Ubuntu Installer crashes during installation

[Pascal de Bruijn]

Using a remastered Ubuntu installer ISO (on USB stick), I got this crash, which seems reproducable.

The ISO was remastered using UCK (not 2.4.6, but the SVN version with some additional patches, where I fixed all remaining issues myself).

The ISO includes all updates up to 20120810.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: ubiquity 2.10.19
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-29.46-generic 3.2.24
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-29-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu12
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.315
Date: Sat Aug 11 19:09:45 2012
InstallCmdLine: noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash -- maybe-ubiquity
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
 TERM=linux
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Can you please explain or describe what the crash is?
Can you please explain how can I reproduce this with uncustomized cd?

[Pascal de Bruijn (pmjdebruijn)]

Well, I don't think it is reproducable with the uncustomized cd... As my current theory is one of the updates for Precise which I pulled in might be causing this.

I've customized ISOs earlier without any problems, do mind, it's not weird customization, mostly just pulling in updates and including some extra packages (think gstreamer-* etc).

Here's the ISO with the issue:
  http://files.pcode.nl/isos/broken/ubuntu-12.04-desktop-amd64-20120811-remastered.iso

And a video recording of the installation (7:00-8:00 is the interesting bit):
  http://files.pcode.nl/isos/broken/ubuntu_1204_ubiquity_fail.ogv

It seems to fail at "Creating user..."

While I realize that you're not going to support all kinds of customized CDs, I wouldn't mind digging in a bit myself (because there's either a issue with Ubiquity, or with the Ubuntu Construction Kit (UCK), so something has to be fixed somewhere).

Would you mind giving me some pointers on how to best debug this issue?

[Pascal de Bruijn (pmjdebruijn)]

So I did a new customized CD with UCK, for which the problem is reproducable (so it's not a one-time fluke).

Considering that the problem occurs in the "Creating User..." phase, I ran the installer again, but now with ecrypfs disabled, and I got no errors that way. So this is likely an ecryptfs related issue.

Is there any chance some regression with regard to ecryptfs was introduced?

Is there a way (like a parameter to ubiquity) with which it will show me what commands it's executing (including the commands output)?

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

... or a bug with UCK

is it reproducible with vanilla images published on cdimages.ubuntu.com without *any* customizations?

[Pascal de Bruijn (pmjdebruijn)]

I just tried it with a vanilla image, and there the bug isn't reproducable.

However that doesn't prove UCK is the problem here, but it doesn't disprove it either.

I did a (failed) install with ubiquity --debug, and the larger debug logs are available at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1037214

[Pascal de Bruijn (pmjdebruijn)]

Also considering the problem seems to be related I'm not sure how using UCK would break that. Over UCK's history most "bugs" have been related to upstream changes with regard to updating kernels/bootloaders/services (SysV init->Upstart).

Consider this may be a regression introduced by updates, this might turn out to be problematic for 12.04.1...

Is there any source of semi-official daily 12.04 images (just as they are built daily before release)?

[Pascal de Bruijn (pmjdebruijn)]

... seems to be related to _ecrypts_. I'm not sure how ...

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

There are daily images available for what will eventually become 12.04.1 over here:
cdimage.ubuntu.com/precise/daily-live/

[Pascal de Bruijn (pmjdebruijn)]

Ah, great thanks.

I just tested the daily live cd for today, and it installed just fine (with ecryptfs enabled).

So I did another updated ISO with UCK, and that still failed.

Conclusion, it's highly likely something is going wrong with UCK.