dropbear-initramfs package fails to install on Ubuntu 24.04 beta server

[Johan Ehnberg]

dropbear-initramfs seems to fail on not figuring out what the root device is. This applies both to autoinstall and manual install and is observed on today's beta (ubuntu-24.04-beta-live-server-amd64.iso on 2024-04-12)

ubuntu@ubuntu-server:~$ sudo apt install dropbear-initramfs
[sudo] password for ubuntu:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
dropbear-initramfs is already the newest version (2022.83-4).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.142ubuntu24) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.142ubuntu24) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-22-generic
dropbear: WARNING: Couldn't find ~root, SSH login to initramfs won't work!
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/dropbear failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-22-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
 installed initramfs-tools package post-installation script subprocess returned
error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 initramfs-tools
needrestart is being skipped since dpkg has failed
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

[Johan Ehnberg (johan-ehnberg)]

The above was observed on a QEMU KVM VM using server installer defaults as well as with specific curtin storage definitions.

I also reproduced the same on a QEMU KVM VM using desktop installer and clicking next on all questions (except user).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Hans (havohi)]

Downgrading initramfs-tools to 0.142ubuntu20 fixed this for me.

[Johan Ehnberg (johan-ehnberg)]

Indeed, looks like this issue is related to initramfs-tools, be that through an incompatibility introduced in either.

I tested with the package in Debian Sid dropbear-initramfs (2024.84-1) and got the same error. Meanwhile, on a Debian Sid install, it works.

Based on the above, I added initramfs-tools as affected package.

[Benjamin Drung (bdrung)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Can you check if this report is a duplicate of bug #2059739?

[Benjamin Drung (bdrung)]

I was able to reproduce the failure in a chroot and verify that this is a duplicate of bug #2059739.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.