Comment 3 for bug 2054925

Steve I'm sorry but I cannot reproduce this. I have verified this countless of times during working on this and I am also unable to verify this here:

# apt policy debootstrap
debootstrap:
  Installed: 1.0.134ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.0.134ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.134ubuntu1 500
        500 https://debian.charite.de/ubuntu noble/main amd64 Packages
        500 https://debian.charite.de/ubuntu noble/main i386 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

# rm -r /tmp/nobletest/ && sudo debootstrap --variant=minbase noble /tmp/nobletest &> debootstrap.log
# grep base-files debootstrap.log
I: Retrieving base-files 13ubuntu7
I: Validating base-files 13ubuntu7
I: Extracting base-files...
I: Unpacking base-files...
I: Configuring base-files...
# tail debootstrap.log
I: Configuring libtasn1-6:amd64...
I: Configuring libstdc++6:amd64...
I: Configuring libhogweed6:amd64...
I: Configuring libidn2-0:amd64...
I: Configuring libapt-pkg6.0:amd64...
I: Configuring libp11-kit0:amd64...
I: Configuring libgnutls30:amd64...
I: Configuring apt...
I: Configuring libc-bin...
I: Base system installed successfully.

Your debootstrap log looks fine, it extracts base-files first. At this point, /tmp/nobletest should be empty. Unless I suppose you use a old broken version of debootstrap that used to create the symlinks before extracting the packages?

debootstrap (1.0.130) unstable; urgency=medium

  [ Helmut Grohne ]
  * implement merged-/usr by post-merging. Closes: #1049898

 -- Luca Boccassi <email address hidden> Fri, 18 Aug 2023 16:02:59 +0100