Re: usrmerge

[Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org>]

On Sat, Oct 01, 2022 at 11:06:55AM +0100, billium wrote:
> Since the last update to my debian testing I am unable to install anything
> or upgrade.
> 
> Setting up usrmerge (31) ...
> 
> FATAL ERROR:
> Both /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 and /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6
> exist.

How did you arrive in this state?  Is /lib already a symlink to /usr/lib
on your system?

> I can move the stated file and create a symlink

DO NOT TRY THAT!

That's libc.  If you try to move that in the most naive way imaginable,
your system will break immediately.

If you've already got a fully merged /usr, there is a package you can
install to indicate this (usr-is-merged).  Install that, and usrmerge
won't try to set itself up.  Or something like that.  So I'm told.  I'm
not running testing at this time.

If you've got a *partially* merged /usr, then I may not be able to help
you much.  You'll need an expert.  A good start would be understanding
whatever state you're in and how you got there.

Did a previous apt-get operation try to install usrmerge and fail?  Do
you have the original error message?  Can you trace through the steps
that usrmerge performs, and undo whichever ones have already been done?
Or, if you're close to completion, complete the remaining steps by hand,
and then install usr-is-merged?

In the worst possible case, you might need to reinstall from scratch.
So, no matter what you try to do at this point, making a full backup
of your important data (/home /etc /usr/local and so on) would be highly
advisable.