ok - i've established the cause of the failure: incorrect dependencies in linux-image-2.6.39-2-amd64. the most likely candidate which is the broken/missing dependency i am guessing isn't grub or lvm2, but probably libdevmapper.
but - looking in /var/lib/dpkg/info with ls -altr shows the list of last-installed packages, any one of which could have been the candidate which "fixed" the problem. -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 201231 2011-07-30 19:08 linux-image-2.6.39-2-amd64.list -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 979 2011-07-30 19:08 firmware-linux-free.list -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2574 2011-07-31 12:23 linux-kbuild-2.6.39.list -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 196519 2011-07-31 12:23 linux-headers-2.6.39-2-common.list -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 357612 2011-07-31 12:23 linux-headers-2.6.39-2-amd64.list -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 317 2011-07-31 13:34 linux-image-2.6-amd64.list -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7335 2011-07-31 13:50 grub-pc-bin.list -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 538 2011-07-31 13:50 grub2-common.list -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3063 2011-07-31 13:50 lvm2.list -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 310 2011-07-31 13:50 libdevmapper1.02.1.list -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 666 2011-07-31 13:50 grub-pc.list -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3817 2011-07-31 13:50 grub-common.list -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 648 2011-07-31 13:50 dmsetup.list root@teenymac:~# dpkg -l | grep grub ii grub-common 1.99-8 GRand Unified Bootloader (common files) rc grub-efi-amd64 1.98~20100115-1 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (EFI-AMD64 version) ii grub-pc 1.99-8 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (PC/BIOS version) ii grub-pc-bin 1.99-8 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (PC/BIOS binaries) ii grub2 1.98~20100115-1 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (dummy package) ii grub2-common 1.99-8 GRand Unified Bootloader (common files for version 2) lkcl@teenymac:~$ dpkg -l | grep lvm ii lvm2 2.02.84-3 The Linux Logical Volume Manager lkcl@teenymac:~$ dpkg -l | grep libdevmapper ii libdevmapper1.02.1 2:1.02.63-3 The Linux Kernel Device Mapper userspace library -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
