autopkgtest-buildvm-ubuntu-cloud hangs indefinitely with Jammy VM

[Skia]

[ Impact ]

`autopkgtest-buildvm-ubuntu-cloud` is unable to produce a Jammy VM image, because it hangs forever.
This is caused by the configuration of the `keyboard-configuration` package, that prompts the user while the VM is not interactive.

The bug is fixed upstream: https://salsa.debian.org/ci-team/autopkgtest/-/merge_requests/384
The fix was to set `DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive` in the environment.

[ Test plan ]

autopkgtest-buildvm-ubuntu-cloud -a amd64 -r jammy -v

This command hangs, and the last printed line is `Setting up keyboard-configuration`.

[ Where problems could occur ]

With the `DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive` variable set, packages will start to use their default configuration instead of prompting the user. Those default could be broken for an autopkgtest usage, but on the other hand, prompting doesn't work either. Still, without the prompt hanging, it will be harder to detect that some packages wanted to be configured, and further investigation could be harder.
Despite that, I still think not prompting the user, and proceeding with a working automated installation is preferable than not having the VM image in the first place.

Also, this bugfix only impacts `autopkgtest-buildvm-ubuntu-cloud`. It's not something buried deep in some shared code that could impact other parts of the software, meaning it should have very limited impact.

[ Other info ]

Thanks @zyga for reporting, and @simpoir for first pointing out the missing debconf frontend.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package autopkgtest - 5.37ubuntu4

---------------
autopkgtest (5.37ubuntu4) oracular; urgency=medium

  * t/autopkgtest-buildvm-ubuntu-cloud: make sure installing packages never prompts
    (LP: #2075166)

 -- Florent 'Skia' Jacquet <email address hidden> Tue, 30 Jul 2024 14:48:45 +0200