[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#700051: sysvinit: fails to create /etc/inittab from a fresh debootstrap

[David Comeau (SaturnNiGHTS)]

Package: sysvinit
Version: 2.88dsf-40
Severity: critical

Hello.

It appears that with the new package that has been pushed to 
sid/unstable [sysvinit 2.88dsf-40], performing a debootstrap install 
results in an installation with no /etc/inittab.  This appears to occur 
due to a section of sysvinit.postinst not running, due to being in a 
fakeroot/chroot/install environment, and having no init process to 
reinitialize.  That section of the postinst looks like it doesn't 
execute [do_restart()], which unfortunately also includes:

if [ ! -f /etc/inittab ]
then
     cp -p /usr/share/sysvinit/inittab /etc/inittab
fi

This results in a debootstrap that has no /etc/inittab, and fails:

Begin: Running /scripts/init-bottom ... done.
INIT: version 2.88 booting
INIT: No inittab file found

Enter runlevel: