Hi Matthew,
On Wed, Feb 18, 2026 at 07:03:38PM +0100, Bastian Blank wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 18, 2026 at 06:47:13PM +0100, Matthew Lear wrote:
> > linux-version cannot be executed because there is no (perl) interpreter
> > installed in the chroot.
>
> Your chroot is broken. perl-base is marked as essential, so it can not
> be missing:
>
> | % apt-cache show perl-base | head -n 4
> | Package: perl-base
> | Source: perl
> | Version: 5.42.0-3
> | Essential: yes
The manpage from mmdebstrap(1) clearly states for the VARIANTS:
custom Installs nothing by default (not even "Essential:yes" packages).
Packages given by the "--include" option will be installed. If
another mode than chrootless was selected and dpkg was not part
of the included package set, then this variant will fail because
it cannot configure the packages.
So as Bastian said, perl-base get missing which is Essential. If you
want to use the custom variant the nyou need probably need to pass all
o the essential packages you require yourself. Or you can use another
variant including the essential packages.
Regards,
Salvatore
