'Could not restore packages from the previous install' error message when installed from live usb

[Para Siva]

The following occurred during an installation from live usb, with desktop 20120926. Observed in i386 as well as on amd64+mac

Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu ubiquity: self._restore_sources_list(statefile, targetdir)
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu ubiquity: File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt_clone.py", line 387, in _restore_sources_list
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu ubiquity: tar.extract(self.TARPREFIX+"etc/apt/sources.list", targetdir)
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu ubiquity: File "/usr/lib/python3.2/tarfile.py", line 2168, in extract
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu ubiquity: tarinfo = self.getmember(member)
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu ubiquity: File "/usr/lib/python3.2/tarfile.py", line 1886, in getmember
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu ubiquity: raise KeyError("filename %r not found" % name)
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu ubiquity: KeyError: "filename './etc/apt/sources.list' not found"
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: log-output -t ubiquity chroot /target umount /sys
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: log-output -t ubiquity chroot /target umount /proc
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: log-output -t ubiquity umount /target/dev
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: log-output -t ubiquity umount -f /target/proc
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: log-output -t ubiquity umount -f /target/sys
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: log-output -t ubiquity umount -f /target/dev
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: log-output -t ubiquity umount -f /target/run
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: Could not restore packages from the previous install:
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: Traceback (most recent call last):
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 248, in run
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: self.apt_clone_restore()
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 1494, in apt_clone_restore
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: preexec_fn=install_misc.debconf_disconnect)
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: File "/usr/lib/python3.2/subprocess.py", line 489, in check_call
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: raise CalledProcessError(retcode, cmd)
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py: subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['apt-clone', 'restore-new-distro', '/target/ubiquity-apt-clone/apt-clone-state-ubuntu.tar.gz', 'quantal', '--destination', '/target']' returned non-zero exit status 1
Sep 26 12:12:06 ubuntu plugininstall.py:

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: ubiquity 2.12.5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-15.23-generic 3.5.4
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-15-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.5.2-0ubuntu4
Architecture: i386
CasperVersion: 1.324
Date: Wed Sep 26 13:17:03 2012
InstallCmdLine: file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash -- maybe-ubiquity
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Beta i386 (20120926)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[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/1056815

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Perhaps there isn't an /etc/apt/sources.list file in /target/ubiquity-apt-clone/apt-clone-state-ubuntu.tar.gz?

If you can recreate this it would be helpful to have the /target/ubiquity-apt-clone/apt-clone-state-ubuntu.tar.gz file attached to this bug report.

Additionally, detailed steps about how you ran into this bug would be quite helpful. Thanks!

[Para Siva (psivaa)]

This occurred during the following flow,

1. Install quantal desktop
2. Boot live session using usb and start another installation from the live session
3. Go to the manual partitioner and install in an available partition
4. This occurs towards the end of the installation

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Which available partition did you choose? The existing one? Did you choose to format it?

[Para Siva (psivaa)]

I selected a partition where the earlier version was installed and I did not tick the format option but the installer warned that the selected partition will be formatted since the selected partition contained /boot, etc

[Para Siva (psivaa)]

Just to make it clear,

When a partition (/dev/sda2) that contains the previous install was selected for this new installation (after setting the type-ext4 and mountpoint to /) the next window said the following

'The file system on /dev/sda2 assigned to / has not been marked for formatting. Directories containing system files (/etc, /lib, /usr, /var, ...) that already exist under any defined mountpoint will be deleted during the install.

..'

[Para Siva (psivaa)]

Occurs in every quantal->quantal upgrades ( an option during the installation that has been recently added)