kubernetes/kops · error

trying to locate asset %q: %v

Error message

trying to locate asset %q: %v

What it means

In the kubelet model builder, nodeup locates the `kubelet` binary asset with b.Assets.Find. If Find returns an error (I/O failure reading the on-disk asset or mirror, per the TODO noting it finds files on disk and cannot be mocked), the error is wrapped with this message.

Source

Thrown at nodeup/pkg/model/kubelet.go:168

		c.AddTask(t)
	}

	{
		t, err := b.buildSystemdEnvironmentFile(c.Context(), kubeletConfig)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		c.AddTask(t)
	}

	{
		// @TODO Extract to common function?
		assetName := "kubelet"
		assetPath := ""
		// @TODO make Find call to an interface, we cannot mock out this function because it finds a file on disk
		asset, err := b.Assets.Find(assetName, assetPath)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("trying to locate asset %q: %v", assetName, err)
		}
		if asset == nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("unable to locate asset %q", assetName)
		}

		c.AddTask(&nodetasks.File{
			Path:     b.kubeletPath(),
			Contents: asset,
			Type:     nodetasks.FileType_File,
			Mode:     s("0755"),
		})
	}
	{
		if kubeletConfig.PodManifestPath != "" {
			t, err := b.buildManifestDirectory(kubeletConfig)
			if err != nil {
				return err
			}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped %v cause to distinguish filesystem vs download errors.
2. Verify the kubelet binary is present and readable in the asset mirror/cache.
3. Fix permissions on the nodeup assets/cache directory.
4. Re-upload or re-download assets, then retry nodeup.

Example fix

// before
chmod 700 /var/cache/nodeup/assets
// after
chmod 755 /var/cache/nodeup/assets

// check kubelet asset cache readability before nodeup
info, err := os.Stat(filepath.Join(cacheDir, "kubelet"))
if err != nil || !info.Mode().IsRegular() {
    return fmt.Errorf("kubelet asset missing/unreadable in %s", cacheDir)
}

When it happens

Trigger: b.Assets.Find("kubelet", "") returns a non-nil error — e.g. filesystem error scanning the cache/mirror directory, or the HTTP mirror fetch for the kubelet asset fails.

Common situations: Unreadable nodeup asset cache directory, broken download of the kubelet binary from KOPS_BASE_URL/mirror, permission problems on the assets path.

Related errors

• unable to locate asset %q
• unable to find any containerd binaries in assets
• error finding runc asset
• unable to locate asset %q
• error building kubelet server cert: %v

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/aefb52f7a976140c. Report an issue: GitHub.