Debian-defined tasks override Ubuntu-defined ones

[Joshua Powers]

In xenial and yakkety there is no print-server tasksel option. The print-server is still in the server ship seed (line 149) [1] and is still in the tasksel files, however it does not show up during an install or post-install.

Was this intentional?

[1] http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/ubuntu-seeds/ubuntu.yakkety/view/head:/server-ship

[Joshua Powers (powersj)]

These appear to be the valid options on Yakkety:

Sep 20 08:04:18 in-target: debconf (developer): <-- SUBST tasksel/first CHOICES_C manual, dns-server, lamp-server, mail-server, postgresql-server, samba-server, standard, virt-host, openssh-server, server
Sep 20 08:04:18 in-target: debconf (developer): --> 0
Sep 20 08:04:18 in-target: debconf (developer): <-- SUBST tasksel/first CHOICES Manual package selection, DNS server, LAMP server, Mail server, PostgreSQL database, Samba file server, standard system utilities, Virtual Machine host, OpenSSH server, Basic Ubuntu server

Attaching install syslog as well.

[Joshua Powers (powersj)]

Here is Trusty:

Sep 14 22:46:14 in-target: debconf (developer): starting /usr/lib/tasksel/filter-tasks /tmp/filejoyIFe dns-server lamp-server mail-server manual minimal openssh-server postgresql-server print-server samba-server server standard tomcat-server virt-host
Sep 14 22:46:14 in-target: debconf (developer): <-- SUBST tasksel/first CHOICES Basic Ubuntu server, OpenSSH server, DNS server, LAMP server, Mail server, PostgreSQL database, Print server, Samba file server, Tomcat Java server, Virtual Machine host, Manual package selection

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Hey Josh this bug idles along and it is the first one that did not resolve in some way :-)
I think you need to drive that - maybe bring it up on next weeks standup when also Robie is around as he as experience in seeding.

[Joshua Powers (powersj)]

This still occurs with Artful.

@racb - do you have an opinion on driving this to closure?

[Robie Basak (racb)]

I spent some time tracking down the cause for this.

In tasksel 3.34ubuntu3 in Yakkety, the print-server definition in /usr/share/tasksel/descs/debian-tasks.desc is masking the definition in /usr/share/tasksel/descs/ubuntu-tasks.desc. "tasksel --task-packages print-server" sees the task as resolved by the package "task-print-server" rather than with (cups, cups-bsd, cups-client).

In Debian, task-print-server exists. In Ubuntu, it doesn't, so tasksel considers the task unavailable and removes it.

This appears to have regressed in tasksel-data (src:tasksel) 3.34ubuntu1. Prior to that, in tasksel-data 2.88ubuntu17, only /usr/share/tasksel/ubuntu-tasks.desc is shipped.

AFAICT this is a bug in tasksel. I wonder if we can resolve it by removing /usr/share/tasksel/descs/debian-tasks.desc from tasksel-data. Will that cause any other problems?

[Robie Basak (racb)]

> AFAICT this is a bug in tasksel.

Specifically, in Ubuntu's delta of tasksel.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package tasksel - 3.34ubuntu8

---------------
tasksel (3.34ubuntu8) artful; urgency=medium

  * Drop debian tasks; some may conflict if the names conflict, and in any
    case we don't have the same tasks set up in the archive. (LP: #1624519)

 -- Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre <email address hidden> Fri, 25 Aug 2017 11:15:57 -0400