Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop installation through nfs fails during copying files with SQASHFS errors

[torsten goehler]

Tried to install Ubuntu
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=18.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=bionic
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS"

trough PXE boot and NFS:

label install2
menu label ^Install XUbuntu 18.04 Desktop NFS
menue default
kernel ubuntu1804/vmlinuz
append initrd=ubuntu1804/initrd boot=casper netboot=nfs nfsroot=192.168.200.1:/var/lib/nfs/ubuntu1804/desktop ide=nodma acpi=off

(also tied w and w/o ide=nodema and/or acpi=of)

PXE Server:
  VM Xubuntu 18.04.5 LTS
  Network bridged

Client:
  VM should become Ubuntu 10.04.5 LTS :(
  Network bridged

Hypervisor:
  both VMs run as virtualbox VM
  Virtualbox version 6.1.16

Host:
  Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS

I get the Desktop and start "Ubuntu 18.04.5LTS Installation", select keyboard, location and clear disk completely .... and start.
The disk is going to be parted and mounted, the file copy starts succcessfully.
Ca. after 75-80% progress the copy process stops with a error message regarding read from CD/DVD issues.

/var/log/syslog:
...
Jan 7 16:57:52 ubuntu kernel: [ 20.708387] SQUASHFS error: zlib decompression failed, data probably corrupt
Jan 7 16:57:52 ubuntu kernel: [ 20.708390] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x64f2bd30
Jan 7 16:57:52 ubuntu kernel: [ 21.196785] SQUASHFS error: zlib decompression failed, data probably corrupt
Jan 7 16:57:52 ubuntu kernel: [ 21.196788] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x64f2bd30
Jan 7 16:57:52 ubuntu kernel: [ 21.242897] SQUASHFS error: zlib decompression failed, data probably corrupt
Jan 7 16:57:52 ubuntu kernel: [ 21.242900] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x64f2bd30
Jan 7 17:00:17 ubuntu kernel: [ 167.312732] SQUASHFS error: zlib decompression failed, data probably corrupt
Jan 7 17:00:17 ubuntu kernel: [ 167.312735] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x64f2bd30
Jan 7 17:00:17 ubuntu kernel: [ 167.313302] SQUASHFS error: zlib decompression failed, data probably corrupt
Jan 7 17:00:17 ubuntu kernel: [ 167.313303] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x64f2bd30
Jan 7 17:02:51 ubuntu kernel: [ 321.324247] SQUASHFS error: zlib decompression failed, data probably corrupt
Jan 7 17:02:51 ubuntu kernel: [ 321.324250] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x64f2bd30
Jan 7 17:02:51 ubuntu kernel: [ 321.332684] SQUASHFS error: zlib decompression failed, data probably corrupt
Jan 7 17:02:51 ubuntu kernel: [ 321.332686] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x64f2bd30
Jan 7 17:07:48 ubuntu kernel: [ 618.016118] SQUASHFS error: zlib decompression failed, data probably corrupt
Jan 7 17:07:48 ubuntu kernel: [ 618.016121] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x64f2bd30
Jan 7 17:07:48 ubuntu kernel: [ 618.024472] SQUASHFS error: zlib decompression failed, data probably corrupt
Jan 7 17:07:48 ubuntu kernel: [ 618.024474] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x64f2bd30
Jan 7 17:12:48 ubuntu kernel: [ 917.992441] SQUASHFS error: zlib decompression failed, data probably corrupt
Jan 7 17:12:48 ubuntu kernel: [ 917.992444] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x64f2bd30
Jan 7 17:12:48 ubuntu kernel: [ 918.000828] SQUASHFS error: zlib decompression failed, data probably corrupt
Jan 7 17:12:48 ubuntu kernel: [ 918.000830] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x64f2bd30

....

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: ubiquity 18.04.14.15
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-42.46~18.04.1-generic 5.4.44
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-42-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.16
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.394.3
Date: Thu Jan 7 18:00:32 2021
InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=ubuntu1804/vmlinuz initrd=ubuntu1804/initrd boot=casper netboot=nfs nfsroot=192.168.200.1:/var/lib/nfs/ubuntu1804/desktop ide=nodma acpi=off debian-installer/language=de console-setup/layoutcode?=de --
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20200806.1)
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for the bug report, those errors usually hints of a corrupted image, could you try downloading it again and verify that the checksum is correct?

[torsten goehler (tgoehler)]

the sha256sum is perfect like mentioned here http://releases.ubuntu.com/bionic/SHA256SUMS

further I checked the consistency of casper/filesystem.shashfs at the nfs server and at the /cdrom mount on the PXE booted testclient.

root@server-VirtualBox:/var/lib/nfs/ubuntu1804/desktop/casper$ md5sum filesystem.squashfs
9219ec140504472c8884cc4108afd7a7 filesystem.squashfs

root@server-VirtualBox:/var/lib/nfs/ubuntu1804/desktop/casper$ sha256sum filesystem.squashfs
e8ea4e653bdef4d08f35967fba2428f391e9c8e105b9a70b3265e9e78aa21668 filesystem.squashfs

the checksums are the same, so I consider the image is fine .... there must be some issue during copying over nfs. Does the initrd booted install environment an issue w nfs?

Can I use http instead of nfs to mount the ubuntu image over the network?

The usage of "append method=http://<server ip>/<image root>" works w centos but obviously not the Ubuntu 18.05.5 Desktop image.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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