A follow up to my last message: I've fixed the superblock on the target disk, and the fsck runs without error, but cdebootstrap still fails to mount root and aborts package setup, which I presume is why /usr and /var still are left empty:
> > Haines Brown wrote: > > > The problem is that /usr and /var directories are empty. I struggled > > > with this with debootstrap for a while, although usually the /var > > > partition was filled, but never /usr until advised to use > > > cdebootstrap. That went well and partitions were filled, but for a > > > reason irrelevant here, I started again from the beginning, and now > > > cdebootstrap wouldn't fill /var and /usr. All the base packages were > > > downloaded and unpacked, but for some reason one or more directories > > > not seen. > > > > That's quite stange, I have never heard of or experienced > > debootstrap having such a problem. I'd look to see if my kernel or > > filesystem or disk are broken somehow, and strace debootstrap to see > > what's happening when it tries to create files in those directories. > > Joey, ... > Here are exactly my steps subsequent to the boot. The target disk > is already partitioned and the partitions were initialized, including > swap. I booted and: > > 1. # mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/debinst > 2. # strace -o /opt/tmp/strace cdebootstrap sarge /mnt/debinst > http://http.us.debian.org/debian ... > but the process termininated with: > > E: Couldn't install root! > > In the strace for this: > > ... > poll([{fd=4, events=POLLIN, revents=POLLHUP}, {fd=6, events=POLLIN, > revents=POLLHUP}], 2, -1) = 2 > waitpid(1581, [{WIFEXITED(s) && WEXITSTATUS(s) == 1}], 0) = 1581 > close(4) = 0 > munmap(0x4001a000, 4096) = 0 > close(6) = 0 > munmap(0x4001b000, 4096) = 0 > write(3, "E: Couldn\'t install root!\n", 26) = 26 > write(2, "E: Couldn\'t install root!\n", 26) = 26 > oldumount("/mnt/debinst/proc") = 0 > munmap(0x40018000, 4096) = 0 > munmap(0x40019000, 4096) = 0 > exit_group(1) = ? > > I'm not sure what "installing root" implies in this context. > > That's it. To judge by google, the Can't mount root error message from > cdebootstrap is apparently not common. Last year it came up once with > a particular version of gcc, but I'm running sarge, and presumably > that problem was fixed. > > Haines Brown -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
