enter doesn't work on iso install over serial

[Scott Moser]

$ ver="20150303" # could use 'ver=current'
$ url=http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-server/daily/$ver/vivid-server-amd64.iso

$ wget $url -O "${url##*/}"
$ md5sum vivid-server-amd64.iso
26727e6c4c03f2b920c7fa3d5abe269c vivid-server-amd64.iso

$ qemu-img create -f qcow2 vda.img 8G
$ qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm \
     -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=net00 -netdev type=user,id=net00 \
    -drive if=virtio,file=mydisk.img -boot d -cdrom vivid-server-amd64.iso \
    -m 512 -curses

you'll be prompted with a message that says '640 x 480 Graphic mode' graphics mode or some such.
hit (blind) the following:
   enter # to select 'english' on the syslinux menu
   F6 # to bring up expert menu
   escape # to make menu go away, and edit cmdline
   backspace backspace backspace # to remove ' --'
   console=ttyS0 # to do install over console

then, hit alt-2 to switch to qemu's ncurses serial console.

you should see the option of chosing a LANG betwen 'C' and 'en_US', but you will not be able to select either as the e enter key does not seem to work even though tab and arrows do.

Note, that doing the above in the SDL window (ie, without '-curses' argument) works fine, even doing the serial install.

it seems that something is just not set up right with keyboard input.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: qemu-system-x86 1:2.2+dfsg-5expubuntu7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.18.0-13.14-generic 3.18.5
Uname: Linux 3.18.0-13-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.16.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Tue Mar 3 14:28:33 2015
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-01-02 (60 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 15.04 "Vivid Vervet" - Alpha amd64 (20150101)
KvmCmdLine:
 COMMAND STAT EUID RUID PID PPID %CPU COMMAND
 kvm-irqfd-clean S< 0 0 593 2 0.0 [kvm-irqfd-clean]
MachineType: LENOVO 7417CTO
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.18.0-13-generic root=UUID=715c6da7-c111-4842-868b-7778623ead7c ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: qemu
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 10/17/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 7UET94WW (3.24 )
dmi.board.name: 7417CTO
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr7UET94WW(3.24):bd10/17/2012:svnLENOVO:pn7417CTO:pvrThinkPadT400:rvnLENOVO:rn7417CTO:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 7417CTO
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T400
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Scott Moser (smoser)]

rharper asked if sendkey would work on the qemu-monitor.
that is definitely worth trying.

[Ryan Harper (raharper)]

On trusty with qemu-2.0 I can't get the "blind" input to work at all, it appears that enter in -curses mode (among other keyboard inputs seems broken.

To isolate the issue, I tried a trusty-server iso, same issue. Then I tried this ttylinux image:

http://ttylinux.net/Download/ttylinux-pc_x86_64-2015.01.iso.gz

With that image, -curses mode works perfectly fine. That leads me to believe that qemu 's curses mode does indeed work, but something in the image is breaking it.

ttylinux is running:

# uname -a
Linux ttylinux_host 3.10.2 #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Feb 7 12:45:07 MST 2015 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Ryan Harper (raharper)]

Something's up with the installer itself. I can reproduce the issue on Lucid which is older than ttylinux kernel. To confirm the -curses and keyboard input works correctly, I appended BOOT_DEBUG=3 (during the blind typing steps) after console=ttyS0

Then on the serial console page, I get a proper shell

serial0 console
+ debugshell just booted
+ [ 3 -gt 2 ]
+ echo This is a debug shell (just booted).
This is a debug shell (just booted).
+ sh

BusyBox v1.13.3 (Ubuntu 1:1.13.3-1ubuntu11) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
~ # echo "hello"
hello
~ # uname -a
Linux (none) 2.6.32-38-generic #83-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jan 4 11:12:07 UTC 2012 x86_64 unknown

[Ryan Harper (raharper)]

And appending DEBIAN_FRONTEND=text works perfectly fine over serial console.