Dev1 Galaxy Forum / merged /usr

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (MLEvD) — Sun, 08 Jun 2025 04:16:03 +0000

Unbootable system here after usrmerge. It failed, so I booted into single mode to fix it, then booted and finished up the upgrade, then couldn't boot anything, kernel panic on sysv or systemd, can boot into ash shell but commands don't work

kernel panic complaining about libtinfo being too short?

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (fanderal) — Sat, 03 Aug 2024 18:07:55 +0000

I'm on Ceres and had to install usrmerge a month or so ago. No problems. Thanks to @GlennW and @Altoid, finding any symlinks usrmerge missed can be corrected by hand.

# symlinks -csrv / | grep dangling

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (stultumanto) — Sat, 03 Aug 2024 00:50:20 +0000

There are also a couple of directories for 32-bit libraries that become links in a default merged system. Here is a full listing from a system I created by running debootstrap with the --merged-usr option:

$ find / -maxdepth 1 -type l -xtype d -printf '%p -> %l\n'
/libx32 -> usr/libx32
/sbin -> usr/sbin
/bin -> usr/bin
/lib32 -> usr/lib32
/lib64 -> usr/lib64
/lib -> usr/lib

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (mirrortokyo) — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 09:33:30 +0000

What I needed to have in / was:

bin -> usr/bin
lib -> usr/lib
lib64 -> usr/lib64
sbin -> usr/sbin

After that, the base-files upgrade worked.

PS, on my i386 installation I had to use /usr/lib/klibc/bin/ln if the default ln program was unavailable while changing symbolic links.

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (mirrortokyo) — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 05:15:58 +0000

Hmm, upgrade

[UPGRADE] base-files:amd64 13.3devuan1 -> 13.4devuan1

failed because I had symlinks from /bin -> /usr/bin and /sbin -> /usr/sbin still present.

However, a lot of scripts in /etc/init.d still have /bin and /sbin hard-coded, and removing those symbolic links causes a boot failure.

I've put package base-files on hold for now.

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (chris2be8) — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 16:09:13 +0000

Re post 89 by soren (at 09:32:57) my first response would be:
ls -li /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsystemd.so.0 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsystemd.so.0
and see if one was a symlink to the other or if they are hard links (same inode numbers). If different files but the same size I'd then try diff /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsystemd.so.0 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsystemd.so.0 to see if one is a copy of the other.

If they are the same inode numbers I'd check if /lib and /usr/lib are symlinks (ls -lid /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ then ls -lid /lib/ /usr/lib/). That would give me a better idea what state things are in.

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (delgado) — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 15:11:09 +0000

Thats fine, but i cant install usrmerge, i cant install anything now, apt/dpkg is broken.
EDIT: this was a reply to someone but they deleted the post.

Sorry for the inconvenience. The post's online time was less than 5 minutes. Tight timing!
It was the 3rd post in less than three minutes (after ralph and soren), saying that you need usrmeger for ceres.
BTW: In such cases, It is possible install a downloaded package via dpkg -i /path_to/some-package.deb manually.

Anyway. Good to hear that you made it!

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (soren) — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 10:36:23 +0000

Upgrade from daedalus to ceres went fine after installing usrmerge first. Im not sure what i was thinking, i thought maybe apt might throw a warning to install usrmerge first before upgrading, but probably too soon as stable to unstable not covered. Sorry for the noise.

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (soren) — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 08:39:06 +0000

Ok so moving both /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsystemd.so.0 and /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsystemd.so.0 out of the way successfully converted the system, i hope.

apt install usrmerge
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
usrmerge is already the newest version (37~deb12u1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 68 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
Setting up usrmerge (37~deb12u1) ...
The system has been successfully converted.

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (soren) — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 08:32:57 +0000

Okay so i removed the filesystem and started again, this time installing usrmerge first. I get this error now??
Note that the system is stable(daedalus) no upgrade has occurred yet.

FATAL ERROR:
Both /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsystemd.so.0 and /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsystemd.so.0 exist.

You can try correcting the errors reported and running again
/usr/lib/usrmerge/convert-usrmerge until it will complete without errors.
Do not install or update other Debian packages until the program
has been run successfully.

E: usrmerge failed.
dpkg: error processing package usrmerge (--configure):
 installed usrmerge package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for man-db (2.11.2-2) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 usrmerge

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (soren) — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 08:14:22 +0000

Thats fine, but i cant install usrmerge, i cant install anything now, apt/dpkg is broken.
EDIT: this was a reply to someone but they deleted the post.

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (soren) — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 08:11:23 +0000

So usrmerge needs to be installed first before a big upgrade like this? Noted.

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (ralph.ronnquist) — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 08:09:13 +0000

Yes, that's what it says, isn't it?

The current installation does not have a merged-/usr layout.
This is unsupported and unpacking libc6 would break the system.
Refusing to unpack. Please install the usrmerge package and try again.

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (soren) — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 07:46:47 +0000

Has anyone got an idea how to fix this?
I tried upgrading from stable(daedalus) to unstable(ceres) on a spare partition and seems it has failed spectacularly due to usrmerge.

The system was rsync'ed to a new partition and then modified.

So /etc/apt/sources.list looks like below.

deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged ceres main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

The update / upgrade was going fine until i did apt-get upgrade

Error messages as follows....

# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libc-dev-bin : Depends: libc6 (> 2.38) but 2.36-9+deb12u3 is installed
                Recommends: manpages-dev but it is not installed
 libc6-dev : Depends: libc6 (= 2.38-12.1) but 2.36-9+deb12u3 is installed
 locales : Depends: libc-bin (> 2.38) but 2.36-9+deb12u3 is installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

apt --fix-broken install gives below error

The following packages will be upgraded:
  libc-bin libc6
2 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 828 not upgraded.
5 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/3,381 kB of archives.
After this operation, 289 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y

Reading changelogs... Done
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 90625 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libc6_2.38-12.1_amd64.deb ...

The current installation does not have a merged-/usr layout.
This is unsupported and unpacking libc6 would break the system.
Refusing to unpack. Please install the usrmerge package and try again.

dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.38-12.1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 new libc6:amd64 package pre-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.38-12.1_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Its just stuck in a loop now, im thinking i may have needed to install usrmerge first??

EDIT to add. I am upgrading the devuan partition from an artix linux system, so im chrooting into the devuan system via artix linux.

EDIT 2, i cant install usrmerge either if anyone is wondering, it throws similar errors...

/# apt install usrmerge
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libc-dev-bin : Depends: libc6 (> 2.38) but 2.36-9+deb12u3 is to be installed
                Recommends: manpages-dev but it is not going to be installed
 libc6-dev : Depends: libc6 (= 2.38-12.1) but 2.36-9+deb12u3 is to be installed
 locales : Depends: libc-bin (> 2.38) but 2.36-9+deb12u3 is to be installed
 usrmerge : Depends: libfile-find-rule-perl but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

Re: merged /usr

dummy@example.com (TheLancashireman) — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 17:59:09 +0000

For what it's worth - just ran apt-update and noticed new versions of eudev and libeudev1 incoming. After upgrading them (and only them) PC boots with no problems.
Then did a full upgrade. Now cryptsetup is causing trouble, but that's a different matter.

I got the warning from dpkg too, and a few warnings about dependency problems during the upgrade.