Default hostname needed for PowerPC

Bug #919356 reported by ojordan
50
This bug affects 8 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
choose-mirror (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Medium
Colin Watson

Bug Description

This has been raised before, notably in this bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/756719 , but the fix released appears not to have solved the problem. From the comments made in that bug, the problem is still in the alpha version of 12.04.

There have been a number of PowerPC bugs raised against the Ubiquity package, such as, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/875460 . These are against 11.10 and 12.04.

All the bugs share a similar problem:

The relevant log lines from UbiquitySyslog.txt, are:
 Nov 5 12:40:45 ubuntu choose-mirror[10217]: DEBUG: command: wget -q http://mirror/ubuntu-ports//dists/precise/Release -O - | grep -E '^(Suite|Codename):'
 Nov 5 12:40:45 ubuntu choose-mirror[10217]: WARNING **: mirror does not support the specified release (precise)]

From looking at the code of choose-mirror where these debug lines are outputted, it appears the hostname is set to "mirror". It should be set to "ports.ubuntu.com" I think.

Poking around a bit, I've been trying to figure out where this comes from. A lot of the code relating to the debian-installer I don't understand I'm afraid. My best guess is the problem lies in the file: choose-mirror-bin.templates.http-in

I think the hostname part of it should be ammened to something like this:

Template: mirror/http/hostname
Type: string
Default: mirror
Default[powerpc]: ports.ubuntu.com

A similar alteration can be made to the file: choose-mirror-bin.templates.ftp.base-in

From reading the Apple forum today it appears the alternate CD is also still affected by the problem: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1912207

I don't know if it is significant, but all the bug reports are from people outside the UK. A UK user a few days ago said they did not get a mirror error with the 12.04 live CD, but the live/desktop installer did freeze on them.

Anyway, I hope this helps! Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Thanks for your report. This isn't the right fix, though - the intent of "Default: mirror" there was to change the default in the case where you ask to use a custom mirror. If it's being used when you didn't ask for a custom mirror, then something else is wrong and whatever that something else is needs to be tracked down instead.

The hint that this may be specific to users outside the UK may very well be instructive. I'm in the UK myself and I tend to select the UK in the installer without really thinking about it.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in choose-mirror (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in choose-mirror (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Medium
assignee: nobody → Colin Watson (cjwatson)
status: Triaged → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

I believe I've fixed this for real now - my test netboot installer image certainly behaves much more sensibly - but I'd appreciate testing. Please note that, although this bug will be closed when I upload the new choose-mirror package, test images won't be available until after the next debian-installer and ubiquity uploads (for netboot/alternate/server and desktop install types respectively). These happen pretty frequently so it should be possible to test something within the next few days.

Changed in choose-mirror (Ubuntu):
status: In Progress → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package choose-mirror - 2.39ubuntu2

---------------
choose-mirror (2.39ubuntu2) precise; urgency=low

  * Exclude all-countries mirrors such as ports.ubuntu.com when determining
    whether there is a mirror in the country specified in
    debian-installer/country (LP: #919356).
 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:27:36 +0000

Changed in choose-mirror (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
ojordan (ojordan12345) wrote :

Thanks for looking into this so quickly! When the new package hits the iso images I'll alert the Apple forum and see if I can rally some troops for testing. Thanks again.

Revision history for this message
ojordan (ojordan12345) wrote :

Have just tested and there are still problems I'm afraid. Following feedback from the Apple forum I set the location to Zurich. I had no internet connected. I was using the lubuntu desktop iso. Same error as per prevous bug reports. I'll try and attach the syslog and installer debug logs.

Changed in choose-mirror (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Released → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
ojordan (ojordan12345) wrote :
Revision history for this message
ojordan (ojordan12345) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Sorry for all the bug status changes - I've been trying to make up my mind.

I think this is a distinct bug from the last one, but while I initially thought it was something wrong in ubiquity, I now think it probably needs to be fixed in choose-mirror again. mirror/http/countries is being inappropriately set to manual, by way of setting a value which isn't in the choices list so it falls back to the default.

Changed in ubiquity (Ubuntu):
status: New → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Medium
assignee: nobody → Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in choose-mirror (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
no longer affects: ubiquity (Ubuntu)
Changed in choose-mirror (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Released → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Fix uploaded. Again, this will need debian-installer and ubiquity uploads to take effect; ubiquity may take a little while since something external (GTK, I think) caused a regression in its test suite recently and we haven't yet nailed that down.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package choose-mirror - 2.39ubuntu3

---------------
choose-mirror (2.39ubuntu3) precise; urgency=low

  * Manage memory for 'country' variable more carefully.
  * If the selected country has no mirror (excluding all-countries mirrors),
    then fall back to the default (LP: #919356).
 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:54:29 +0000

Changed in choose-mirror (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

This should be available on daily live CD builds from tomorrow, assuming that they manage to build.

Revision history for this message
J.-S. Farinet (uhtlmk) wrote :

I tried to install from the 14 febr live-cd (lubuntu ppc) to a hd. While the mirror bug seems gone the installation didn't go through anyway. The error msg was something like "Because of defect packages the installation couldn't be finished".

Effectively, i can boot from that hd, but i get immediately the error msg: `/boot/vmlinux no such file found`So in my humble mind, the installer made the hd bootable but did not install the linux kernel.

I'm on a PB G4 17" (2003), 2gig mem

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote : Re: [Bug 919356] Re: Default hostname needed for PowerPC

On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 08:25:25AM -0000, J.-S. Farinet wrote:
> I tried to install from the 14 febr live-cd (lubuntu ppc) to a hd. While
> the mirror bug seems gone the installation didn't go through anyway. The
> error msg was something like "Because of defect packages the
> installation couldn't be finished".

Please attach the full installer syslog.

Revision history for this message
ojordan (ojordan12345) wrote :

I downloaded the 14/2/2012 lubuntu CD to try and re-create Fairnet's problem. It certainly is crash-tastic (a whole load of messages when the desktop first appears), but it installed perfectly. No sign of the mirror problem in the syslog. From what I remember of the code that DEBUG message in post 1 is only printed if the installer is set to manual - its absence must mean we are now on automatic? Which is good!

From the lubuntu QA message list I think Fairnet has now got a successful install using the 15/2/2012 CD https://lists.launchpad.net/lubuntu-qa/msg00077.html .

There is another problem with the PowerPC installs - I don't think it is what Fairnet experienced though - where the nvram is not updated to the new bootloader partition. It only comes to light on a dual boot system. It is to do with a lack of /dev/nvram. I think it is due to a kernel change as nvram is now a module and it wasn't before. I'm going to look into that a bit more, but I think I'll end up raising a bug against the kernel package.

Revision history for this message
ojordan (ojordan12345) wrote :
Revision history for this message
ojordan (ojordan12345) wrote :
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