kickstart error can't locate debconf frontend: Newt

[Lars Noodén]

Binary package hint: system-config-kickstart

In a kickstart install, I notice the following error in the installation log:

 Sep 26 07:31:02 kickseed: debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Newt
 Sep 26 07:31:02 kickseed: debconf: (Can't locate Debconf/FrontEnd/Newt.pm in @IN
 C (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.
 8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/loc
 al/lib/site_perl .) at (eval 20) line 2, <> line 120.)
 Sep 26 07:31:02 kickseed: debconf: falling back to frontend: Noninteractive

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Could I have the full log file, please, as well as a copy of your Kickstart file (with any passwords removed)?

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

OK, the %post handler should probably use in-target or similar.

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

    "the %post handler should probably use in-target or similar"

Is that something I should do? If so please point to a page describing the details.

If it's of any use, there is a similar error in the kickstart for gutsy, but using more or less the same ks.cfg as above. Here are the last few lines from the syslog produced during the installation (the installation stops at kickseed):

 Oct 7 08:23:53 kickseed: locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such f
 ile or directory
 Oct 7 08:23:53 kickseed: debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Newt
 Oct 7 08:23:53 kickseed: debconf: (Can't locate Debconf/FrontEnd/Newt.pm in @IN
 C (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.
 8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/loc
 al/lib/site_perl .) at (eval 20) line 2, <> line 11.)
 Oct 7 08:23:53 kickseed: debconf: falling back to frontend: Noninteractive
 Oct 7 08:23:53 finish-install: Preconfiguring packages ...
 Oct 7 08:23:54 kickseed: /tmp/cvs.config.278821: 5: 3: Bad file descriptor
 Oct 7 08:27:50 init: Starting pid 3081, console /dev/tty3: '/bin/sh'

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

No, I experimented and it didn't quite work; I'll revisit this in gutsy+1.

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

I've checked and the problem seems to be there in Feisty as well. The end result is that a lot of packages specified in the kickstart installation don't get installed.

I'm wondering if the workaround isn't to have a shell script which loops the installation of each package until the return value indicates success.

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

The problem is present in Gutsy as well.