install failed if connected but without working internet

[Jeremy Bícha]

Ubuntu Desktop amd64 20230920

I attempted an install with GNOME Boxes. My host machine did not have network connectivity (disconnected from wifi or any wired networks). GNOME Boxes sets up the guest machine with network connectivity (i.e. it looks like it is connected to a wired network and has an IP address but of course this Box couldn't resolve any Internet addresses.)

The install fails when apt is unable to update

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 23.10
Package: subiquity (unknown)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.5.0-5.5-generic 6.5.0
Uname: Linux 6.5.0-5-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs
ApportVersion: 2.27.0-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CasperVersion: 1.482
CloudArchitecture: x86_64
CloudID: nocloud
CloudName: unknown
CloudPlatform: nocloud
CloudSubPlatform: seed-dir (/var/lib/cloud/seed/nocloud)
CurtinAptConfig: /var/log/installer/subiquity-curtin-apt.conf
Date: Thu Sep 21 14:41:30 2023
ExecutablePath: /snap/ubuntu-desktop-installer/1243/bin/subiquity/subiquity/cmd/server.py
InterpreterPath: /snap/ubuntu-desktop-installer/1243/usr/bin/python3.10
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 23.10 "Mantic Minotaur" - Beta amd64 (20230919.1)
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0627:0001 Adomax Technology Co., Ltd QEMU USB Tablet
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 08e6:4433 Gemalto (was Gemplus) GemPC433-Swap
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Lsusb-t:
 /: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/15p, 5000M
 /: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/15p, 480M
     |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Chip/SmartCard, Driver=, 12M
     |__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 480M
MachineType: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009)
ProcAttrCurrent: snap.hostname-desktop-installer.subiquity-server (complain)
ProcCmdline: /snap/hostname-desktop-installer/1243/usr/bin/python3.10 -m subiquity.cmd.server --use-os-prober --storage-version=2 --postinst-hooks-dir=/snap/hostname-desktop-installer/1243/etc/subiquity/postinst.d
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=C.UTF-8
 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<set>
 PATH=(custom, no user)
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz layerfs-path=minimal.standard.live.squashfs --- quiet splash
Python3Details: /usr/bin/python3.11, Python 3.11.5, python3-minimal, 3.11.4-5
PythonDetails: N/A
SnapChannel:

SnapRevision: 1243
SnapUpdated: False
SnapVersion: 0+git.bf01a899
SourcePackage: subiquity
Title: install failed crashed with RuntimeError
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 04/01/2014
dmi.bios.release: 0.0
dmi.bios.vendor: SeaBIOS
dmi.bios.version: 1.16.2-debian-1.16.2-1
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: QEMU
dmi.chassis.version: pc-q35-8.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnSeaBIOS:bvr1.16.2-debian-1.16.2-1:bd04/01/2014:br0.0:svnQEMU:pnStandardPC(Q35+ICH9,2009):pvrpc-q35-8.0:cvnQEMU:ct1:cvrpc-q35-8.0:sku:
dmi.product.name: Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009)
dmi.product.version: pc-q35-8.0
dmi.sys.vendor: QEMU

[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:
https://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/2037008

[Olivier Gayot (ogayot)]

Hello Jeremy,

In subiquity. we implemented a way to fallback to an offline install should mirror testing report no mirror available. The desktop installer does not use this feature so my advise for mantic would be to disconnect from the network - forcing subiquity to run an offline install.

Thanks,
Olivier

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Olivier, shouldn't subiquity be resilient to connectivity issues though? You could start the install with a working access but have your modem disconnect or isp have some issue, Ubuntu should still be able to install

[Olivier Gayot (ogayot)]

@seb128 going forward, I would like subiquity to grow the ability to re-run a step that failed (unless it's fatal) - if instructed to do so. Sporadic connectivity issues would be the most common use-case for it.
This will involve significant changes and it requires UI updates too to support it.

Currently though, we only have /some/ steps here and there that have sleep and retries implemented but not in a consistent way. And they don't retry forever, they would typically do 3 attempts and then give up.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Reported on https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-desktop-installer/issues/2349

[Olivier Gayot (ogayot)]

There are two aspects to this:

1. For the desktop installer, we are going to silently fallback to an offline install if mirror testing fails.
2. If we are doing an offline install and installation of codecs is requested, Subiquity will warn that the step can not be run and skip it.

I just merged the following PR (not yet to ubuntu/mantic) to address the second item.

https://github.com/canonical/subiquity/pull/1812

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Closing that ubuntu-desktop-installer report since the component is deprecated. We aren't going to fix 23.10 installer bugs at this point and Noble uses ubuntu-desktop-provision, feel free to reopen/reassign to that component if that's still an issue with the noble beta image