Package: debootstrap Version: 1.0.32 This is my first bug report. Bear with me if it's not properly formatted.
I'm getting the error message "The bzcat is not available on the system" when trying to install Debian sid from the latest daily debian-testing-i386-businesscard.iso, downloaded from http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/daily/arch-latest/i386/iso-cd/, dated 13-Jul-2011 17:22, SHA1 b5701b9f48ab299a4571a736b576c2cf9773cac8. I'm running the install inside a coLinux 0.7.9 instance on Windows XP SP3. I don't know if the virtualized environment is relevant, but I mention it for completeness. I'm starting the install in expert mode, passing priority=low as a kernel parameter. I'm able to get through most of the install, with some warnings about kernel modules due to the mismatch between the coLinux kernel and the one expected by the installer. I can provide details about these errors if requested, but again, I don't believe they are relevant. The error appears after selecting the "Install the base system" menu option. Several files are downloaded, and and one point a dialog with this error appears: [!!] Install the base system Debootstrap Error The following error occurred: The bzcat is not available on the system Check /var/log/syslog or see virtual console 4 for the details. The last few lines of /var/log/syslog and console 4 are the following (complete syslog attached): Jul 13 16:08:40 main-menu[1106]: INFO: Menu item 'bootstrap-base' selected Jul 13 16:08:41 debootstrap: gpgv: Jul 13 16:08:41 debootstrap: Signature made Wed Jul 13 14:19:54 2011 UTC using RSA key ID 473041FA Jul 13 16:08:41 debootstrap: gpgv: Jul 13 16:08:41 debootstrap: Good signature from "Debian Archive Automatic Signing Key (6.0/squeeze) <ftpmas...@debian.org>" Jul 13 16:08:41 debootstrap: If I manually run debootstrap, a similar error occurs (complete debootstrap output attached): ~ # debootstrap --no-check-gpg --arch i386 sid /target http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ I: Retrieving Release I: Validating Packages I: Resolving dependencies of required packages... I: Resolving dependencies of base packages... I: Found additional required dependencies: insserv libbz2-1.0 libdb5.1 libslang2 multiarch-support I: Found additional base dependencies: libnfnetlink0 libsqlite3-0 I: Checking component main on http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian... I: Validating libacl1 <snip> I: Validating zlib1g I: Chosen extractor for .deb packages: ar I: Extracting libacl1... E: The bzcat is not available on the system I was able to get the system installed by manually downloading and installing bzip2 and libbz2: ~# cd / ~# wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/b/bzip2/bzip2_1.0.5-6_i386.deb ~# wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/b/bzip2/libbz2-1.0_1.0.5-6_i386.deb ~# ar x bzip2_1.0.5-6_i386.deb ~# tar xzvf data.tar.gz ~# rm debian-binary data.tar.gz control.tar.gz ~# ar x libbz2-1.0_1.0.5-6_i386.deb ~# tar xzvf data.tar.gz ~# rm debian-binary data.tar.gz control.tar.gz Some discussion on the OFTC Debian IRC channel pointed to a recent change to the .deb package format, and the fact that it is now possible to use bzip2 compression for data.tar, as seen in the libacl1_2.2.51-2_i386.deb, for example. It seems debootstrap/debian-installer are not downloading this new requirement before trying to install the system. Someone suggested that the issue might actually be that bzip2 is not tagged as "Essential: yes". I purposely left out the d-i tag, because I've read that the direct installation of sid is not supported. Identical installations of stable and testing work fine. Please let me know if you need any more information. Thank you. -- Arturo R.
debootstrap.log.gz
Description: GNU Zip compressed data
syslog.gz
Description: GNU Zip compressed data
