[Error] "Installing basic packages... Error: An error occurred"

[Nalvi00]

Try to use distrobox to run a .deb app on my nobora desktop.

I already tried some configuration recommandations but they didn't resolved my case so I post the situation after a simple installation of podman and distrobox.
First post ever.

User's infos

/etc/os-release

NAME="Nobara Linux"
VERSION="42 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition)"
ID=nobara
ID_LIKE="rhel centos fedora"
VERSION_ID=42
VERSION_CODENAME=""
PLATFORM_ID="platform:f42"
PRETTY_NAME="Nobara Linux 42 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;38;2;60;110;180"
LOGO=nobara-logo-icon
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:nobaraproject:nobara:42"
DEFAULT_HOSTNAME="nobara"
HOME_URL="https://nobaraproject.org/"
DOCUMENTATION_URL="https://www.nobaraproject.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.nobaraproject.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://github.com/nobara-project/nobara-images"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT="Nobara"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=42
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Nobara"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION=42
SUPPORT_END=2026-05-13
VARIANT="KDE Plasma Desktop Edition"
VARIANT_ID=kde

Podman Version

Client: Podman Engine
Version: 5.6.1
API Version: 5.6.1
Go Version: go1.24.6
Git Commit: 1e2b2315150b2ffa0971596fb5da8cd83f3ce0e1
Built: Thu Sep 4 02:00:00 2025
Build Origin: Fedora Project
OS/Arch: linux/amd64

hello world and sample container running fine

Distrobox Version

1.8.1.2
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/89luca89/distrobox/main/install | sudo sh

fedora default container running fine

Create a Debian 13 container :

:/$ distrobox create -n db13-test --image debian:13

Creating 'db13-test' using image debian:13 [ OK ]
Distrobox 'db13-test' successfully created.
To enter, run:

distrobox enter db13-test

:/$ distrobox enter db13-test

Starting container... [ OK ]
Installing basic packages...

// After a abnormally long time :

Installing basic packages... Error: An error occurred

// But if I try again :

/$ distrobox enter db13-test

Starting container... [ OK ]
Installing basic packages... [ OK ]
Setting up devpts mounts... [ OK ]
Setting up read-only mounts... [ OK ]
Setting up read-write mounts... [ OK ]
Setting up host's sockets integration... [ OK ]
Integrating host's themes, icons, fonts... [ OK ]
Setting up distrobox profile... [ OK ]
Setting up sudo... [ OK ]
Setting up user's group list... [ OK ]
Setting up existing user... [ OK ]
Ensuring user's access... [ OK ]

Container Setup Complete!
bash: warning: setlocale: LC_CTYPE: cannot change locale (fr_FR.utf8): No such file or directory
bash: warning: setlocale: LC_CTYPE: cannot change locale (fr_FR.utf8): No such file or directory
bash: warning: setlocale: LC_COLLATE: cannot change locale (fr_FR.utf8): No such file or directory
bash: warning: setlocale: LC_CTYPE: cannot change locale (fr_FR.utf8): No such file or directory
bash: warning: setlocale: LC_CTYPE: cannot change locale (fr_FR.utf8): No such file or directory
bash: warning: setlocale: LC_COLLATE: cannot change locale (fr_FR.utf8): No such file or directory

// Then trying to install neofetch for test :

📦[user@db13-test host]$ sudo apt update

Hit:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie InRelease
Hit:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie-updates InRelease
Hit:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian-security trixie-security InRelease
All packages are up to date.
📦[user@db13-test host]$ sudo apt install neofetch
Error: Unable to locate package neofetch

I created containers for Ubuntu 20.04 and 24.04 and Debian 12 and 13, always the same first "Installing basic packages" error.
When rm and recreate a container, the error reappear.

--verbose infos

Report execute on the Debian 13 container only.
Running [ :/$ distrobox enter db13-test --verbose ] the first attempt give an long loop of :

• read -r line
• case "${line}" in
• IFS=

// then it'll stop for starting the selection, preparation and set up of the packages and the report finish by :

Updating certificates in /etc/ssl/certs...
0 added, 0 removed; done.
Running hooks in /etc/ca-certificates/update.d...
done.
Processing triggers for libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0:amd64 (2.42.12+dfsg-4) ...
mount: /run/systemd/journal: mount point does not exist.
dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.
mount: /run/systemd/journal: mount point does not exist.
dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.
mount: /run/systemd/resolve: mount point does not exist.
dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.
mount: /run/systemd/resolve: mount point does not exist.
dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.

• [ -e /etc/locale.gen ]
• locale -a
• grep -qi en_us.utf8
• sed -i s|#.*en_US.UTF-8|en_US.UTF-8|g /etc/locale.gen
• sed -i s|#.*fr_FR.utf8|fr_FR.utf8|g /etc/locale.gen
• locale-gen
  Generating locales (this might take a while)...
  en_US.UTF-8... done
  Generation complete.
• update-locale LC_ALL=fr_FR.utf8 LANG=fr_FR.utf8
  *** update-locale: Error: invalid locale settings: LC_ALL=fr_FR.utf8 LANG=fr_FR.utf8

locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
ANSI_X3.4-1968

• [ 255 -ne 0 ]
• printf Error: An error occurred\n
  Error: An error occurred
  DEBU[0000] Called logs.PersistentPostRunE(podman --log-level debug logs db13-test)
  DEBU[0000] Shutting down engines
  INFO[0000] Received shutdown.Stop(), terminating! PID=32690
  DEBU[0000] [graphdriver] trying provided driver "overlay"
  DEBU[0000] Cached value indicated that overlay is supported
  DEBU[0000] Cached value indicated that overlay is supported
  DEBU[0000] Cached value indicated that metacopy is not being used
  DEBU[0000] backingFs=btrfs, projectQuotaSupported=false, useNativeDiff=true, usingMetacopy=false

[dottorblaster]

I don't know what's going on, maybe your nearest mirror is wonky, here I just enter Debian 13 fine.

At the same time I would like to ask you what happens if you run apt install fastfetch instead of neofetch since neofetch it's pretty unmaintained and as far as I know distros stopped packaging it a while ago because of that.

[Nalvi00]

Ok, I did. Work better indeed but still weird :

Then I tried to install firefox-esr, it suggested me to make a --fix-broken install

It downloaded a bunch of packages (sorry I did'nt copy that) but after that the browser was install and is working.

I've now troubles to install my .deb but seems to be for an another place...

[dottorblaster]

Besides telling you that you might want to use a Debian 14 container now since it's stable, the problem with --fix-broken-install looks more like a package manager's internal issue.

I'm going to close this but if you want to paste a log of what's happening with your .debs, feel free 😃