[Wylug-help] Apt without /var

[j.lander at leeds.ac.uk]

Dave,

> 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.

The output of...

   df  /var

should tell you where the /var came from.

>   1. What do I need to put in a temporary /var to get apt working
>      properly?
>
>   2. How do I do it?

At a guess, apt-get will try to create the directories, dpkg wont.

There are no /var entries listed under the apt package contents at

   http://packages.debian.org/etch/i386/apt/filelist
   http://packages.debian.org/etch/i386/dpkg/filelist

so the /var entries must be created in the postinst/preinst scripts bit of 
the package. From this it looks like dpkg requires...

   /var/lib/dpkg/diversions
   /var/lib/dpkg/statoverride
   /var/lib/dpkg/stat

The simplest solution might be to download dpkg and apt debs and reinstall 
them.

- Jason