Ubiquity crashes during final configuration if user requests encrypted home partition

[Brent Spillner]

If I select 'encrypt my home directory' in the user account setup dialog (last manual step of the installation process) and click 'Continue', Ubiquity starts applying the final configuration changes and crashes about 4-5 seconds later (logs attached). This is 100% reproducible across reboots on a vanilla 16.04 install (new System76 laptop, right out of the box). Going through the process without requesting an encrypted home directory yields normal completion.

From the symptoms reported by other users this is quite possibly a duplicate of one or more of the issues listed on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay/20140710 (and thus at least a couple of years old), but few of those were investigated very thoroughly so it's impossible to be sure.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: ubiquity 2.21.63.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-38.57-generic 4.4.19
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-38-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Oct 4 13:20:44 2016
InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-38-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=5850c0c6-b4f7-49ee-a871-9502ea64ee1a ro acpi_backlight=vendor i8042.nomux i8042.reset quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=linux
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Can you still reproduce this? I've tried to do this today on the development release's daily image, and the install completes with no issues.

The issue I see for now is that there are not enough of the logs to tell what went on. If you can reproduce the issue, could you please attach /var/log/syslog and /target/var/log/syslog to this bug report?

Otherwise, you could also try to add "debug-ubiquity" at the end of the kernel command-line when you boot the image, by hitting F6 when you see the initial boot menu, and typing it in just before the "---". Following that, /var/log/installer/debug should contain lots of debugging information from the installer.

Thanks!

[Brent Spillner (spillner)]

I'm on travel for a few weeks, will try to reproduce when I get a chance.

On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 7:22 PM, Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Can you still reproduce this? I've tried to do this today on the
> development release's daily image, and the install completes with no
> issues.
>
> The issue I see for now is that there are not enough of the logs to tell
> what went on. If you can reproduce the issue, could you please attach
> /var/log/syslog and /target/var/log/syslog to this bug report?
>
> Otherwise, you could also try to add "debug-ubiquity" at the end of the
> kernel command-line when you boot the image, by hitting F6 when you see
> the initial boot menu, and typing it in just before the "---". Following
> that, /var/log/installer/debug should contain lots of debugging
> information from the installer.
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1630327
>
> Title:
> Ubiquity crashes during final configuration if user requests encrypted
> home partition
>
> Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> If I select 'encrypt my home directory' in the user account setup
> dialog (last manual step of the installation process) and click
> 'Continue', Ubiquity starts applying the final configuration changes
> and crashes about 4-5 seconds later (logs attached). This is 100%
> reproducible across reboots on a vanilla 16.04 install (new System76
> laptop, right out of the box). Going through the process without
> requesting an encrypted home directory yields normal completion.
>
> From the symptoms reported by other users this is quite possibly a
> duplicate of one or more of the issues listed on
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay/20140710 (and thus at least a
> couple of years old), but few of those were investigated very
> thoroughly so it's impossible to be sure.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
> Package: ubiquity 2.21.63.2
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-38.57-generic 4.4.19
> Uname: Linux 4.4.0-38-generic x86_64
> NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia
> ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
> Architecture: amd64
> Date: Tue Oct 4 13:20:44 2016
> InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-38-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=5850c0c6-b4f7-49ee-a871-9502ea64ee1a ro acpi_backlight=vendor i8042.nomux i8042.reset quiet splash vt.handoff=7
> ProcEnviron:
> TERM=linux
> PATH=(custom, no user)
> XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SourcePackage: ubiquity
> UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1630327/+subscriptions

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for ubiquity (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Sebastien HUART (lostintransaction)]

As this bug also affects us here at work, I can reproduce it.

I have found a kind of workaround: at the "end" of the first ubiquity/oem-config process, when it tries to generate and send a crash report (which will never end), type Ctl+Alt+F2 to display an active console, then Ctl+Alt+Suppr to reboot. Go through the same ubiquity menus, re-create same user and password as last try, check the "crypt my home folder" again etc... And then it will complete!
For now this is all I can do.
I suspect that the encrypted home folder can't be "mounted" first, I will try to test and check more thoroughly tomorrow.

[Sebastien HUART (lostintransaction)]

This problem does no longer occur after removing the "user-setup/encrypt-home" option in the tftpboot/pxe config file or in preseed file.
I think it might be trying to encrypt the "oem" user dir which is used at first start to complete installation but I can't prove it...

[janny wiliam (janny2471)]

 Ubuntu GNOME 16.04 runs ubiquity without root so it fails ... Ubiquity crashes during final configuration if the user requests encrypted home partition.
If anyone face printer issue clicks here http://careerjobs360.in

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Is it still an issue with 16.04.6? I couldn't reproduce it with the desktop installer or netboot.

[Sebastien HUART (lostintransaction)]

I commented the "user-setup/encrypt-home" setting (comment #6) in the preseed file I used back then, and the user creation step was successful, but I didn't try to uncomment it again
.....
# Set to true if you want to encrypt the first user's home directory.
#d-i user-setup/encrypt-home boolean true
.....
after that I could install hundreds of xenial laptops quite smoothly (last ones yesterday)

As I try to guess in comment #6 above, setting this to true might have had side effects with the OEM user (required by oem/ubiquity)
I will try uncommenting that preseed setting again with last release of xenial today.

[Sebastien HUART (lostintransaction)]

It seems that it's no longer a blocking issue. OEM/ubiquity handles the error quietly after preseeded installation as shown above (a grep "encrypt" in /var/log/installer/cdebconf/* gives a few lines about encrypted home folder errors, but in the end it gets the job done: final user homedir was created, and encrypted as the user checked the right box when prompted). So I can't reproduce the aforementioned error anymore. Thanks a lot for your patience and hard work.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for ubiquity (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]