Overlayfs: "There is no special device overlay"

Question

I am trying to use the overlay file system driver and this gives me an error:

 $ sudo mount -t overlay overlay -o lowerdir=/mnt/ccs-overlayfs-lower,upperdir=/mnt/ccs-overlayfs/upper,workdir=/mnt/ccs/overlayfs-work /mnt/ccs mount: special device overlay does not exist 

Every bit of documentation I've seen uses an overlay device, so why am I having problems?

Answer 1

The error message is actually a red herring. Check the spelling of the lowerdir , upperdir and workdir paths. If there is any error, the overlay driver will give you this nonsense about a non-existing device, instead it should say: "Hey, your lower drive does not exist!" or something like that.

I found this solution on the Arch Linux forums: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1599436#p1599436