I have been trying to create a bootable debian (jessie/8.4) image for the past 2 days, and as far as I can tell I have the procedure right, but I can not get the filesystem right. I am relatively sure that I am doing something wrong here, missing something with mounting or /etc/fstab (there isn't one in my image). I was hoping someone with some experience would be able to help me out/show me what I am missing.

Here are the errors I see as I'm booting into qemu-system-x86:

As text and then as the actual screenshots:

Errors:

fsck: error 2 (No such file or directory) while executing fsck.ext2 for /dev/sda1
fsck exited with status code 8
[FAILED] Failed to start Load/Save Random Seed
See `systemctl status systemd-random-seed.service` for details.
[FAILED] Failed to start Various fixups to make systemd work better on Debian.
See `systemctl status debian-fixup.service` for details.
...
[FAILED] Failed to start Update UTMP about System Boot/Shutdown.
See `systemctl status systemd-update-utmp.service` for details.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Update UTMP about System Runlevel Changes.

Here are the instructions I've written up for myself / steps I've taken:

cd ~
mkdir debootstrap
cd debootstrap/
# get newest
wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/d/debootstrap/debootstrap_1.0.80_all.deb
ar -x debootstrap_1.0.80_all.deb
zcat /root/debootstrap/data.tar.gz | tar xv

apt-get install parted


# 1.5Gbytes
dd if=/dev/zero of=1445.img bs=1024 count=1 seek=1536k

parted -s 1445.img -- mklabel msdos mkpart primary 1m 1.5g toggle 1 boot
losetup --show -f 1445.img
# prints out `/dev/loopX`, enter this on the next lin
partprobe /dev/loop0
# only have to make the filesytem once --> if you are troubleshooting steps, do not redo this line
mkfs -t ext2 /dev/loop0p1
mount /dev/loop0p1 /mnt

debootstrap --verbose --components=main,contrib,non-free \
--include=firmware-realtek,linux-image-amd64,grub-pc,ssh,vim \
--exclude=nano \
--arch amd64 jessie /mnt http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian

source for information on using –components

• Ensure that the kernel is installed, it should appear in /boot within the chroot, that is /mnt/boot with the following files:

  • initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64
  • vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64
  • config-3.16.0-4-amd64
  • System.map-3.16.0-4-amd64

• install grub

  grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot --modules=part_msdos /dev/loop0
  

• Set up APT

  • copy over the apt sources

    cp /etc/apt/sources.list /mnt/etc/apt/sources.list
    

  • ensure the cdrom source is commented out

  • add the line:

    deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian stable-backports main contrib non-free
    

Setup a chroot

mount --bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev

# if you want your pushprofilesettings
cp ~/.bashrc /mnt/root/
cp ~/.vimrc /mnt/root/

# chroot -- enter the system as if it were thy own
chroot /mnt /bin/bash
export HOME=/root
export LC_ALL=C
export LANG=C.UTF-8
export TERM=xterm-256color

mount from man mount:
--bind Remount a subtree somewhere else (its contents are available in both places).
-t <type> Mount of filesystem type, with this, mount will attempt to auto determine

setup serial/console access

edit /etc/default/grub:

1. Set GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" to:

   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8"
   

2. Uncomment GRUB_TERMINAL=console

3. Beneath, add the line:

   GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial --speed=115200 --unit=0 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1"
   

Make the grub config – This MUST be done in a non-systemd-nspawn shell (that means chroot)

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Exit chroot

exit

Clean up for chroot'ed

umount /mnt/sys
umount /mnt/dev
umount /mnt/dev/pts
umount /mnt/proc

Can check for additional mounts with: mount | grep /mnt and then unmount them with umount

Enter systemd-nspawn

systemd-nspawn -D /mnt
# not you are in a special container

Set the password for root with passwd

In /etc/ssh/sshd_config comment out PermitRootLogin without-password to read #PermitRootLogin without-password and insert PermitRootLogin yes beneath it

Now enable ssh on startup

systemctl enable ssh

clean up

# this is needed to clean up both chroot and systemd-nspawn -D /mnt
# once this is run you can not do systemd-nspawn either so wait until you are entirely done
exit
umount /mnt
losetup -d /dev/loop0

Check for additional mounts with: mount | grep /mnt If ANYTHING is returned, unmount them with umount

Recover (only necessary in ERROR)

If you broke something, or need to retry, RE-MOUNT / SETUP CHROOT on existing .img:

losetup --show -f 1445.img
# prints out `/dev/loopX`, enter this on the next lin
partprobe /dev/loop0
mount /dev/loop0p1 /mnt

testing img

qemu-system-x86_64 -hda 1445.img -m 1024 -vnc :0