I tested my suspicion that bind9-resolvconf was somehow implicated in the bind9 start problems by returning bind9-resolvconf to its original, disabled, state and restarting the system. Unfortunately, it didn't help: May 25 19:05:34 barley named[804]: /etc/bind/named.conf.options:2: change directory to '/var/cache/bind' failed: file not found
But at least one theory has been eliminated. I also reviewed permissions and ownership of /var/cache/bind and the "directory" directive in named.conf.options for consistency with Debian post-install scripts and packaged files. There weren't any differences. Ross
