install writes /etc/mtab as file, not symlink

[Kev Bowring]

Updated iso to today's daily for installing.

Installed to a preformatted partition.

Xubuntu 64bit desktop install.

Install completed, rebooted. Stopped at

/etc/mtab is not a symlink or not pointing to /proc/self/mounts

Booted to recovery:

ln -fs /proc/self/mounts /etc/mtab

Rebooted and system booted as expected.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: ubiquity (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-16.19-generic 4.2.3
Uname: Linux 4.2.0-16-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.19.2-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Thu Oct 29 13:35:07 2015
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-10-29 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Alpha amd64 (20151029)
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

See https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2015-October/038961.html for more information why we currently have such a hard failure mode and the rationale behind it.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

We need to merge with Debian's finish-install 2.58 to fix d-i.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/finish-install/2.58ubuntu1

[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/1511376

[sudodus (nio-wiklund)]

This bug affects Lubuntu i386 too.

I'm glad to see that a fix is already released :-)

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Note from Colin: Do that in scripts/plugininstall.py run(), which already has a bunch of ad-hoc finalization tasks.

[Phill Whiteside (phillw)]

If running on a VM and you have guestfish installed, you can make the link using it. Close the VM down

sudo guestfish --rw -a disk.img
run
mount /dev/sda1 /
ln-sf /proc/self/mounts /etc/mtab
exit

Then re-start the VM. Do note that the command is 'ln-sf' and not 'ln -sf'... that had me scratching my head for a while!

[sudodus (nio-wiklund)]

Running in a *real* computer I booted from the install pendrive, changed directory to the mounted partition of the installed system and ran

sudo ln -sf /proc/self/mounts etc/mtab

(ln {space} -sf and no slash before etc works in this case)

And, yes, now I can continue to test Lubuntu Xenial. The installed system boots and runs well.

Thanks Phill :-)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package ubiquity - 2.21.38

---------------
ubiquity (2.21.38) xenial; urgency=medium

  * d-i/sources.list: switch to xenial.
  * scripts/plugininstall.py: Ensure /etc/mtab is a symlink to
    /proc/self/mounts. Same fix as in finish-install 2.58.
    (Closes: #802184, #802187; LP: #1511376)
  * Automatic update of included source packages: choose-mirror
    2.65ubuntu1, partman-lvm 111.

 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Sun, 01 Nov 2015 21:21:28 -0600

[Kamalesh Patil (kamalesh-patil)]

I seem to have ran into this issue on the very first boot after a fresh install of Ubuntu Server 15.10 on nuc5ppyh. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2301348&p=13383545#post13383545

[Kamalesh Patil (kamalesh-patil)]

More details from another user having similar issues -- http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2301348&p=13384357#post13384357

My apologies in advance if these issues are not exactly related to this bug. I just want to provide as much info as I can.