Plymouth splash text and password fields never displayed in QEMU/KVM

[Aaron Rainbolt]

This bug was discovered while doing an Ubuntu QA test, "Install (entire disk with lvm and encryption)" for Ubuntu Kinetic. I'm doing this within a virtual machine - the host OS is Ubuntu Studio 21.10 running on an HP Z220 SFF Workstation, UEFI, no secure boot, 16 GB of RAM, quad-core Intel Xeon with no hyperthreading. I placed the VM disk image on a SATA SSD different than the SSD the host OS is installed on.

After following the steps in the testcase mentioned above and rebooting the system, I was presented with a solid black screen. Opening the System Monitor on the host OS revealed that the VM was using almost no CPU. I tried blindly entering the disk's decryption password into the VM by clicking in the black screen of the VM, typing the password, and hitting Enter. Upon doing so, the VM's CPU usage immediately spiked, and I was presented with a login screen in the VM not too long after. I was able to log in and get to the desktop, where I'm currently typing this bug report.

Steps to reproduce the bug:

1: Download the Ubuntu Kinetic daily ISO from 2022-05-11. Here's the link: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/20220511.1/kinetic-desktop-amd64.iso
2: Open virt-manager, and ensure that you have a connection to "QEMU/KVM User session". (If you don't, you can create this connection in virt-manager by clicking "File", "Add Connection", selecting "QEMU/KVM user session" in the "Hypervisor" drop down, then clicking "Connect".
3: Create a new VM under QEMU/KVM user session. Select the Kinetic ISO downloaded above, set the OS to "Ubuntu 21.04" (that's the newest version my virt-manager recognizes), and give it 4 GB RAM, 2 CPU cores, and 20 GB of disk space.
4: Follow the steps in this test procedure: http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/433/builds/247872/testcases/1451/results

Expected results: Upon rebooting in step 25, you should be presented with a field to input the disk decryption password into.

Actual results: You are presented with a black screen, but you can blindly enter the password into the VM and get it to boot.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 22.10
Package: plymouth 0.9.5+git20211018-1ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.15.0-27.28-generic 5.15.30
Uname: Linux 5.15.0-27-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu82
Architecture: amd64
BootLog: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/boot.log'
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu May 12 03:33:04 2022
DefaultPlymouth: /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth
InstallationDate: Installed on 2022-05-12 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 22.10 "Kinetic Kudu" - Alpha amd64 (20220511.1)
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0627:0001 Adomax Technology Co., Ltd QEMU USB Tablet
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Lsusb-t:
 /: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/15p, 5000M
 /: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/15p, 480M
     |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 480M
MachineType: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009)
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.15.0-27-generic root=/dev/mapper/vgubuntu-root ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no username)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB: 0 qxldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.15.0-27-generic root=/dev/mapper/vgubuntu-root ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: plymouth
TextPlymouth: /usr/share/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-text/ubuntu-text.plymouth
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 04/01/2014
dmi.bios.release: 0.0
dmi.bios.vendor: SeaBIOS
dmi.bios.version: 1.14.0-2
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: QEMU
dmi.chassis.version: pc-q35-6.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnSeaBIOS:bvr1.14.0-2:bd04/01/2014:br0.0:svnQEMU:pnStandardPC(Q35+ICH9,2009):pvrpc-q35-6.0:cvnQEMU:ct1:cvrpc-q35-6.0:sku:
dmi.product.name: Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009)
dmi.product.version: pc-q35-6.0
dmi.sys.vendor: QEMU

[Aaron Rainbolt (arraybolt3)]

For some reason, Apport wasn't able to open /var/log/boot.log (maybe I missed a password dialog?), so here you go.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Looks like the same version of plymouth is used in jammy. Does it work in jammy?

[Aaron Rainbolt (arraybolt3)]

Yep, happens in Jammy too. Hmm. That might mean it's actually a problem with my host system. I'm about to have another bare-metal machine (probably tomorrow) that will be available for bare-metal testing and use as a VM host, so I'll be able to do more thorough testing then.

[Leó Kolbeinsson (leok)]

@arraybolt3 - Aaron - yes i think this might be your host system -

Tested daily Ubuntu Kinetic ISO dated 12-05-2022
and unable to reproduce error. This test was on a baremetal box - not virtual.

Test result here :
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/433/builds/247906/testcases/1451/results/

[Aaron Rainbolt (arraybolt3)]

Interestingly enough, while doing a bit more testing, I just found out that, if you hit keys on the keyboard during early boot (before Plymouth shows up), you can get the prompt to show up. Both Kinetic and Jammy behave the same way. I'm typing slowly but continually during the whole entire early bootup. If I don't do this, I get a black screen.

Also, both Jammy and Kinetic display their splash screens properly during shutdown.

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1973150