Failure to build a arm64 chroot on amd64 on bionic

[Paul Mars]

On bionic amd64, running debootstrap to build an arm64 chroot fails.

$ sudo debootstrap --verbose --arch=arm64 --variant=minbase --components=main,restricted,universe,multiverse bionic /tmp/chroot http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/

I: Retrieving InRelease
[..]
W: Failure trying to run: chroot /tmp/chroot dpkg-deb -f /var/cache/apt/archives/dpkg_1.19.0.5ubuntu2_arm64.deb Version
W: See /tmp/chroot/debootstrap/debootstrap.log for details
W: Failure trying to run: chroot /tmp/chroot mount -t proc proc /proc
W: See /tmp/chroot/debootstrap/debootstrap.log for details

I tried adding various packages to make the emulation work (binfmt-support, qemu-user-static, etc.), without any success.

I first noticed this issue running ubuntu-image on bionic in our spread tests, building images for raspi. I was able to reproduce in a multipass VM with the above command.

ProblemType: Bug
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.29
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Jan 10 13:59:19 2024
Dependencies:
 adduser 3.116ubuntu1
 apt 1.6.17
 apt-utils 1.6.17
 ca-certificates 20230311ubuntu0.18.04.1
 debconf 1.5.66ubuntu1
 debconf-i18n 1.5.66ubuntu1
 dirmngr 2.2.4-1ubuntu1.6
 dpkg 1.19.0.5ubuntu2.4
 gcc-8-base 8.4.0-1ubuntu1~18.04
 gnupg 2.2.4-1ubuntu1.6
 gnupg-l10n 2.2.4-1ubuntu1.6
 gnupg-utils 2.2.4-1ubuntu1.6
 gpg 2.2.4-1ubuntu1.6
 gpg-agent 2.2.4-1ubuntu1.6
 gpg-wks-client 2.2.4-1ubuntu1.6
 gpg-wks-server 2.2.4-1ubuntu1.6
 gpgconf 2.2.4-1ubuntu1.6
 gpgsm 2.2.4-1ubuntu1.6
 gpgv 2.2.4-1ubuntu1.6
 libacl1 2.2.52-3build1
 libapt-inst2.0 1.6.17
 libapt-pkg5.0 1.6.17
 libasn1-8-heimdal 7.5.0+dfsg-1ubuntu0.4
 libassuan0 2.5.1-2
 libattr1 1:2.4.47-2build1
 libaudit-common 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu1.1
 libaudit1 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu1.1
 libbz2-1.0 1.0.6-8.1ubuntu0.2
 libc6 2.27-3ubuntu1.6
 libcap-ng0 0.7.7-3.1
 libcom-err2 1.44.1-1ubuntu1.4
 libdb5.3 5.3.28-13.1ubuntu1.1
 libffi6 3.2.1-8
 libgcc1 1:8.4.0-1ubuntu1~18.04
 libgcrypt20 1.8.1-4ubuntu1.3
 libgmp10 2:6.1.2+dfsg-2ubuntu0.1
 libgnutls30 3.5.18-1ubuntu1.6
 libgpg-error0 1.27-6
 libgpm2 1.20.7-5
 libgssapi3-heimdal 7.5.0+dfsg-1ubuntu0.4
 libhcrypto4-heimdal 7.5.0+dfsg-1ubuntu0.4
 libheimbase1-heimdal 7.5.0+dfsg-1ubuntu0.4
 libheimntlm0-heimdal 7.5.0+dfsg-1ubuntu0.4
 libhogweed4 3.4.1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1
 libhx509-5-heimdal 7.5.0+dfsg-1ubuntu0.4
 libidn2-0 2.0.4-1.1ubuntu0.2
 libkrb5-26-heimdal 7.5.0+dfsg-1ubuntu0.4
 libksba8 1.3.5-2ubuntu0.18.04.2
 libldap-2.4-2 2.4.45+dfsg-1ubuntu1.11
 libldap-common 2.4.45+dfsg-1ubuntu1.11
 liblocale-gettext-perl 1.07-3build2
 liblz4-1 0.0~r131-2ubuntu3.1
 liblzma5 5.2.2-1.3ubuntu0.1
 libncursesw5 6.1-1ubuntu1.18.04.1
 libnettle6 3.4.1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1
 libnpth0 1.5-3
 libp11-kit0 0.23.9-2ubuntu0.1
 libpam-modules 1.1.8-3.6ubuntu2.18.04.6
 libpam-modules-bin 1.1.8-3.6ubuntu2.18.04.6
 libpam0g 1.1.8-3.6ubuntu2.18.04.6
 libpcre3 2:8.39-9ubuntu0.1
 libpsl5 0.19.1-5build1
 libreadline7 7.0-3
 libroken18-heimdal 7.5.0+dfsg-1ubuntu0.4
 libsasl2-2 2.1.27~101-g0780600+dfsg-3ubuntu2.4
 libsasl2-modules 2.1.27~101-g0780600+dfsg-3ubuntu2.4
 libsasl2-modules-db 2.1.27~101-g0780600+dfsg-3ubuntu2.4
 libseccomp2 2.5.1-1ubuntu1~18.04.2
 libselinux1 2.7-2build2
 libsemanage-common 2.7-2build2
 libsemanage1 2.7-2build2
 libsepol1 2.7-1ubuntu0.1
 libsmartcols1 2.31.1-0.4ubuntu3.7
 libsqlite3-0 3.22.0-1ubuntu0.7
 libssl1.1 1.1.1-1ubuntu2.1~18.04.23
 libstdc++6 8.4.0-1ubuntu1~18.04
 libsystemd0 237-3ubuntu10.57
 libtasn1-6 4.13-2
 libtext-charwidth-perl 0.04-7.1
 libtext-iconv-perl 1.7-5build6
 libtext-wrapi18n-perl 0.06-7.1
 libtinfo5 6.1-1ubuntu1.18.04.1
 libudev1 237-3ubuntu10.57
 libunistring2 0.9.9-0ubuntu2
 libuuid1 2.31.1-0.4ubuntu3.7
 libwind0-heimdal 7.5.0+dfsg-1ubuntu0.4
 libzstd1 1.3.3+dfsg-2ubuntu1.2
 lsb-base 9.20170808ubuntu1
 openssl 1.1.1-1ubuntu2.1~18.04.23
 passwd 1:4.5-1ubuntu2.5
 perl-base 5.26.1-6ubuntu0.7
 pinentry-curses 1.1.0-1
 publicsuffix 20180223.1310-1
 readline-common 7.0-3
 tar 1.29b-2ubuntu0.4
 ubuntu-keyring 2018.09.18.1~18.04.2
 uuid-runtime 2.31.1-0.4ubuntu3.7
 wget 1.19.4-1ubuntu2.2
 zlib1g 1:1.2.11.dfsg-0ubuntu2.2
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: debootstrap 1.0.95ubuntu0.12
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcCpuinfoMinimal:
 processor : 3
 vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
 cpu family : 25
 model : 68
 model name : AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U with Radeon Graphics
 stepping : 1
 microcode : 0xa404102
 cpu MHz : 2694.924
 cache size : 512 KB
 physical id : 0
 siblings : 4
 core id : 3
 cpu cores : 4
 apicid : 3
 initial apicid : 3
 fpu : yes
 fpu_exception : yes
 cpuid level : 16
 wp : yes
 flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm rep_good nopl cpuid extd_apicid tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq ssse3 fma cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw perfctr_core ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp vmmcall fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rdseed adx smap clflushopt clwb sha_ni xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves clzero xsaveerptr arat npt lbrv nrip_save tsc_scale vmcb_clean pausefilter pfthreshold v_vmsave_vmload vgif umip pku ospke vaes vpclmulqdq rdpid arch_capabilities
 bugs : sysret_ss_attrs spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass
 bogomips : 5389.84
 TLB size : 1024 4K pages
 clflush size : 64
 cache_alignment : 64
 address sizes : 48 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
 power management:
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=C.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: User Name 4.15.0-212.223-generic 4.15.18
SourcePackage: debootstrap
Tags: bionic uec-images
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-212-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
_MarkForUpload: True

