[SRU Exception] Backport 5.28 to focal

[Heather Ellsworth]

[Impact]

This SRU has two specific impacts: cross-architecture testing, and pocket pinning. There may be unknown impacts in backporting the version in lunar to focal (5.20->5.28).

Initially, the patches were added to Jammy and Kinetic to provide the cross-architecture testing and pocket pinning in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/autopkgtest/+bug/2002455 but we have since decided to go ahead and backport the version of lunar that include these patches, back to focal.

(We similarly backported the 5.28 version in lunar to jammy in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/autopkgtest/+bug/2008026, and kinetic in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/autopkgtest/+bug/2015285)

Below is a summary of the two initially sought after impacts.

1. cross-architecture testing

autopkgtest currently does not have the -a ARCH capability needed to permit cross-architecture testing. This is notably useful for i386 local testing [0] and was noted to be missing since the focal release.

The goal is to be able to create an amd64 VM where autopkgtest can run on an i386 package.

There was an existing patchset for this functionality from ~3 years ago that needed tweaking and is in a working state now[1].

2. pocket pinning (blurb copied from commit[2])

Ubuntu is switching to NotAutomatic: yes for the proposed pocket:
the change is already operative on >= Lunar and under consideration
for older stable releases. This means that by default packages from
-proposed won't be installed unless explicitly requested.

The change is meant to make it easier for end users to keep -proposed
enabled (for SRU verification or individual package installation)
without manually adding a pin to avoid pulling in all of -proposed.

However when running autopkgtests with --apt-pocket=proposed we do want
to pull in all the pocket, so let's always give it Pin-Priority: 500.
This is similar to what Launchpad does with the buildds.

Note: This change does not really treat -proposed in a special way:
any pocket will get Pin-Priority: 500. It makes sense to keep the tool
behavior consistent, and we're not aware of cases where this could be
cause issues.

[0] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/i386
[1] https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-release/autopkgtest/+git/development/+merge/376169
[2] https://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-release/autopkgtest/+git/development/commit/?id=c92df58ae5f3bc55aa58bbfb93ca60cb38b2615c

[ Test Plan ]

1. cross-architecture testing

Create an amd64 VM where autopkgtest can run on an i386 package:

## Generate the VM
$ sudo autopkgtest-buildvm-ubuntu-cloud -a amd64 -r focal -s 15G

## Run autopkgtest on the i386 vlc package, finishes quickly
## Note that you should run the autopkgtest binary directly (so use the path to your
## runner/autopkgtest) and point to the .img file created in the last step
$ sudo ~/autopkgtest-5.25ubuntu1/runner/autopkgtest --setup-commands="dpkg --add-architecture i386; apt-get update" --architecture i386 vlc -- qemu --ram-size=1536 --cpus 2 ~/autopkgtest-focal-amd64.img

A passing result looks like autopkgtest setting up the testbed and launching the tests while a failing result looks something like this:

autopkgtest: error: unrecognized arguments: --architecture

2. pocket pinning testing

Using the --apt-pocket=proposed option, you should see that the proposed pocket is used when running autopkgtests.

Also if there are any packages in proposed, then you should be able to track the pocket and update without pulling in any proposed packages.

[ Where problems could occur ]

1. cross-architecture testing
It is possible for the img file to find itself in a bad state, affecting the tests run, but simply recreating the VM is a quick fix. Without this patchset i386 testing less accessible, since i386 hardware is required, so the improvement greatly outweighs potentially introduced risk.

2. pocket pinning
We are not aware of any issues that may arise from this patch.

[Heather Ellsworth (hellsworth)]

Here is a debdiff from 5.11ubuntu1.1 to 5.28ubuntu1.

Although I have not been able to test it yet.

When I create the vm with
$ sudo autopkgtest-buildvm-ubuntu-cloud -a amd64 -r focal -s 15G

It keeps timing out at the step running cloud-init for some reason.

[Heather Ellsworth (hellsworth)]

Here is a debdiff that just updates the versioning scheme to something more intuitive that also will avoid collisions with the version that exists in lunar.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

I've sponsored this just now, thanks for the debdiff!

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Hello Heather, or anyone else affected,

Accepted autopkgtest into focal-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/autopkgtest/5.28ubuntu0.20.04.0 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-focal to verification-done-focal. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-focal. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Ubuntu SRU Bot (ubuntu-sru-bot)]

All autopkgtests for the newly accepted autopkgtest (5.28ubuntu0.20.04.0) for focal have finished running.
The following regressions have been reported in tests triggered by the package:

autopkgtest/5.28ubuntu0.20.04.0 (amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, s390x)

Please visit the excuses page listed below and investigate the failures, proceeding afterwards as per the StableReleaseUpdates policy regarding autopkgtest regressions [1].

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/proposed-migration/focal/update_excuses.html#autopkgtest

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Autopkgtest_Regressions

Thank you!

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

The fix for this bug has been awaiting testing feedback in the -proposed repository for focal for more than 90 days. Please test this fix and update the bug appropriately with the results. In the event that the fix for this bug is still not verified 15 days from now, the package will be removed from the -proposed repository.

[Heather Ellsworth (hellsworth)]

My appologies for letting this slip through..

I've created a large focal VM for testing this autopkgtest package and indeed the architecture option is supported however the vlc-all test case fails:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 builddeps:/tmp/autopkgtest.5kFMS7/5-autopkgtest-satdep.dsc:i386 : Depends: vlc-plugin-samba:i386

command: sudo autopkgtest --setup-commands="dpkg --add-architecture i386; apt-get update" --architecture i386 vlc -- qemu --ram-size=1536 --cpus 2 ~/autopkgtest-focal-amd64.img
full log output: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/HYT7H2z3Mg/

--

Then if I try to install vlc-plugin-samba into the test bed, qemu terminates but I'm not sure why.

command: sudo autopkgtest --setup-commands="dpkg --add-architecture i386; apt-get update; apt-get install vlc-plugin-samba" --architecture i386 vlc -- qemu --ram-size=1536 --cpus 2 ~/autopkgtest-focal-amd64.img
full log output: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/xbFqK8YKdM/

So while the architecture option is supported, I'm unsure if we can say if this is an autopkgtest failure or a vlc failure. Brian, what is your thought on this?

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

The version of autopkgtest in the proposed pocket of Focal that was purported to fix this bug report has been removed because one or more bugs that were to be fixed by the upload have failed verification and been in this state for more than 10 days.

[Ubuntu SRU Bot (ubuntu-sru-bot)]

All autopkgtests for the newly accepted autopkgtest (5.28ubuntu0.20.04.0) for focal have finished running.
The following regressions have been reported in tests triggered by the package:

autopkgtest/5.28ubuntu0.20.04.0 (amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, s390x)

Please visit the excuses page listed below and investigate the failures, proceeding afterwards as per the StableReleaseUpdates policy regarding autopkgtest regressions [1].

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/proposed-migration/focal/update_excuses.html#autopkgtest

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Autopkgtest_Regressions

Thank you!