> > Basically, dpkg is not suitable for cross-platform installations, > > because the --instroot option uses the chroot call, which breaks all > > the installation scripts (i.e. they see only Hurd binaries, rather > > than the current system's). There's no easy solution to this problem, > > aside from running dpkg under the Hurd. > > Yes. Dpkg was never intended to cope with this.
This is a real shame. Is there any likelihood of this getting improved? It is a very useful and important feature of an installation system to be able to wholly install a new system on a fresh filesystem without running the new system. Is the problem that there are "post-install" scripts and the like that are essentially shell scripts that must be run native? Can the installation of files, which can be done "cleanly" to another filesystem, and the running of scripts, be separated? What I have in mind is doing the "install everything on the filesystem" in a first phase that can be done from another system writing onto the filesystem, leaving the system in a state where you can boot up and do "dpkg --finish-install" or something or other to have it it do the final phases that require the native system.