[Ken Sharp (kennybobs)]

Works fine here.

"See /tmp/chroot/debootstrap/debootstrap.log for details"
Would be handy to have that log.

[Paul Mars (upils)]

The log file mentioned by debootstrap is already what is displayed, so sadly no new information in it.

How did you test?

[Ken Sharp (kennybobs)]

> W: See /tmp/chroot/debootstrap/debootstrap.log for details
That log, not what you copied from the console.

Try the following command in a console and post the result:

grep -F BINFMT /boot/config-$(uname -r)

[Paul Mars (upils)]

You were right about the log. In another situation I looked at it and did not contained information, but here it does.

chroot: failed to run command 'dpkg-deb': No such file or directory
chroot: failed to run command 'mount': No such file or directory

Both these binaries are in the chroot. I understand these binaries are "not found" because they are not run directly but through a "translation" layer provided by qemu-user-static.

 $ grep -F BINFMT /boot/config-$(uname -r)
CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF=y
CONFIG_COMPAT_BINFMT_ELF=y
CONFIG_BINFMT_SCRIPT=y
CONFIG_BINFMT_MISC=m

Both qemu-user-static and binfmt-support are installed on the building machine.

I also noticed that running a second time the debootstrap command, without cleaning the chroot directory, succeed (no error). But if I start again from an empty directory, it fails again.

[Ken Sharp (kennybobs)]

In Bionic you need to use qemu-debootstrap to work around limitations (which are fixed in later releases).

$ sudo qemu-debootstrap --verbose --arch=arm64 --variant=minbase --components=main,restricted,universe,multiverse bionic /tmp/chroot http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/

Tested and works as expected. Please retry with qemu-debootstrap.