I got down to try to study the issue, which as expected seems to be linked to libc6-amd64, which should be useless on an amd64 system yes it is installed on mine and now badly broken.
I made some tests on a chroot over unionfs and at last I managed. This is the recipe. First, you should install the union file system utilities: # aptitude install aufs-tools this obviously will fail on a broken system, but you should be able to install it forcibly: # dpkg --force-depends -i /var/cache/apt/archives/aufs-tools_1%3a3.2+20130722-1.1_amd64.deb If you got to this point, we can start: # mkdir /test /home/testchanges # mount -t aufs -o br=/home/testchanges:/ none /test # chroot /test # mount -t proc proc /proc # rm /var/lock; mkdir /var/lock Let's go on and clean the system: # LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.18-4_amd64.deb # LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ apt-get autoremove # LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ aptitude purge libc6-amd64:i386 lib64stdc++6:i386 lib64gcc1:i386 At this point my (chrooted) system is recovered. Just try any command at the prompt to verify that it does not dump core while loading, and it's done. If the last three commands are not the right thing to do on your system, you should experiment in the chroot: just do # exit and restart form topo after removing the unionfs chroot environment: # umount -l /test # rm -r /test /home/testchanges However, this serves only to know what are the correct commands to give (in my case, dpkg followed by apt-get and aptitude). If you try to do this on a live system (as I did...) it will break after dpkg, because that leaves unable to start a new process, yet installing libc6 does something to init (I suppose it calls telinit U), and init crashes, leaving you with a frozen system. So, in order to apply the above sequence of three commands, you should boot from a CD (or maybe the initramfs would do, I have not tried), and then, after the usual # mkdir /r # mount /dev/whatever /r # mount -o bind /sys /r/sys # mount -o bind /dev /r/dev # mount -o bind /proc /r/proc you do the unusual # LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/r/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ chroot /r /bin/bash and execute the commands above: # dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.18-4_amd64.deb # apt-get autoremove # aptitude purge libc6-amd64:i386 lib64stdc++6:i386 lib64gcc1:i386 Remember that these were the three commands that worked for me, you should experiment in the chroot first. Good luck! P.S. the bug however is still there! -- Francesco Potortì (ricercatore) Voice: +39.050.621.3058 ISTI - Area della ricerca CNR Mobile: +39.348.8283.107 via G. Moruzzi 1, I-56124 Pisa Skype: wnlabisti (entrance 20, 1st floor, room C71) Web: http://fly.isti.cnr.it -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
