tzdata noninteractive mode is being ignored

[Rick Spencer]

This bug is related to Bug #1773687

I am trying to automate the build of an AMI with a package that requires tzdata. I am blocked from automation because tzdata will not install non-interactively. This is despite setting DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive.

Here is an interactive session that shows the same problem.

```
ubuntu@ip-172-31-95-248:~$ env
LS_COLORS=rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:mh=00:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=40;31;01:mi=00:su=37;41:sg=30;43:ca=30;41:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arc=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lha=01;31:*.lz4=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.lzma=01;31:*.tlz=01;31:*.txz=01;31:*.tzo=01;31:*.t7z=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.dz=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.lrz=01;31:*.lz=01;31:*.lzo=01;31:*.xz=01;31:*.zst=01;31:*.tzst=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tbz=01;31:*.tbz2=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.deb=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.jar=01;31:*.war=01;31:*.ear=01;31:*.sar=01;31:*.rar=01;31:*.alz=01;31:*.ace=01;31:*.zoo=01;31:*.cpio=01;31:*.7z=01;31:*.rz=01;31:*.cab=01;31:*.wim=01;31:*.swm=01;31:*.dwm=01;31:*.esd=01;31:*.jpg=01;35:*.jpeg=01;35:*.mjpg=01;35:*.mjpeg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.pbm=01;35:*.pgm=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.tif=01;35:*.tiff=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.svg=01;35:*.svgz=01;35:*.mng=01;35:*.pcx=01;35:*.mov=01;35:*.mpg=01;35:*.mpeg=01;35:*.m2v=01;35:*.mkv=01;35:*.webm=01;35:*.ogm=01;35:*.mp4=01;35:*.m4v=01;35:*.mp4v=01;35:*.vob=01;35:*.qt=01;35:*.nuv=01;35:*.wmv=01;35:*.asf=01;35:*.rm=01;35:*.rmvb=01;35:*.flc=01;35:*.avi=01;35:*.fli=01;35:*.flv=01;35:*.gl=01;35:*.dl=01;35:*.xcf=01;35:*.xwd=01;35:*.yuv=01;35:*.cgm=01;35:*.emf=01;35:*.ogv=01;35:*.ogx=01;35:*.aac=00;36:*.au=00;36:*.flac=00;36:*.m4a=00;36:*.mid=00;36:*.midi=00;36:*.mka=00;36:*.mp3=00;36:*.mpc=00;36:*.ogg=00;36:*.ra=00;36:*.wav=00;36:*.oga=00;36:*.opus=00;36:*.spx=00;36:*.xspf=00;36:
SSH_CONNECTION=172.58.185.180 50092 172.31.95.248 22
LANG=C.UTF-8
XDG_SESSION_ID=3
USER=ubuntu
PWD=/home/ubuntu
HOME=/home/ubuntu
SSH_CLIENT=172.58.185.180 50092 22
XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/local/share:/usr/share:/var/lib/snapd/desktop
DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/0
MAIL=/var/mail/ubuntu
TERM=xterm-256color
SHELL=/bin/bash
SHLVL=1
LOGNAME=ubuntu
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin
_=/usr/bin/env
ubuntu@ip-172-31-95-248:~$ sudo apt-get install -y tzdata
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  tzdata
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/189 kB of archives.
After this operation, 3105 kB of additional disk space will be used.
debconf: delaying package configuration, since apt-utils is not installed
Selecting previously unselected package tzdata.
(Reading database ... 47149 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../tzdata_2019a-0ubuntu0.18.04_all.deb ...
Unpacking tzdata (2019a-0ubuntu0.18.04) ...
Setting up tzdata (2019a-0ubuntu0.18.04) ...
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (No usable dialog-like program is installed, so the dialog based frontend cannot be used. at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Dialog.pm line 76.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
Configuring tzdata
------------------

Please select the geographic area in which you live. Subsequent configuration questions will narrow this down by presenting a list of
cities, representing the time zones in which they are located.

  1. Africa 3. Antarctica 5. Arctic 7. Atlantic 9. Indian 11. SystemV 13. Etc
  2. America 4. Australia 6. Asia 8. Europe 10. Pacific 12. US
Geographic area:

```

This is based on minimal version:

```
$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS
Release: 18.04
Codename: bionic
```

[Adam Conrad (adconrad)]

I can't reproduce this locally. See below. Is there anything extra special about this environment?

(bionic-amd64)root@nosferatu:~# debconf-show debconf
* debconf/frontend: Readline
  debconf-apt-progress/title:
  debconf-apt-progress/media-change:
  debconf-apt-progress/info:
  debconf-apt-progress/preparing:
* debconf/priority: high
(bionic-amd64)root@nosferatu:~# apt-get purge tzdata && rm /etc/timezone
[...]
Purging configuration files for tzdata (2019b-0ubuntu0.18.04) ...
(bionic-amd64)root@nosferatu:~# apt-get install tzdata
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  tzdata
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/190 kB of archives.
After this operation, 3106 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Preconfiguring packages ...
Configuring tzdata
------------------

Please select the geographic area in which you live. Subsequent configuration questions will narrow
this down by presenting a list of cities, representing the time zones in which they are located.

  1. Africa 3. Antarctica 5. Arctic 7. Atlantic 9. Indian 11. SystemV 13. Etc
  2. America 4. Australia 6. Asia 8. Europe 10. Pacific 12. US
Geographic area:
[...]

(bionic-amd64)root@nosferatu:~# apt-get purge tzdata && rm /etc/timezone
[...]
Purging configuration files for tzdata (2019b-0ubuntu0.18.04) ...
(bionic-amd64)root@nosferatu:~# DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install tzdata
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  tzdata
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/190 kB of archives.
After this operation, 3106 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package tzdata.
(Reading database ... 10885 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../tzdata_2019b-0ubuntu0.18.04_all.deb ...
Unpacking tzdata (2019b-0ubuntu0.18.04) ...
Setting up tzdata (2019b-0ubuntu0.18.04) ...

Current default time zone: 'Etc/UTC'
Local time is now: Fri Sep 20 09:20:00 UTC 2019.
Universal Time is now: Fri Sep 20 09:20:00 UTC 2019.
Run 'dpkg-reconfigure tzdata' if you wish to change it.

(bionic-amd64)root@nosferatu:~#

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for tzdata (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]