[chef] initial installation problems on Debian Squeeze

[Motiejus Jakštys < >]

Hi, List,

When I install some packages, to Squeeze, on a completely fresh VM, doesn't
matter which ones, it fails around every 1-3'rd package with the same 
error[1].

Steps to reproduce:
1) xen-create-image --dist=squeeze
2) ssh hostname; apt-get install htop lsof strace
3) knife bootstrap hostname -x root -d ubuntu10.04-apt -P pwwwwwd
While executing the "packages" recipe[2], it fails with error[1].

Some observations:
* after 30 minutes, when client restarts, that package comes through nicely 
and
  stops with same error on other package.
* it stucks on various packages I tried (vim, zsh, curl, nmap so far, 100%
  reproducible)
* if I run chef-client manually, all works perfectly
* everything exactly the same[2] (cookbooks, VM installation, ...) in lucid
  works perfectly

Need some ideas where to look. It would be best to get more verbose output 
from
apt-get, how do I do that?

I probably don't have to mention that manually running
apt-get -q -y install vim=2:7.2.445+hg~cb94c42c0e1a-1

Works fine. So do other packages when installed manually.

I suspect TTY and apt.. Can it be so that if apt does not have TTY, it behaves
differently on Squeeze? chef-client from command line makes me want to think
about it. How do I test apt-get without a TTY?

Any other ideas? If there is any more information I should provide, please 
tell
me.

[1]: http://paste.ubuntu.com/923909/
[2]: http://paste.ubuntu.com/923938/

Motiejus

P.S. I get different behaviour when installing apt-cacher-ng. It hangs here:

/usr/bin/ruby1.8 /usr/bin/chef-client -d -P /var/run/chef/client.pid -L 
/var/log/chef/client.log -c /etc/chef/client.rb -i 1800 -s 20
 \_ [chef-client] <defunct>
 \_ apt-get -q -y install apt-cacher-ng=0.5.1-3
     \_ /bin/sh -c /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true
         \_ /usr/bin/perl -w /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt
             \_ [dpkg-preconfigu] <defunct>
             \_ /bin/sh -e /tmp/apt-cacher-ng.config.60871 configure 

Running chef-client manually works fine.