Questions[snap](server)

I want to install certbot using snap, but when I tried Official instruction:

sudo snap install core; sudo snap refresh core
sudo snap install --classic certbot

but returns:

error: cannot perform the following tasks:

• Run configure hook of "certbot" snap if present (run hook "configure": /var/lib not root-owned 1000:1000)

Previously, I uninstalled certbot(from apt) by using the below command:

sudo apt-get remove -y certbot python3-certbot-apache

What happened? I am using ubuntu 18.04 Bionic

From the error, looks like I need to change owner of /var/lib to root user. But I changed and still got the same error. Should I change to root recursively to that folder?

here is ls to the /var/lib:

drwxr-xr-x  4 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 10  2020 AccountsService
drwxr-xr-x  5 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 24  2020 apache2
drwxr-xr-x  5 myuser       myuser       4.0K Oct  4 02:36 apt
drwxr-xr-x  2 root      root      4.0K Sep  8 02:03 binfmts
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K May  5  2018 command-not-found
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 10  2020 dbus
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Apr 16  2018 dhcp
drwxr-xr-x  3 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 10  2020 dictionaries-common
drwxr-xr-x  7 myuser       myuser       4.0K Oct  4 02:36 dpkg
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Dec  9  2019 git
drwxr-xr-x  3 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 10  2020 grub
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Oct  3 14:52 initramfs-tools
drwxr-xr-x  2 landscape landscape 4.0K Mar 10  2020 landscape
drwxr-xr-x  4 myuser       myuser       4.0K Oct  4 02:34 letsencrypt
drwxr-xr-x  3 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 10  2020 locales
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Oct  3 06:25 logrotate
drwxr-xr-x  2 root      root         0 Oct  4 02:56 lxcfs
drwxr-xr-x  2 lxd       nogroup   4.0K Jun 16 00:42 lxd
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 10  2020 man-db
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Apr 24  2018 misc
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Oct  3 06:25 mlocate
drwx------ 35 mysql     mysql     4.0K Oct  3 14:51 mysql
drwx------  2 mysql     mysql     4.0K Mar 24  2020 mysql-files
drwx------  2 mysql     mysql     4.0K Mar 24  2020 mysql-keyring
drwxr-xr-x  2 root      root      4.0K Jan 21  2020 mysql-upgrade
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Oct  3 14:50 pam
drwxr-xr-x  4 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 24  2020 php
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Apr  4  2019 plymouth
drwx------  3 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 10  2020 polkit-1
drwxr-xr-x  6 postgres  postgres  4.0K Oct  3 14:50 postgresql
drwx------  3 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 10  2020 private
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 24  2020 python
drwxr-x---  2 redis     redis     4.0K Feb 24  2021 redis
drwxr-xr-x 21 myuser       myuser       4.0K Oct  4 02:46 snapd
drwxr-xr-x  3 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 10  2020 sudo
drwxr-xr-x  7 root      root      4.0K Oct  4 02:36 systemd
drwxr-xr-x  3 root      root      4.0K Jun 27 13:26 ubuntu-advantage
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Oct  3 14:53 ubuntu-release-upgrader
drwxr-xr-x  3 myuser       myuser       4.0K Oct  3 14:52 ucf
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Nov 25  2019 unattended-upgrades
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 10  2020 update-manager
drwxr-xr-x  4 myuser       myuser       4.0K Oct  4 02:44 update-notifier
drwxr-xr-x  3 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 10  2020 ureadahead
drwxr-xr-x  2 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 10  2020 usbutils
drwxr-xr-x  3 myuser       myuser       4.0K Mar 10  2020 vim

Using the Snapcraft app package Plume which is a publishing/blogging package using ActivityPub.

The only, current problem is when an instance other than the one I've installed attempts to 'like' or 'boost' a post it's unable to retrieve an SSL certificate (Let's Encrypt). Mastodon returns this error:

503 Remove SSL certificate could not be verified

A reverse proxy is used on the Plume server.

The SSL cert is properly configured in the Apache .vhost file and is working when accessing via https.

The Snapcraft SSL directory is empty for this app. Apparently Snapcraft does not permit adding symlink (as su) which I'd thought would be a straightforward way to correct this.

Over all this Plume instance does federate using Activity Hub both in and outbound.

