Comment 73 for bug 1619188

I will be watching for your results, I have not been able to get persistent
partitions working with 64bit 16.04 using UNetbootin or SDC.
Drive fails to boot similar to having a full casper-rw.

On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 10:16 AM, sudodus <email address hidden>
wrote:

> Even if it works for you with a live seesion, it does not work for me
> with a persistent live session using a casper-rw partition. starting
> from the Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS iso file. I don't think mkusb has anything
> at all to to with this functionality because it does not touch the
> mechanism (unless you tell it to do it, and then it will prevent
> unattended upgrades).
>
> mkusb has a work-around feature, and I think all other tools and manual
> methods, that create persistent live drives will need some work-around
> to avoid this problem. For example, if you create a cloned system with
> the Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator, the cloned result will be exactly like
> cloning with mkusb. It is possible in such cases to create persistence
> by using a casper-rw partition (or file) in another drive. I will test
> tonight, if such a system is also vulnerable to this bug.
>
> I plan to start the test from the Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS desktop amd64 iso
> file. I intend to upgrade casper, but no other program package unless
> you advice what must also be upgraded for your fix to work.
>
> But don't tell me that I must try with the current daily iso file,
> because then I would have to test for a very long period of time for
> something to happen. In that case (if you know things have changed to
> the better, but don't know which program packages are involved) maybe I
> should zsync today's daily iso file and keep it for some weeks before I
> start it and let it run for at least 24 hours.
>
> The important thing here is to get something working for the next point
> release, 16.04.2 LTS, so I think it should be tested thoroughly.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1619188
>
> Title:
> Unattended upgrades can break persistent live media
>
> Status in casper package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
> Status in casper source package in Xenial:
> Fix Committed
> Status in casper source package in Yakkety:
> Fix Released
>
> Bug description:
> Test Case
> ---------
> 1) Boot an Ubuntu 16.04 Live CD
> 2) Choose Try Ubuntu
> 3) head -n5 /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades
> 4) Observe -security is enabled in line 3. (// is a comment)
> 5) Run /usr/lib/apt/apt.systemd.daily
> 6) Observe your Live environment run out of space! (I received a pop-up
> re lack of free space and /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades-dpkg.log
> contained an error installing a package due to disk full.)
>
> With the version of the package in -proposed step 4 will reveal the
> -security pocket being disabled and step 6 won't fill your live
> environment.
>
> Regression Potential
> --------------------
> Persistent live users will not receive updates from -security, but that
> seems less bad than destroying people's live environment by filling up
> their disk.
>
> Original Bug Description
> ------------------------
> Looking at the persistent live Ubuntu 16.04 LTS system - the Software &
> Updates screen / Update - I notice, that Automatic updates is set to
> 'Download and install automatically'. This is bad in a persistent live
> system.
>
> After leaving the persistent live Ubuntu 16.04 LTS system running
> overnight, I found that it had performed an automatic upgrade:
>
> df revealed that the content in casper-rw had increased to 1.6 GiB.
>
> It was a surprise that the persistent live system started an automatic
> upgrade. This is not caused by the installer (mkusb), because the
> files controlling those actions are not touched. Instead it is caused
> by a change of the default action, when there are security updates.
> And the survey indicates that this default setting is different
> between the flavours and versions of Ubuntu. Lubuntu keeps the setting
> 'Display immediately', while the other tested flavours change it from
> 14.04 LTS to 16.04 LTS.
>
> Until this is resolved, it is a good idea to disable unattended-
> upgrades manually, but above all, to take regular backups, when you
> use a persistent live system.
>
> The survey is described in this link to the Ubuntu Forums:
>
> https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2335669&p=
> 13538805#post13538805
>
> and it contains some screenshots illustrating the settings manager for
> automatic updates for different versions and flavours of Ubuntu.
>
> -o-
>
> There are various scripts in the casper package that change things to
> be more appropriate for the live environment. I suggest to change the
> default for security updates to 'Display immediately', when the system
> is running live and persistent live.
>
> See also this link to Ask Ubuntu, the first report about this problem:
>
> https://askubuntu.com/questions/817750/unattended-upgrades-broke-
> persistent-live-media/817820#
>
> -o-
>
> Addendum: Things should continue to work if you leave a live Ubuntu
> iso running for a day or two. Unattended upgrades cause problems for
> all live systems, 'live-only' and 'persistent live'.
>
> ProblemType: BugDistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
> Package: casper 1.376
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-31.50-generic 4.4.13
> Uname: Linux 4.4.0-31-generic x86_64
> ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
> Architecture: amd64
> CasperVersion: 1.376
> CurrentDesktop: Unity
> Date: Thu Sep 1 08:32:08 2016
> LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64
> (20160719)
> ProcEnviron:
> TERM=xterm-256color
> PATH=(custom, no user)
> XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bashSourcePackage: casper
> UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/casper/+bug/
> 1619188/+subscriptions
>

--
Courtley S Cameron PEng
PH 604 980-6367