Ubiquity installer doesn't work inside Virtualbox VM

[Jonathan Kamens]

NOTE: I am reporting an issue with attempting to install Ubuntu 19.10 inside a Virtualbox VM. I ran ubuntu-bug to report this bug on the _host_, but the issue is inside the VM, where I obviously can't run ubuntu-bug because I can't get the installer to run. The information automatically attached to this bug is therefore about the _host_, not about the VM.

I attempted to install Ubuntu 19.10 from the desktop ISO inside a Virtualbox VM as follows:

1. Click "New" in Virtualbox.
2. Specify "Ubuntu 19.10 install test" as the VM name. The Type automatically changes to Linux and the Version automatically changes to "Ubuntu (64-bit).
3. Click Next.
4. Set RAM to 2048 MB and click Next.
5. Create new virtual hard disk with all the default settings.
6. Click Settings to open VM settings.
7. Attach the ISO to the CD drive in the settings.
8. Change the number of CPUs to 2 in the settings.
9. Save the settings.
10. Start the VM.

Inside the VM:

1. Click "Install Ubuntu".
2. Click "Continue" with the default (English/English) keyboard layout.
3. Select "Minimal installation", uncheck "Download updates", and check "Install third-party"...

NO, WAIT, STEP 3 DIDN"T HAPPEN because while I was in the middle of doing it my screen went blank and all I could see happening was a bunch of reading of the virtual ISO judging from the constant little green light overlaying the DVD icon at the bottom of the VirtualBox window.

This transition to a blank screen with a lot of reading from the ISO going on happens at a different time in the process depending on how fast I manage to work my way through the process, but I've never been able to get the install to succeed, despite many attempts.

Sometimes if I wait long enough the blank screen will be replaced by the live CD desktop.

But why is it launching the live CD desktop when I told it I wanted to install, not try, Ubuntu?

N.B. I repeated all of the steps above but with the 18.04.3 ISO instead of the 19.10 ISO, and the install works just fine in 18.04.3.

In terms of what version of the ISO I have, all I can tell you is that I downloaded it from the web site earlier today, the file name is ubuntu-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso, and I've confirmed that it matches the MD5 sum in the file on the mirror (ea82...90fd).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.10
Package: ubiquity (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.3.0-24.26-generic 5.3.10
Uname: Linux 5.3.0-24-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu Jan 2 14:57:55 2020
InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper only-ubiquity quiet splash ---
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-01-02 (365 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.10 "Cosmic Cuttlefish" - Release amd64 (20181017.3)
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to eoan on 2019-10-22 (71 days ago)
modified.conffile..etc.apport.crashdb.conf: [modified]
mtime.conffile..etc.apport.crashdb.conf: 2019-04-12T15:17:59.097705