Have tried inquiring at Snapcraft and the Plume developers (it's in alpha) with no success.

Wondering if anyone has come across a similar issue with a Snapcraft install?

I have a zpool that has a mountpoint at /var. When I start my server up, the snapd service always throws a bunch of errors and fails to start because it attempts to mount a bunch of things from /var to /snap but it attempts the mounts before the zpool has been mounted so there's nothing in /var yet.

How can I get snapd to attempt these mounts after the zpool has been mounted?

Booting my very capable PC has become a fingers-on-chalkboard-grating slow nightmare because of snap. It's gone from 5-10 seconds to login screen after GRUB to now 30-45 seconds, sometimes up to a minute or more.

This is absurd.

I'd prefer to not remove every single snap on my machine, but I'm prepared to do that. How do I defeat snap mounts on boot and regain my sanity, without having to scorch the earth?

Specifically looking for an answer to this: how do I modify individual snaps so that they do not mount during boot?

$ systemd-analyze blame
          8.812s plymouth-quit-wait.service
          6.256s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
          5.042s bolt.service
          3.008s snap-spotify-42.mount
          2.994s snap-gnome\x2dlogs-93.mount
          2.917s snap-discord-115.mount
          2.525s snap-chromium-1399.mount
          2.515s snap-gnome\x2dlogs-100.mount
          2.416s snap-gtk2\x2dcommon\x2dthemes-13.mount
          2.392s snap-gnome\x2dcharacters-550.mount
          2.224s snap-gnome\x2d3\x2d34\x2d1804-36.mount
          2.214s snap-gtk\x2dcommon\x2dthemes-1513.mount
          2.174s snap-gnome\x2d3\x2d28\x2d1804-145.mount
          2.170s snap-gnome\x2dcalculator-748.mount
          2.149s snap-postman-128.mount
          1.953s snap-storage\x2dexplorer-17.mount
          1.946s snap-core18-1885.mount
          1.749s systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-db865690\x2db43f\x2d485b\x2d8bab\x2d808735a403a8.service
          1.725s unifi-video.service
          1.632s dev-loop3.device
          1.632s dev-loop2.device
          1.575s dev-loop5.device
          1.557s dev-loop6.device
          1.555s dev-loop7.device
          1.464s dev-loop9.device
          1.452s dev-loop8.device
          1.441s snap-gnome\x2dcharacters-570.mount
          1.426s snap-core-10185.mount
          1.409s snap-spotify-43.mount
          1.400s snap-libreoffice-196.mount
          1.384s snap-gtk2\x2dcommon\x2dthemes-9.mount
          1.380s snap-gnome\x2d3\x2d34\x2d1804-60.mount
          1.370s snap-postman-129.mount
          1.214s dev-loop10.device
          1.135s dev-loop11.device
          1.132s dev-loop1.device
          1.089s dev-loop21.device
          1.072s snap-vlc-1620.mount
          1.070s dev-loop19.device
          1.054s dev-loop18.device
          1.041s dev-loop20.device
           981ms dev-loop12.device
           975ms dev-loop14.device
           968ms systemd-logind.service
           944ms dev-loop4.device
           903ms dev-loop13.device
           902ms dev-loop17.device
           901ms dev-loop16.device
           881ms dev-loop22.device
           834ms snap-core18-1932.mount
           809ms snap-chromium-1411.mount
           681ms nvidia-persistenced.service
           678ms snap-gnome\x2d3\x2d28\x2d1804-128.mount
           669ms dev-loop15.device

The aim is to upgrade snap packages, e.g. n3dr and informado, using Ansible. The following task has been created:

- name: Install various snap packages
  snap:
    name:
      - informado
      - n3dr

Attempts to solve the issue

The following websites were consulted:

• https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/snap_module.html
• https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/62492
• https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/blob/main/plugins/modules/packaging/os/snap.py

There seems to be no option to upgrade snap package using ansible

A GitHub issue has been created.

Workaround

1. remove the to be updated packages

    user@host:~$ sudo snap remove informado n3dr
    2020-07-15T10:21:18+02:00 INFO Waiting for
    conflicting change in progress...
    informado removed
    n3dr removed
   

2. run ansible again

3. the newest version of the n3dr and informado have been installed

Question

How to upgrade snap packages without removing them first, using ansible?