dchroot

HOWTO set up a porting dchroot on a debian.org machine

This example is for setting up a $DIST dchroot on paer.debian.org, adjust accordingly.

Do the following as root:

  echo -n 'Dist: ' && read DIST && export DIST &&
  echo -n 'Mirror: ' && read MIRROR && export MIRROR

create the chroot

  cd /srv/chroot &&
  mkdir $DIST &&
  debootstrap --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg --variant=buildd $DIST ./$DIST http://$MIRROR/debian &&
  cp /etc/hosts $DIST/etc/

enter the chroot and create the chroot tag:

chroot $DIST
echo $DIST > /etc/debian_chroot

# change root's .bashrc:
 grep -q debian.chroot /etc/bash.bashrc || patch /root/.bashrc << 'EOF'
@@ -3,2 +3,6 @@
 export PS1='\h:\w\$ '
+if [ -e /etc/debian_chroot ]; then
+       debian_chroot=$(cat /etc/debian_chroot)
+       PS1="[$debian_chroot] $PS1"
+fi
 umask 022
EOF
#
#*)
 echo 'Acquire::PDiffs "false";' > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/local-pdiff
 echo 'APT::Install-Recommends 0;' > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/local-recommends
# # not sure this one's a good idea, -- weasel 20080829
# ##echo 'DPkg::Post-Invoke { "(sleep 1; apt-get clean) &"; };' > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/local-cleanup
#
#*) deploy a policy-rc.d script:
 apt-get update &&
 apt-get install policyrcd-script-zg2 &&
 cat > /usr/local/sbin/policy-rc.d << EOF &&
#!/bin/sh

# policy-rc.d script for chroots.
# Copyright (c) 2007 Peter Palfrader <peter@palfrader.org>

while true; do
  case "$1" in
    -*)         shift ;;
    makedev)    exit 0;;
    *)
      echo "Not running services in chroot."
      exit 101
      ;;
  esac
done
EOF
 chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/policy-rc.d

#*) install and setup locales and install libnss-db
  apt-get install locales-all

#  (if locales-all is not feasible on the machine because of say
#   disk constraints then install just locales and enable at
#   least "en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8" and "en_US ISO-8859-1".)
#
#*) setup nsswitch.conf to properly use the ldap stuff
  apt-get install libnss-db &&
  sed -i -e 's/^passwd:<span class="createlink">:space:</span>\+compat$/passwd:         compat db/;
             s/^group:<span class="createlink">:space:</span>\+compat$/group:          db compat/;
             s/^shadow:<span class="createlink">:space:</span>\+compat$/shadow:         compat db/' \
    /etc/nsswitch.conf
#
#
# *)
   apt-get install vim fakeroot devscripts gdb zsh dialog tcsh debfoster
#  edit the sources.list in the chroot and add contrib/non-free to the
#  primary source, a security updates source, and deb-src entries for both.
#  It should end up looking something like
   (
   echo "deb     http://$MIRROR/debian $DIST main contrib non-free"
   echo "deb-src http://$MIRROR/debian $DIST main contrib non-free"
   if [ "$DIST" != "sid" ] ; then
     echo "deb     http://security.debian.org $DIST/updates main contrib non-free"
     echo "deb-src http://security.debian.org $DIST/updates main contrib non-free"
   fi
   ) > /etc/apt/sources.list
   apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
#
# *)
  mount /proc && debfoster && umount /proc
#
# *)
#  exit the chroot
  exit

edit /etc/fstab on the system root and add entries to mount /proc and /home in the chroot, there will be existing ones for the other chroots, just copy and adjust. Then mount them (from the system root).

  :e.g:
  :  proc-etch  /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/etch/proc proc defaults,nosuid,nodev,noexec 0 0
  :  proc-lenny /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/lenny/proc proc defaults,nosuid,nodev,noexec 0 0
  :  proc-sid   /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/sid/proc proc defaults,nosuid,nodev,noexec 0 0
  :
  :  home /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/etch/home none bind,defaults
  :  home /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/lenny/home none bind,defaults
  :  home /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/sid/home none bind,defaults
  :
  :  devpts-etch  /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/etch/dev/pts devpts defaults,noexec,nosuid 0 0
  :  devpts-lenny /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/lenny/dev/pts devpts defaults,noexec,nosuid 0 0
  :  devpts-sid   /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/sid/dev/pts devpts defaults,noexec,nosuid 0 0
  :
  :  shm-etch  /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/etch/dev/shm tmpfs defaults,nosuid,nodev 0 0
  :  shm-lenny /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/lenny/dev/shm tmpfs defaults,nosuid,nodev 0 0
  :  shm-sid   /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/sid/dev/shm tmpfs defaults,nosuid,nodev 0 0
  :
  :  tmp /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/etch/tmp none bind,defaults
  :  tmp /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/lenny/tmp none bind,defaults
  :  tmp /srv/albeniz.debian.org/chroot/sid/tmp none bind,defaults

edit /etc/dchroot.conf in the system root, add an entry for $DIST, and update the stable and testing pointers

run ud-replicate so the new chroot is setup (this would happen via cron eventually, this is just to speed things up)

  ud-replicate

as a normal user, test that the new chroot works: "dchroot $DIST", test that the stable and testing pointers work.

– taggart 2007, slightly modified by weasel 2007, 2008, ported to wiki 2010.