apt-get install distro-info noninteractive

[Haw Loeung]

Hi,

While working on Juju 2.x controller upgrades, jujud was blocked upgrading/restarting on some of the VMs. On investigating, it seems to do with an `apt-get install` of the `distro-info` package stuck on a grub prompt:

| 667407 ? Ss 0:00 bash /etc/systemd/system/jujud-machine-2-exec-start.sh
| 667411 ? Sl 0:19 \_ /var/lib/juju/tools/machine-2/jujud machine --data-dir /var/lib/juju --machine-id 2 --debug
| 668456 ? S 0:01 \_ apt-get --option=Dpkg::Options::=--force-confold --option=Dpkg::Options::=--force-unsafe-io --assume-yes --quiet install distro-info
| 668467 pts/0 Ss+ 0:00 \_ /usr/bin/dpkg --force-confold --force-unsafe-io --status-fd 28 --configure --pending
| 668468 pts/0 S+ 0:00 \_ /usr/bin/perl -w /usr/share/debconf/frontend /var/lib/dpkg/info/grub-efi-amd64-signed.postinst configure 1.167.2+2.04-1ubuntu44.2
| 668478 pts/0 S+ 0:00 \_ /bin/sh /var/lib/dpkg/info/grub-efi-amd64-signed.postinst configure 1.167.2+2.04-1ubuntu44.2
| 668481 pts/0 S+ 0:00 \_ /bin/bash /usr/lib/grub/grub-multi-install --target=x86_64-efi
| 667776 ? SLsl 0:53 /snap/juju-db/29/bin/mongod --config /var/snap/juju-db/common/juju-db.config

It looks to be PreUpgradeSteps() in upgrades/preupgradesteps.go. Can we have that called with the environment variable "DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive" set? This should prevent such blockages.

I had to kill the running dpkg/apt and then call "dpkg --configure -a" or "apt-get dist-upgrade" then enter through the grub prompt on which device to install the bootloader.

[Haw Loeung (hloeung)]

Think we can backport a fix, when one is made, to 2.9.x as well?

[Haw Loeung (hloeung)]

FWIW, we usually call `apt-get` as such:

| DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -qqy etckeeper bzr

So something like this per the `ps` output above:

| DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get --option=Dpkg::Options::=--force-confold --option=Dpkg::Options::=--force-unsafe-io --assume-yes --quiet install distro-info

[Trent Lloyd (lathiat)]

Ran into a similar problem but with apt-get install throwing an error (due to broken dependencies/half installation of an unrelated package); filed a separate bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/juju/+bug/2054392

[Caner Derici (cderici)]

Patch landed on juju/packaging: https://github.com/juju/packaging/pull/24

And Juju 3.4 [https://github.com/juju/juju/pull/17482] (and 3.5+ [https://github.com/juju/juju/pull/17483]) is updated with the patch.

@hloeung, I don't think backporting to 2.9 is a good idea, as we don't make 2.9 releases anymore (except for security bugs), so even if we backport the patch, there's no way to tell when (if ever) it will be up on 2.9. Hope it makes sense.

[Haw Loeung (hloeung)]

Yep, sure. That comment was made almost a year ago and understandable that 2.9 is now only supported in terms of security and critical fixes. Thanks for your work.