Deploying Alma linux 9 - unsupported RHEL version

[Ventsislav Georgiev]

Hi,

When trying to deploy a machine with Alma 9 there's this error in the install.py curtin files:

Traceback (most recent call last):
          File "/curtin/curtin/commands/main.py", line 202, in main
            ret = args.func(args)
          File "/curtin/curtin/commands/curthooks.py", line 1886, in curthooks
            builtin_curthooks(cfg, target, state)
          File "/curtin/curtin/commands/curthooks.py", line 1851, in builtin_curthooks
            setup_grub(cfg, target, osfamily=osfamily,
          File "/curtin/curtin/commands/curthooks.py", line 804, in setup_grub
            install_grub(instdevs, target, uefi=uefi_bootable, grubcfg=grubcfg)
          File "/curtin/curtin/commands/install_grub.py", line 378, in install_grub
            grub_name, grub_target = get_grub_package_name(target_arch, uefi, rhel_ver)
          File "/curtin/curtin/commands/install_grub.py", line 77, in get_grub_package_name
            raise ValueError('Unsupported RHEL version: %s', rhel_ver)

        ValueError: ('Unsupported RHEL version: %s', '9')
        ('Unsupported RHEL version: %s', '9')

Any tips on how to fix that or is there any ETA in including Alma 9? Everything before 9 (e.g. Alma 8.5 or Rocky works without any problems).

[Alexsander de Souza (alexsander-souza)]

Until Curtin has proper Alma Linux support MAAS cannot officially support it also. I'm moving this to a feature request. I suggest you move this discussion to https://discourse.maas.io/ where the community can assist you.

[Michael Hudson-Doyle (mwhudson)]

It looks like other rhel derivatives are releasing version 9 too so we should probably just change the "version 7 or 8" check to "version 7 or later"

[Itai Levy (etlvnvda)]

any chance this is going to be solved?

[Itai Levy (etlvnvda)]

or any workaround?

[Justin Mammarella (jmamma)]

+1, cannot deploy RHEL 9 in MAAS

[Alan Baghumian (alanbach)]

I am using MAAS 3.3.5 and encountering this as well. As others mentioned, RHEL-9 deployments are failing:

finish: cmd-install/stage-curthooks/builtin/cmd-curthooks: FAIL: curtin command curthooks
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/curtin/curtin/commands/main.py", line 202, in main
    ret = args.func(args)
  File "/curtin/curtin/commands/curthooks.py", line 1886, in curthooks
    builtin_curthooks(cfg, target, state)
  File "/curtin/curtin/commands/curthooks.py", line 1851, in builtin_curthooks
    setup_grub(cfg, target, osfamily=osfamily,
  File "/curtin/curtin/commands/curthooks.py", line 804, in setup_grub
    install_grub(instdevs, target, uefi=uefi_bootable, grubcfg=grubcfg)
  File "/curtin/curtin/commands/install_grub.py", line 381, in install_grub
    grub_name, grub_target = get_grub_package_name(target_arch, uefi, rhel_ver)
  File "/curtin/curtin/commands/install_grub.py", line 80, in get_grub_package_name
    raise ValueError('Unsupported RHEL version: %s', rhel_ver)
ValueError: ('Unsupported RHEL version: %s', '9')
('Unsupported RHEL version: %s', '9')
curtin: Installation failed with exception: Unexpected error while running command.
Command: ['curtin', 'curthooks']
Exit code: 3

Thanks,
Alan

[Alan Baghumian (alanbach)]

Dug deeper into this, tested with a BIOS and UEFI machine, using a custom RHEL 9.2 image, built using the latest packer-maas (Commit: 53587d208a77b6fcb17d5aacaecf636a852cd625) observed the following behavior:

- Deployments fail on the BIOS machine using the above trace.
- Deployments succeed on the UEFI machine.

Apparently this issue is localized to machines using BIOS mode.

Best,
Alan

[Anton Troyanov (troyanov)]

I can see that RHEL 9 was added in 23.1.1

https://github.com/canonical/curtin/commit/5b8908216c266445f9374f31bdffd3ba9a0028ba

[Anton Troyanov (troyanov)]

@alanbach do you have MAAS installed via snap or deb?

3.3.5 is not released yet, so I am wondering which exact commit it was built from?

Can you please check which version of curtin is bundled with MAAS?

In case of snap:
cat /snap/maas/current/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/curtin/version.py | grep '_PACKAGED_VERSION\s='

In case of deb:
Check system wide curtin package version

[Anton Troyanov (troyanov)]

root@foo:~# snap install maas --channel 3.3/beta
maas (3.3/beta) 3.3.5-13201-g.2715332b6 from Canonical✓ installed
root@foo:~# cat /snap/maas/current/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/curtin/version.py | grep '_PACKAGED_VERSION\s='
_PACKAGED_VERSION = '22.1-0ubuntu1~22.04.1'