Subject: initscripts package in wheezy uninstallable
From: Andrew Ruthven <andrew.ruthven@catalyst.net.nz>
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:58:05 +1300
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:58:05 +1300
Hey,

Just a heads up, the initscripts package is currently not installable
within a vserver running wheezy, you get:

Setting up initscripts (2.88dsf-41) ...
mount: permission denied
dpkg: error processing initscripts (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit
status 1

The issue is that if initscripts thinks it is running on the host system
it tries to run:

 mount -t /dev/shm /dev/shm /run/shm -orw -obind

Which fails within a vserver.

The mount (and a bunch of other code) is protected by a test using the
binary ischroot from the debianutils package.

The issue is that the "ischroot" binary in the debianutils package tests
to see if it can read /proc/1/root. If it can read it then it determines
it is not a vserver.

Unfortunately on at least the 3.4 kernel set of patches (2.3.3.9) you
*can* read /proc/1/root inside a vserver.  (Also tested on a 3.2 box
running the benq kernels and /proc/1/root is not readable.)

I've filed a bug in the BTS against debianutils.

Cheers!

-- 
Andrew Ruthven, Wellington, New Zealand
MIITP, ITCP

At work: andrew.ruthven@catalyst.net.nz
At home: andrew@etc.gen.nz
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LCA2013: Come join the party... - lca2013.linux.org.au


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