[Wylug-help] Apt without /var

[Dave Fisher]

Thanks for writing Jason.

On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 09:48:37AM +0100, j.lander at leeds.ac.uk wrote:
> Do you have much disk space available on the surviving partition(s).
Yep.

> If so, you can create a suitable /var directory structure elsewhere on the 
> disk and either
> 
> * temporarily replace /var with a symlink
> or
> * use mount --bind to map the temporary /var where the real /var should
>   be.
> 
> As long as there is sufficent space, apt-get should do the right 
> thing.

Actually I do have a /var filesystem, it's just not the one that's
supposed to be used, because that's on the damaged raid array.

I'm not 100% sure where the curretly visible /var came from. I suspect it's
either, or both, of the following:

  1. Contents of the original installation /var which the RAID/LVM /var
     was later mounted on top of.

  2. Something that the currently running system has created/populated.

I suspect the latter, since I'd expect an original installation /var to
include all the apt stuff like /var/lib/apt ... and that stuff is
missing.

Which begs the questions:
   
   1. What do I need to put in a temporary /var to get apt working
      properly?

   2. How do I do it?

Dave