Sorry, meant to send it to the list, not just to Jochen.
Jochen Schulz wrote:
>> I made a fresh install of debian squeeze just after its release and
>> dutifully installed the updates suggested by the package manager
>> whenever necessary.
>
> What's the content of your sources.list?
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main contrib
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze contrib non-free main
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze non-free contrib main
deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze non-free contrib main
#Added by software-properties
deb ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free
#Added by software-properties
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main contrib
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org squeeze main non-free
deb file:/backup/Debian/DVD_1/ squeeze contrib main
deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates contrib non-free main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates contrib non-free main
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian sid main contrib
deb http://deb.opera.com/opera squeeze non-free
>
>> 2) The only thing that worked was switching between x (ctrl+alt+f7) and
>> the terminal (ctrl+alt+f1) but I couldn't log in to the terminal;
>> instead I got some error messages about init (or initsomething -
>> unfortunately I do not remember anymore) spawning to much and
>> something (it wasn't being clear what) being delayed/suppressed for 5
>> minutes.
>
> The exact error message might have helped in identifying the issue.
I know. :-( Kicking my buttocks already for assuming "oh it'll be ok"
and switching off.
>> 4) When I booted the laptop at work, it crashed soon after grub, the
>> rror message being:
>>
>> udevd[58]: error: runtime directory '/run/udev' not writable, for
>> now falling back to '/dev/.udev'
>
> That looks like you are actually running testing or unstable. A similar
> issue has hit my sid machein recently. Descriptions of the problem and
> solutions have been discussed here.
I tried not to use unstable but having switched from SuSE recently I
must have failed at that. I noticed that the package manager suggested
some unstable packages to me when it insisted on removing the
proprietary NVidia drivers and replace it with an unstable open solution
but I avoided that by performing only the "safe" updates. (The
propietary worked a lot better than the open one.)
I never figured out how those unstable packages got into the package
manager in the first place as I didn't see unstable being listed in
sources.list.
>> run-init: /sbin/init: No such file or directory
>
> Ouch. Can you confirm that /sbin/init still exists on your root
> filesystem? You mentioned that you have another distro on the same
> machine, so you can use that to inspect the filesystem. I'd do an fsck,
> too.
Yes. I checked it with the other distro and the rescue system shell
before writing my mail.
>> 7) I then tried to run the rescue system from the debian installation
>> dvd:
>> - Executing a shell in /dev/sda3 (my root) fails without any
>> meaningful error message.
>
> If it doesn't mean anything to you, it still may mean something to us.
> :)
>
> J.
It says exactly nothing. It just returns to the previous selection
screen. The following
>> - reinstalling grub into the MBR fails without any meaningful error
>> message.
says at least:
"Executing 'grub-install (hd0)' failed.
This is a fatal error."
--> Continue
"The rescue operation 'grub-reinstall' failed with exit code 1."
(Nothing else.)
Sven Joachim wrote:
> On 2011-05-12 12:53 +0200, Jochen Schulz wrote:
[...]
>
> I suspect that Simon has upgraded libc6 to 2.13-3 and got hit by bug
> #626450¹ (sometimes unstable actually deserves its name…).
>
> Sven
>
>
> ¹ http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=626450
>
>
I have libc-2.13.so in '/lib'.
A) How can I check whether I accidentially updated to 2.13-3 from the
rescue system or the other distro?
Assuming Sven is correct:
B) Am I correct that the easiest way to return to a stable installation
is a reinstall?
C) How can I prevent getting unstable packages into my system in the
future? Is there a configuration option or so? (Basically I have no
interest in using unstable software.)
Thanks, Simon
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