ubiquity crashes during 'configuring additional services' on 9.04 if a VNC password with non-alpha characters is used

[Angus Kerr]

When doing a clean install on 9.04, ubiquity crashed during 'configuring additional services'. Grub was not installed. I eventually figured out it is because I am selecting another service in addition to those which are already checked. The bug is 100% reproducible on different hardware. I do not know which additional service is causing the crash.....
Not selecting any additional services results in a clean install.

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

Hi:

Can you please elaborate on the selections you made - be specific. What
system role, what extra services.

Did your password contain a non alpha-numeric character?

On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 18:43, Angus Kerr <email address hidden> wrote:

> Public bug reported:
>
> When doing a clean install on 9.04, ubiquity crashed during 'configuring
> additional services'. Grub was not installed. I eventually figured out it is
> because I am selecting another service in addition to those which are
> already checked. The bug is 100% reproducible on different hardware. I do
> not know which additional service is causing the crash.....
> Not selecting any additional services results in a clean install.
>
> ** Affects: mythbuntu
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>
> --
> ubiquity crashes during 'configuring additional services' on 9.04 if
> no-core services are chosen
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/371062
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Mythbuntu
> Developers, which is subscribed to Mythbuntu.
>

--
Mario Limonciello
<email address hidden>
Sent from Austin, Texas, United States

[Angus Kerr (angus-tropical)]

I have not had a chance to do any further work on this bug, but I will dedicate more time to it in the next few days.

The CD check revealed no errors.
My password contained the non-alphanumeric characters @))#.

What I believe is that this bug presents symptoms that have been reported previously. Normally, a user will start the install, configure the options, and leave the machine and return later. When ubiquity crashes, it logs back into the live CD environment and it appears that the installation was successful, and that the machine rebooted into the live CD environment. An error message is there, but to users using live CD's, sometimes applications crash on boot into the live CD.

The user will then shutdown the live environment, and reboot.

If it is a clean install on virgin hard drive, nothing happens on boot, since the installer never got to installing grub.
If it is an install over an existing linux system, the old grub will try to boot, not find any boot partitions that match, and give error 15 - this is the first error message I got when I selected all options in the installer.
If it is dual boot install next to a Windows system, Windows will boot normally, and there will be no trace of a grub menu.

It is only when I watched the entire install process, that I saw the installer crash displaying the message 'Configuring additional services' - These being VNC, NFS or mySQL. I will identify which one, or combination, causes the crash.

The related bug I've seen are #348600

[Angus Kerr (angus-tropical)]

Hi

I have just confirmed what is causing this crash. If I chose VNC as an additional service with my password which contains the string @))#, ubiquity crashes as above.

I attach the crash report and the output from /var/log/messages.

I will use another password to confirm that the non-alphanumeric characters are the problem.

Also, on my Mythbuntu box (at home, this was a test installation), after updating all packages, I was able to select VNC as an additional package from the Mythbuntu Control Centre, and it did not crash, so this problem may have been fixed in vnc. It still remains a serious problem (imho) on the installation CD, since many users will never get past this hurdle.

Regards

Angus

/var/log/messages output

May 6 09:17:23 ubuntu ubiquity: Creating SSH2 RSA key; this may take some time ...
May 6 09:17:23 ubuntu ubiquity:
May 6 09:17:23 ubuntu ubiquity: Creating SSH2 DSA key; this may take some time ...
May 6 09:17:25 ubuntu ubiquity:
May 6 09:17:25 ubuntu ubiquity: invoke-rc.d: initscript ssh, action "restart" failed.
May 6 09:17:25 ubuntu ubiquity: sh:
May 6 09:17:25 ubuntu ubiquity: Syntax error: ")" unexpected
May 6 09:17:25 ubuntu ubiquity:
May 6 09:17:25 ubuntu python: log-output -t ubiquity umount /target/cdrom
May 6 09:17:25 ubuntu finish-install: Disabling CD in sources.list

/var/log/installer/debug output

/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/frontend/gtk_ui.py:2769: GtkWarning: Attempting to store changes into `/root/.recently-used.xbel', but failed: Failed to create file '/root/.recently-used.xbel.SBPQTU': Permission denied
  gtk.main()
Exception in GTK frontend (invoking crash handler):
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity", line 232, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity", line 227, in main
    install(args[0])
  File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity", line 68, in install
    ret = wizard.run()
  File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/frontend/gtk_ui.py", line 448, in run
    self.progress_loop()
  File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/frontend/gtk_ui.py", line 931, in progress_loop
    (ret, realtb))
RuntimeError: Install failed with exit code 1
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/ubiquity/mythbuntu_install.py", line 385, in <module>
    install.run()
  File "/usr/share/ubiquity/install.py", line 425, in run
    self.configure_hardware()
  File "/usr/share/ubiquity/mythbuntu_install.py", line 228, in configure_hardware
    self.vnc.create_password(self.passwd)
  File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/mythbuntu_common/vnc.py", line 58, in create_password
    os.chmod("/root/.vnc/passwd",0664)
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/root/.vnc/passwd'

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity", line 232, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity", line 227, in main
    install(args[0])
  File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity", line 68, in install
    ret = wizard.run()
  File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/frontend/gtk_ui.py", line 448, in run
    self.progress_loop()
  File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/frontend/gtk_ui.py", line 931, in progress_loop
    (ret, realtb))
RuntimeError: I...

[Angus Kerr (angus-tropical)]

Further update:

Installation from LiveCD with VNC option checked and a password restricted to alphanumeric characters was successful. No errors.

[Angus Kerr (angus-tropical)]

Further update:

Installation from LiveCD with VNC option checked and a password restricted to alphanumeric characters was successful. No errors.

What is the way forward from here?

Problem is that users are encouraged to use non alphanumeric passwords in unix like systems. The vnc option is going to crash the installer everytime, with missing bootloaders left behind, and will continue to be a problem while the bug still exists on the LiveCD.

I don't think there is anything else I can do at this stage.......

Regards,

Angus

[MarcRandolph (mrand)]

Thank you for your work on debugging this. A fix was released yesterday for the VNC password issue.

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

(Of course this fix is only in karmic and later. Since this was in the
installer, it won't be fixed in jaunty since the disks can't be re-rolled)

On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 08:26, MarcRandolph <email address hidden> wrote:

> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 363153 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/363153
>
> Thank you for your work on debugging this. A fix was released yesterday
> for the VNC password issue.
>
> ** Changed in: mythbuntu
> Status: Incomplete => Triaged
>
> ** This bug has been marked a duplicate of bug 363153
> Mythbuntu Install hangs at 90% due to & in password
>
> --
> ubiquity crashes during 'configuring additional services' on 9.04 if a VNC
> password with non-alpha characters is used
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/371062
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Mythbuntu
> Developers, which is subscribed to Mythbuntu.
>

--
Mario Limonciello
<email address hidden>
Sent from Austin, Texas, United States

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

Yeah, as you asserted there isn't much that can be done now that the live media was cut. In the future, please help test development releases (Alphas, Betas, RC) so things like this can be caught sooner when there still is time to fix them.

[Angus Kerr (angus-tropical)]

I'll be happy to. I'm new to Mythbuntu (not Ubuntu - have used it since 6.06). This is my first install.....being in South Africa with expensive bandwidth we usually wait for a release and then copy the iso's. Hope this situation changes sometime soon....