Thanks to: https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=systemtap.git;a=commitdiff;h=8bc64034509474bee3fb7996b2a9e74c8bc27281 And related changes I'm happy to report that using systemtap from the current git now works with ubuntu-18.04. In particular the nfsd-trace.stp example. Thanks for everyone's help.