Problem with debootstrap: Cannot create devices

[Florian Lindner <mailinglists@xgm.de>]

Hello,
I have a virtual server on which I try to install Debian etch. In order to do 
that I have booted an rescue system, downloaded debootstrap_0.3.3.3.tar.gz 
from [1] and installed it with make install-allarch. I follow the 
instructions at [2] (german), same in english at [3]

but debootstrap gives only an error

rescue-vs137031:~# debootstrap --arch i386 etch /test 
http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian
I: Retrieving Release
I: Retrieving Packages
I: Validating Packages
I: Resolving dependencies of required packages...
I: Resolving dependencies of base packages...
I: Checking component main on http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian...
I: Retrieving adduser
I: Validating adduser
[...]
I: Extracting tar...
I: Extracting tzdata...
I: Extracting util-linux...
I: Extracting zlib1g...
E: no /usr/lib/debootstrap/devices.tar.gz. cannot create devices

A search concludes that this error is known but hasn't lead to a solution so 
far.

Thanks,

Florian

[1] http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/d/debootstrap/
[2] http://www.us.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/apds03.html.de
[3] http://www.us.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/apds03.html.en