Installation fails when using an existing partition for /home : "ubi-usersetup failed with exit code 141" when installing (or upgrading to) 18.04 from USB

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh]

Summary says it all. I chose to updgrade my distribution using today's 18.04 candidate on USB. While on the screen for choosing username, I got a window "ubi-usersetup crashed" which gives the error
"ubi-usersetup failed with exit code 141" and warns the install/upgrade could fail.

$ more /var/log/syslog
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="8.16.0"
x-pid="1108" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] start
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu rsyslogd: rsyslogd's groupid changed to 106
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu rsyslogd: rsyslogd's userid changed to 102
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Started Create Static Device Nodes in /dev.
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Starting udev Kernel Device Manager...
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Starting Flush Journal to Persistent Storage.
..
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Started Flush Journal to Persistent Storage.
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Started Set the console keyboard layout.
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd-modules-load[963]: Inserted module 'lp'
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd-modules-load[963]: Inserted module 'ppdev'
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd-modules-load[963]: Inserted module 'parport_pc'
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Started Load Kernel Modules.
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Starting Apply Kernel Variables...
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Mounting Kernel Configuration File System...
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Mounting FUSE Control File System...
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Mounted Kernel Configuration File System.
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Mounted FUSE Control File System.
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Started LVM2 metadata daemon.
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Started Apply Kernel Variables.
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Started udev Kernel Device Manager.
Apr 5 05:12:41 ubuntu systemd[1]: Starting Show Plymouth Boot Screen...

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:18.04.13
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-13.14-generic 4.15.10
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-13-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.392
CrashDB: ubuntu
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Wed Apr 4 22:24:44 2018
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Alpha amd64 (20180403)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=C.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
Symptom: release-upgrade
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

The error occurs in immediate response to submitting the username/password dialog box.

I chose "try again", got the same result, so chose "Ignore". The installation hung (processes go to zero; there's a busy pointer in the install window, but otherwise system is working), having made my root/install partition unusable.

Next, I tried a fresh install into that partition, and got the same problem.
(So now my computer is left unusuable.)

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

I have tried this again using the March 9 version of ISO, and have an important detail:

When installing to just one partition, I do not this error, and the distribution installs fine and seems to work. However, when during the installation I do a manual partition setup, and I install the OS to a / partition and use an existing partion for /home, then I get this ubi-usersetup error when submitting the "Who are you?" page.

In this case the installation fails completely.

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

This bug needs to have the base installation / installer package tag, not just the ubuntu-release-upgrader. I cannot find out what that's called.

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

What is the justification for the duplicate tag, and I am removing it. This bug happens during a fresh install (non-upgrade) from ISO, as opposed to an upgrade. It also seems to about ubi-usersetup, not mentioned in #1756862.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thanks for your report. Could you please reproduce the problem and attach /var/log/syslog and the content of /var/log/installer/

Thanks.

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

In the files attached above (and reattached here), the errors are repeated in `debug` because I clicked once on "try again" at the error dialog.

I realize I grabbed the log files before clicking "continue anyway".
So now I'm uploading the same files, but with the rest of the log after clicking "continue anyway", until the install process is fully hung and unresponsive.

[Marc Fouquet (marcf-launchpad)]

I had the same problem installing the release version of 18.04 today. Syslog looked the same (ecryptfs-setup-swap failed).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Steve (stephen-p-ford)]

Experienced it as well when installing Kubuntu 18.04, with a minor difference: after I selected "Retry" the installer allowed me to continue. I manually partitioned, etc., but the process hanged at 93% when reinstalling previous packages; I got a popup informing me that I'd need to manually reinstall them later. Then, the installer itself went down entirely.

I'd note that this was a fresh install from USB attempted after an attempt to upgrade from 17.10 to 18.04 destroyed my graphical environment. (Initially, I got no login screen at all; after extensive tinkering with lightdm and sddm, Xorg, and my proprietary Nvidia drivers, I was able to get login screens (a Gnome-styled one with lightdm which didn't accept my password, oddly, and the KDE-styled one with sddm that just gave a black or frozen screen after). Machine is an old Lenovo W530 Core i7 with an Nvidia graphics card.

[scacinto (scacinto)]

I can confirm on a Lenovo T440. Attempted to overwrite an old (30GB) 16.04 install on / (sda1 for me) while leaving the separate user partition (210GB on sda5). The error popped-up as described by previous commenters. I attempted to rename a new user (different than my existing account both times) but the error persisted. I opted to continue to see what would happen. Currently, I am at the "install" graphic page while my cursor has turned into a perpetual spinning ball of sadness.

[Kjetil Rydland (kjetilrydl)]

I had this issue and I also managed to solve it with (I think) pure luck.
I had an old LTS installed, and wanted to upgrade to 18.04. I decided to do a clean install with a live-USB. I got this error but tried anyway. The installation never finished and my system was broken. I recently tried again, but this time I chose to NOT format / and I also didn't specify to use my old /home as /home. The installation then went flawlessly and I had a working 18.04.3 installation.

However, I managed to install with a new username, not the one I had been using. This meant I had no access to my old user files. I then reinstalled again with the correct username, and again the install went flawlessly. But I could not log in, I just got sent back to the login prompt. I then installed ecryptfs-utils via tty, and log in now works and my system is fine.

I'm not sure if this is helpful or related to this bug, but hopefully it is.

[KINGSABRI (king-sabri)]

This issue still exists with Kubuntu 23.04

And the same workaround by @Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)

Note: I have /home in a different partition and an encrypted user home directory (not the partition)