debootstrap: Empty version for dpkg in /var/lib/dpkg/status when bootstraping woody

Automatically imported from Debian bug report #264869 http://bugs.debian.org/264869

Message-ID: <20040810184001.GA2035@deb1>
Date: 10 Aug 2004 14:40:01 -0400
From: "Arcady Genkin" <email address hidden>
To: "Debian Bug Tracking System" <email address hidden>
Subject: debootstrap: Empty version for dpkg in /var/lib/dpkg/status when bootstraping woody

Package: debootstrap
Version: 0.1.17
Severity: grave
Justification: renders package unusable

I can reproduce this bug with the following versions of debootstrap
0.1.17, 0.2.39.1, 0.2.41-0.2 (the latter two built as source DEBs)
under woody. The bug exists when trying to bootstrap woody. I noticed
the bug when using debootsrap from under make-fai-nfsroot script of the
`fai' debian package, but later found that the problem exists when using
debootstrap directly.

In a nutshell, the command:

  debootstrap --arch i386 woody \
 /tmp/nfsroot file:/debmirror/debian

fails with the following error message:

I: Installing core packages...
dpkg: parse error, in file `/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 2 package `dpkg':
 error in Version string `': version string is empty
W: Failure trying to run: chroot /tmp/nfsroot dpkg --force-depends
 --install /var/cache/apt/archives/base-files_3.0.2_i386.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/base-passwd_3.4.1_i386.deb

The same failure is observed when used with the official Debian
mirror (i.e. http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ instead of the file: URI),
so I don't think that this is a mirror problem.

The full output of the above invocation of debootstrap can be viewed here:
http://www.cdf.toronto.edu/~agenkin/tmp/debootstrap/debootstrap_out.txt
The full output of the above command run with "sh -x" can be viewed here:
http://www.cdf.toronto.edu/~agenkin/tmp/debootstrap/debootstrap_out.sh-x.txt

Note that I had a look at the Debian bug #193788, but the proposed
solution didn't work for me.

The below crude hack by Holger Mense seems to let me work around the problem
and get going for now, so I think that the problem is with setting the
$ver variable properly in the scripts/woody script.

=== cut ===
--- /usr/lib/debootstrap/scripts/woody.orig Wed Jun 16 15:22:39 2004
+++ /usr/lib/debootstrap/scripts/woody Wed Jun 16 15:22:46 2004
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@

         echo \
 "Package: $pkg
-Version: $ver
+Version: 1.9.21
 Status: install ok installed" >> "$TARGET/var/lib/dpkg/status"

         touch "$TARGET/var/lib/dpkg/info/${pkg}.list"
=== cut ===

It seems that I am not the only one observing this problem; for more
discussion, you may want to have a look at the following thread on the
FAI mailing list:

http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-fai%40rrz.uni-koeln.de/msg02029.html

-- System Information
Debian Release: 3.0
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux deb1 2.4.25-i386-cdf-workstation #1 Mon Apr 19 17:01:18 EDT 2004 i686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C

Versions of packages debootstrap depends on:
ii libc6 2.2.5-11.5 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii wget 1.9.1-3.backports.org.1 retrieves files from the web

Many thanks,
--
Arcady Genkin : CDF Systems Administrator
http://www.cdf.toronto.edu/~agenkin/contact.html

Message-ID: <email address hidden>
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 08:34:18 +0200
From: "J.H.M. Dassen (Ray)" <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: debootstrap: Empty version for dpkg in /var/lib/dpkg/status when bootstraping woody

tags 264869 + woody
thanks

On Tue, Aug 10, 2004 at 14:40:01 -0400, Arcady Genkin wrote:
> Version: 0.1.17

Woody version.

> I can reproduce this bug with the following versions of debootstrap
> 0.1.17, 0.2.39.1, 0.2.41-0.2 (the latter two built as source DEBs)
> under woody.

I.e. only on woody systems, and only with the woody version of debootstrap
and with unofficial backports.
--
First they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you.
Then you win. - Gandhi

Message-ID: <email address hidden>
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 11:17:36 +0200 (MEST)
From: Holger Mense <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: debootstrap: Empty version for dpkg in /var/lib/dpkg/status when
 bootstraping woody

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi,

Andreas Schockenhoff pointed out in a posting to the fai mailinglist, that
this bug is related to not using the woody version of sed.
(http://www.uni-koeln.de/bin2/maillist/linux-fai/20040810.210801/165312).
Instead of sed 3, sed 4 from backports was installed, when this bug
occured.

# dpkg -l sed
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-====================-====================-========================================================
ii sed 4.0.9-2.backports.or The GNU sed stream editor

The following patch should correct the problem and decides on the sed
version number, which sed commands to use:

=== cut ===
- --- woody.orig Mon Aug 9 21:14:07 2004
+++ woody Wed Aug 18 11:03:35 2004
@@ -112,7 +112,12 @@
         local ver="$(
             ar -p "$TARGET/$deb" control.tar.gz | zcat |
                 tar -O -xf - control ./control 2>/dev/null |
- - sed -ne 's/^Version: *//Ip' | head -n 1
+ if [ `sed --version | head -1 | awk '{ print $4}' | cut -d. -f1` -gt 3 ] ; then
+ sed -ne 's/^Version: *//p' | head -n 1
+ else
+ sed -ne 's/^Version: *//Ip' | head -n 1
+ fi
+
         )"

         mkdir -p "$TARGET/var/lib/dpkg/info"
=== cut ===

MfG Holger Mense

- --
Holger Mense
Rechnerbetrieb Mathematik
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woody problem

Message-ID: <email address hidden>
Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004 20:26:51 +1000
From: Anthony Towns <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: Bug#264869: debootstrap: Empty version for dpkg in /var/lib/dpkg/status when
 bootstrapping woody

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> Andreas Schockenhoff pointed out in a posting to the fai mailinglist, that
> this bug is related to not using the woody version of sed.
> (http://www.uni-koeln.de/bin2/maillist/linux-fai/20040810.210801/165312).
> Instead of sed 3, sed 4 from backports was installed, when this bug
> occured.

Hrm. busybox sed only supports "I", not "i"; POSIX/the Open Group don't
specify either.=20

I think this has to go down to a bug in sed -- in this case the sed
4.0.9 backport. :( The same version (4.0.9-2) works fine for me on a
sarge box, FWIW.

Report closed with this message.

Cheers,
aj

--=20
Anthony Towns <email address hidden> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
Don't assume I speak for anyone but myself. GPG signed mail preferred.

``Like the ski resort of girls looking for husbands and husbands looking
  for girls, the situation is not as symmetrical as it might seem.''

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closed in Debian in 2004