not all recommends of ubuntu-server are installed in lxd (squashfs) image

[Scott Moser]

grub-legacy-ec2 is missing from the squashfs image.
It is a recommends of ubuntu-server. Why would a package that
is a recommends be removed from generated images?

It seems like there must be a cleaner way to handle that.

# cat /etc/cloud/build.info
build_name: server
serial: 20180315

# dpkg-query --show ubuntu-server
ubuntu-server 1.413

# apt-cache show ubuntu-server | grep Recomm
Recommends: grub-legacy-ec2, lxd, snapd

# dpkg-query --show grub-legacy-ec2 lxd snapd
grub-legacy-ec2
lxd 3.0.0~beta5-0ubuntu2
snapd 2.31.1+18.04

[Dan Watkins (oddbloke)]

This is removed by line 32 in https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/livecd-rootfs/trunk/view/head:/live-build/ubuntu-cpc/hooks/032-root-squashfs.binary#L32, which strips out all grub packages from the image (as the image isn't expected to require a bootloader).

This doesn't seem like a major omission, so setting the priority to low.

[Scott Moser (smoser)]

This is really a general policy issue. Ubuntu default policy is that packages should have their recommends installed by default.

I agree that the lack of 'grub-legacy-ec2' not being present in a squashfs image does not seem like a major omission. However, I suggest that "Official Ubuntu Images" not following an Ubuntu policy *is* a "major omission".

The change you've pointed to seems like a "quick fix" that was thrown in without thought.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

I agree that it is a bug for official Ubuntu images to subset the standard seeds in a way that deviates from the definition for those images.

I also agree that in this case, installing grub-legacy-ec2 doesn't seem like the correct fix. We should instead fix the seeds to not include grub-legacy-ec2 at all as part of ubuntu-server, and then only install it as part of the image build for those targets which require it.

I think the main reason this change hasn't already been made is that it's not clear which targets still actually require it.

[Scott Moser (smoser)]

Can we milestone this bug for fixing in 18.04 ?
I've milestoned, if you disagree, please feel free to respond and un-do.

[Scott Moser (smoser)]

Not sure I've set all the tracks and such correctly above.
The fix for this issue went into the ubuntu seeds during the cosmic release [1].

So it is really only a problem on 18.04 at this point.

[1] https://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/ubuntu-seeds/+git/ubuntu/commit/?h=cosmic&id=a884cc39538aff378d6cce98d9711ef889c6dbb7