On 7/20/25 2:22 AM, Tom Dial wrote:
In updating a Bookworm installation from 12.1 to 12.11 I have hit a
brick wall during upgrade of libc6 and libc6:i386. The update appeared
normal until the upgrade of libc6:i386 (apology offered for the wrap):
------
Preparing to unpack .../20-libc6_2.36-9+deb12u10_i386.deb ...
De-configuring libc6:amd64 (2.36-9+deb12u1), to allow configuration of
libc6:i386 (2.36-9+deb12u10) ...
Unpacking libc6:i386 (2.36-9+deb12u10) over (2.36-9+deb12u1) ...
Preparing to unpack .../21-libc6_2.36-9+deb12u10_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libc6:amd64 (2.36-9+deb12u10) over (2.36-9+deb12u1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive
/tmp/apt-dpkg-install-UE9ugP/21-libc6_2.36-9+deb12u10_amd64.deb
(--unpack):
unable to install new version of '/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2': No
such file or directory
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute new libc6:amd64 package
post-removal script (/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/postrm): No such file or
directory
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
new libc6:amd64 package post-removal script subprocess returned error
exit status 2
dpkg (subprocess): unable to execute rm command for cleanup (rm): No
such file or directory
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
rm command for cleanup subprocess returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
/tmp/apt-dpkg-install-UE9ugP/21-libc6_2.36-9+deb12u10_amd64.deb
------
At this point, the shell (bash) continues to run, but all commands not
built in fail with a message like
failed to run command ‘/usr/bin/ls’: No such file or directory
presumably because ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 is unavailable to load and
link necessary shared libraries.
I have set up the failed image in a chroot environment, and tried
replacing ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 in what I assume is its correct location -
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
This allows bash to start, but other commands still fail, now with
segmentation faults:
root@recovery:~# chroot /mnt /bin/bash --login
bash: [: : integer expression expected
root@recovery:/# ll
Segmentation fault
root@recovery:/# pwd
/
root@recovery:/# hostname
Segmentation fault
root@recovery:/# exit
logout
root@recovery:~# pwd
/root
root@recovery:~# hostname
recovery
root@recovery:~#
I would be grateful for suggestions for repair of the exiting image.
The filesystem is ZFS and I havce two full snapshots: immediately
after the original Bullseye installation and immediately after the
upgrade to Bookworm, and have enough backups to restore user data from
either point along with information to reinstall all packages. A quick
repair would be nice, but if it's too involved or uncertain, I can
reinstall.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Tom Dial
a) roll back to the initial install (Bullseye) and update/upgrade from
that; or
b) clear the disk and reinstall everything
If you have a bootable live bookworm image, you should be able to repair
the install.
You will need to boot off the live image, install zfs support, import
the pool then chroot into the broken file system.
At that point, apt update and apt upgrade should work.
I would also suggest using ZFSBootMenu in the future if you use an EFI
boot setup in conjunction with sanoid for automated snapshots.
I can't tell you how many times this has saved me when things go South
(almost always self induced).
ZFSBootMenu allows you to perform a rollback before booting. See
https://docs.zfsbootmenu.org and sanoid is available in the Debian repos.
Best Regards,
Tom
