I was happily hacking away on a live booted image when suddenly "opkg" started giving me "bus error", and "dmesg" just produced "I/O Error". Something is tragically wrong with the live image system for it to be this fragile. Steps to reproduce: 1) boot live image 2) use for a few minutes 2.5) remove usb stick 3) nothing works!!!111!
Forgive the obvious questions: o Did you try with a new USB stick? o Did you "remove USB stick" while the rootfs.img was still loop mounted?
It's entirely possible that I removed the USB stick that was currently loopback mounted. It's amazing how long a live USB image can last without the underlying storage before it starts to disintegrate! The sad thing is that I'd actually forgotten I'd removed the stick (which was being reflashed) and was wondering why opkg was aborting for a good minute or so before realising my obvious mistake. Feel free to pick a suitable resolution. :)
I think I've understood this correctly. Since we don't have PEBKAC listed, I'm going with NOTABUG. ;-)