base-installer did not pick hwe kernel during automatic preseed

[Dimitri John Ledkov]

When doing fully automated preseed, without specifying any specific kernel for the target, the non-hwe kernel got installed in target; even though the hwe installer was used.

Installing things interactively resulted in the hwe kernel being installed.

Feb 9 12:17:51 kernel: [ 0.372511] Linux version 4.8.0-36-generic (buildd@z13-011) (gcc version 5.4.0 20160609 (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.4) ) #36~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Sun Feb 5 09:41:06 UTC 2017 (Ubuntu 4.8.0-36.36~16.04.1-generic 4.8.11)

Feb 9 12:17:57 anna[1780]: DEBUG: retrieving base-installer 1.158ubuntu2.1
Feb 9 12:17:57 anna[1780]: 2017-02-09 12:17:57 URL:http://us.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports//pool/main/b/base-installer/base-installer_1.158ubuntu2.1_s390x.udeb [142622/142622] -> "/var/cache/anna/base-installer_1.158ubuntu2.1_s390x.udeb" [1]
Feb 9 12:17:57 anna[1780]: 2017-02-09 12:17:57 URL:http://us.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports//pool/main/b/base-installer/bootstrap-base_1.158ubuntu2.1_s390x.udeb [100946/100946] -> "/var/cache/anna/bootstrap-base_1.158ubuntu2.1_s390x.udeb" [1]
Feb 9 12:18:52 base-installer: Hit:1 http://us.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports xenial InRelease
Feb 9 12:18:52 base-installer: Get:2 http://us.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports xenial-updates InRelease [102 kB]
Feb 9 12:18:52 base-installer: Get:3 http://us.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports xenial/main Translation-en [568 kB]
Feb 9 12:18:52 base-installer: Get:4 http://us.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports xenial/restricted Translation-en [2908 B]
Feb 9 12:18:52 base-installer: Get:5 http://us.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports xenial-updates/main s390x Packages [397 kB]
Feb 9 12:18:52 base-installer: Get:6 http://us.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports xenial-updates/main Translation-en [188 kB]
Feb 9 12:18:52 base-installer: Get:7 http://us.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports xenial-updates/restricted s390x Packages [64 B]
Feb 9 12:18:52 base-installer: Get:8 http://us.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports xenial-updates/restricted Translation-en [2396 B]
Feb 9 12:18:52 base-installer: Get:9 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports xenial-security InRelease [102 kB]
Feb 9 12:18:53 base-installer: Get:10 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports xenial-security/main s390x Packages [173 kB]
Feb 9 12:18:53 base-installer: Get:11 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports xenial-security/main Translation-en [88.1 kB]
Feb 9 12:18:53 base-installer: Get:12 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports xenial-security/restricted s390x Packages [64 B]
Feb 9 12:18:53 base-installer: Get:13 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports xenial-security/restricted Translation-en [2272 B]
Feb 9 12:18:53 base-installer: Fetched 1625 kB in 0s (2454 kB/s)
Feb 9 12:18:53 base-installer: Reading package lists...
Feb 9 12:18:53 base-installer:
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-virtual usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-generic-hwe-16.04 usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-generic-hwe-16.04-edge usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-virtual-hwe-16.04 usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-virtual-hwe-16.04-edge usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-virtual usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-virtual usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-21-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-virtual-hwe-16.04 usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-virtual-hwe-16.04-edge usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-generic-hwe-16.04 usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-generic-hwe-16.04-edge usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-virtual-hwe-16.04 usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-virtual-hwe-16.04-edge usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-22-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-24-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-28-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-31-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-34-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-36-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-38-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-42-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-43-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-45-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-47-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-51-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-53-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-57-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-59-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.4.0-62-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.8.0-28-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.8.0-30-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.8.0-32-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.8.0-34-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-extra-4.8.0-36-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.8.0-36-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.8.0-34-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.8.0-32-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.8.0-30-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.8.0-28-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-62-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-59-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-57-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-53-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-51-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-47-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-45-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-43-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-42-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-38-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-36-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-34-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-31-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-28-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-24-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-22-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: kernel linux-image-4.4.0-21-generic usable on s390x
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: Found kernels 'linux-generic,linux-virtual,linux-generic-hwe-16.04,linux-generic-hwe-16.04-edge,linux-virtual-hwe-16.04,linux-virtual-hwe-16.04-edge,linux-image-extra-virtual,linux-image-generic,linux-image-virtual,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-21-generic,linux-image-extra-virtual-hwe-16.04,linux-image-extra-virtual-hwe-16.04-edge,linux-image-generic-hwe-16.04,linux-image-generic-hwe-16.04-edge,linux-image-virtual-hwe-16.04,linux-image-virtual-hwe-16.04-edge,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-22-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-24-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-28-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-31-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-34-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-36-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-38-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-42-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-43-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-45-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-47-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-51-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-53-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-57-generic,linux-image-extra-4.4.0-59-generic
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: arch_kernel candidates: linux-generic linux-image-generic linux-virtual linux-image-virtual
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: arch_kernel: linux-generic (present)
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: Using kernel 'linux-generic'
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: warning: Failed to get debconf answer 'base-installer/kernel/linux/initrd'.
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: Setting do_initrd='yes'.
Feb 9 12:18:55 base-installer: info: Setting link_in_boot='yes'.
Feb 9 12:19:15 base-installer: info: Installing queued packages into /target/.
Feb 9 12:20:44 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/90base-installer

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1663337

[Adam Conrad (adconrad)]

The default kernel is chosen by a baked-in preseed:

d-i base-installer/kernel/altmeta string hwe-16.04

When you use your own preseed, that one goes away, so you need to either specify that in your own, or add that to your boot cmdline, etc.

One could argue it's perhaps a general d-i misfeature that preseeds aren't additive/intersectional, but rather just override entirely, but that's a broader bug than this one.

(Patches welcome for improving this situation, but it's how HWE d-i has worked on x86 since precise or lucid, so certainly not a new behaviour here on s390x)