc/modules-load.d] action create (up to date)
  * cookbook_file[/etc/modules-load.d/header] action create (up to date)
  * cookbook_file[/etc/init/modules-load.conf] action create (up to date)
  * service[kmod] action nothing (skipped due to action :nothing)
  * service[modules-load] action enable (up to date)
  * service[modules-load] action start

    ================================================================================
    Error executing action `start` on resource 'service[modules-load]'
    ================================================================================

    Mixlib::ShellOut::ShellCommandFailed
    ------------------------------------
    Expected process to exit with [0], but received '1'
    ---- Begin output of /sbin/start modules-load ----
    STDOUT:
    STDERR: start: Job failed to start
    ---- End output of /sbin/start modules-load ----
    Ran /sbin/start modules-load returned 1

    Cookbook Trace:
    ---------------
    /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/compat_resource/files/lib/chef_compat/monkeypatches/chef/runner.rb:78:in `run_action'
    /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/compat_resource/files/lib/chef_compat/monkeypatches/chef/runner.rb:106:in `block (2 levels) in converge'
    /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/compat_resource/files/lib/chef_compat/monkeypatches/chef/runner.rb:106:in `each'
    /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/compat_resource/files/lib/chef_compat/monkeypatches/chef/runner.rb:106:in `block in converge'
    /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/compat_resource/files/lib/chef_compat/monkeypatches/chef/runner.rb:105:in `converge'

    Resource Declaration:
    ---------------------
    # In /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/modules/recipes/config.rb

     56:   service "modules-load" do
     57:     provider Chef::Provider::Service::Upstart
     58:     action [:enable, :start]
     59:     notifies :start, "service[kmod]"
     60:   end
     61: else

    Compiled Resource:
    ------------------
    # Declared in /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/modules/recipes/config.rb:56:in `from_file'

    service("modules-load") do
      provider Chef::Provider::Service::Upstart
      action [:enable, :start]
      supports {:restart=>false, :reload=>false, :status=>false}
      retries 0
      retry_delay 2
      default_guard_interpreter :default
      service_name "modules-load"
      enabled true
      pattern "modules-load"
      declared_type :service
      cookbook_name "modules"
      recipe_name "config"
    end

If I look at the upstart log, I see:

root@mysystem:~# cat /var/log/upstart/modules-load.log
cat: /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf: input file is output file
cat: /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf: input file is output file
cat: /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf: input file is output file
cat: /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf: input file is output file
cat: /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf: input file is output file
cat: /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf: input file is output file
cat: /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf: input file is output file

and no other errors.

Looking closer reveals that:

root@mysystem:~# ls -laR /etc/modules*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  288 Dec 10 19:48 /etc/modules

/etc/modules-load.d:
total 12
drw-r--r--  2 root root 4096 Dec 10 19:48 .
drwxr-xr-x 85 root root 4096 Dec 10 19:48 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  288 Dec 10 19:31 header
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   10 Nov 10 20:14 modules.conf -> ../modules
root@mysystem:~#

It appears that systemd installs this:

root@mysystem:~# dpkg -S /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf
systemd: /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf

This is version 0.2.0 (latest) from the Chef cookbook site.

Note that while upstart is the init system, systemd also comes installed.

[github-actions]

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