Installation fails to complete when installing nvidia-driver-550 on 24.04 Beta

[David White]

The ubuntu install freezes partway through the installation process as it is installing packages. Syslog fills up with repeated lines as below:

 2024-04-06T11:53:09.093849+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.6790[20728]: Invalid password
2024-04-06T11:53:09.093903+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.6790[20728]: The Secure Boot key you've entered is not valid. The password used must be
2024-04-06T11:53:09.093932+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.6790[20728]: between 8 and 16 characters.
2024-04-06T11:53:09.093970+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.6790[20728]: Enter a password for Secure Boot. It will be asked again after a reboot.
2024-04-06T11:53:09.094014+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.6790[20728]: Enter the same password again to verify you have typed it correctly.
2024-04-06T11:53:09.094048+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.6790[20728]: Use of uninitialized value $_[1] in join or string at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/Stack.pm line 112.
2024-04-06T11:53:09.094094+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.6790[20728]: Use of uninitialized value $_[1] in join or string at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/DbDriver/Stack.pm line 112.

The install fails to proceed pastthis point and the installer freezes up and become unresponsive.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 24.04
Package: subiquity (unknown)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.8.0-11.11-generic 6.8.0-rc4
Uname: Linux 6.8.0-11-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs
ApportVersion: 2.28.0-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CasperVersion: 1.494
CloudArchitecture: x86_64
CloudID: nocloud
CloudName: unknown
CloudPlatform: nocloud
CloudSubPlatform: seed-dir (/var/lib/cloud/seed/nocloud)
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sat Apr 6 12:57:29 2024
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS "Noble Numbat" - Daily amd64 (20240323)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=C.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 TERM=xterm-256color
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
RebootRequiredPkgs: Error: path contained symlinks.
SourcePackage: subiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[David White (cppege-david-9ei9ny)]

Still doing this on daily build dated 9th April.

Looks like it's an issue with configuring secure boot, possibly related to NVIDIA 3rd party drivers:

Here is the log from the point just before it starts the death-loop.

2024-04-09T09:47:40.626784+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21274]: INFO:Enable nvidia
2024-04-09T09:47:40.626924+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21274]: DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/lenovo_thinkpad
2024-04-09T09:47:40.627134+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21274]: DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/put_your_quirks_here
2024-04-09T09:47:40.627244+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21274]: DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/dell_latitude
2024-04-09T09:47:40.727617+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
2024-04-09T09:47:40.727666+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: debconf: (TERM is not set, so the dialog frontend is not usable.)
2024-04-09T09:47:40.727687+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
2024-04-09T09:47:40.734532+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Readline
2024-04-09T09:47:40.734598+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: debconf: (This frontend requires a controlling tty.)
2024-04-09T09:47:40.734628+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: debconf: falling back to frontend: Teletype
2024-04-09T09:47:40.747688+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21289]: Loading new nvidia-550.67 DKMS files...
2024-04-09T09:47:40.815529+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21393]: Building for 6.8.0-22-generic
2024-04-09T09:47:40.823727+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21289]: Building for architecture x86_64
2024-04-09T09:47:40.855542+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21289]: Building initial module for 6.8.0-22-generic
2024-04-09T09:47:41.054244+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: Configuring Secure Boot
2024-04-09T09:47:41.054310+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: -----------------------
2024-04-09T09:47:41.054354+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: Your system has UEFI Secure Boot enabled.
2024-04-09T09:47:41.054383+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: UEFI Secure Boot requires additional configuration to work with third-party
2024-04-09T09:47:41.054432+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: drivers.
2024-04-09T09:47:41.054482+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: The system will assist you in configuring UEFI Secure Boot. To permit the use of
2024-04-09T09:47:41.054533+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: third-party drivers, a new Machine-Owner Key (MOK) has been generated. This key
2024-04-09T09:47:41.054561+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: now needs to be enrolled in your system's firmware.
2024-04-09T09:47:41.054604+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: To ensure that this change is being made by you as an authorized user, and not
2024-04-09T09:47:41.054625+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: by an attacker, you must choose a password now and then confirm the change after
2024-04-09T09:47:41.054655+00:00 ubuntu subiquity_log.3969[21275]: reboot using the same password, in both the "Enroll MOK" and "Change Se...

[David White (cppege-david-9ei9ny)]

Confirmed. Installing without 3rd party drivers avoids this bug.

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

Filled in a possible duplicate: https://bugs.launchpad.net/subiquity/+bug/2060822

[David White (cppege-david-9ei9ny)]

Yes, https://bugs.launchpad.net/subiquity/+bug/2060822 does look like a duplicate of this.

[Chris Peterson (cpete)]

So I was slightly concerned that the problem here was that the infinite loop in ubuntu-drivers was caused by a debconf prompt that wasn't properly suppressed but it appears to be just that the correct modules weren't available in the pool. I am able to complete an online install which installs the nvidia-driver-550 package without issue. Can you confirm this was an offline install?

I have been told that updates to the pool should be happening so I am marking this as "in-progress" and that should resole this issue.

[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:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/2060353

[David White (cppege-david-9ei9ny)]

Unfortunately for me it was an online install. The only way I found to work around it and keep secure boot enabled was to not tick the 3rd party drivers box and then to use the ubuntu-drivers command after first boot. I even had problems with the Additional Drivers GUI bricking the system.

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

So we fixed the offline case for sure, but we still need to fix things so to not to pull in dkms versions of packages for sure...