OEM metapackages added after the ISO was created are not found by the installer

[Iain Lane]

[ Description ]

If a piece of hardware is enabled after the latest Ubuntu release is created, it is not found by the installer and so people who install Ubuntu do not get its extra hardware enablement.

The information the installer needs to know about hardware enablement is represented in the Ubuntu archive by "OEM enablement metapackages"; that is, packages called oem-*-meta which the installer can match (via modaliases) to the running hardware. After release, these are SRUed into -updates more or less as normal. The installer needs to 'apt update' before running 'ubuntu-drivers list-oem' to learn the latest state.

[ QA ]

1. Boot the focal **release** (20.04.0) live session on a newly-enabled SKU **which has its oem-meta package in focal-updates**.
2. *Without updating the apt indexes*, install this SRU, i.e. download it and use "dpkg -i".

[[ QA 1 ]]
3. Try to install normally. Get online when the wifi page prompts you to. Make sure that the oem-<sku>-meta package is installed.

[[ QA 2 ]]
3. Do not connect to the internet. Make sure that the install completes (OEM enablement packages will not be installed; work to do this in the session coming soon).

[[ QA 3 ]]
3. Connect to the internet before launching the installer. Make sure that the oem-<sku>-meta package gets installed.

[[ QA 4 ]]

3. Connect to the internet when prompted. Uncheck 'download updates while installing Ubuntu' and ensure that the OEM meta package gets installed.

[[ QA 5 ]]

This one can be done on a non-OEM device. Here we're checking that the 'apt update' didn't mess things up.

3. Uncheck 'download updates while installing Ubuntu' and ensure that it's respected, i.e. that the installed system still offers all the SRUs as updates.

[[ QA 6 ]]

3. Check the KDE installer still works, i.e. do this on Kubuntu.

[ Regression potential ]

This now more-or-less unconditionally runs the equivalent of 'apt update' from the installer.

1. It'll slow down the install a bit. But shouldn't be too bad, since only post-release pockets will have changed. If you're online before you start ubiquity it will be less noticable since it is done in the background. If you get online from the installer then there will be a short delay.

2. Perhaps some part of the installer gets sad or installs the wrong thing if you've update the apt indexes. We have a check box 'download updates while installing ubuntu' that should still be respected.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Iain, or anyone else affected,

Accepted ubiquity into focal-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/20.04.15.2 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-focal to verification-done-focal. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-focal. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package ubiquity - 20.10.9

---------------
ubiquity (20.10.9) groovy; urgency=medium

  * gtk_ui, prepare: Run 'apt update' before installing OEM metapackages. We
    need to pick up any which might have been released after the ISO was
    created. (LP: #1888241)

 -- Iain Lane <email address hidden> Tue, 21 Jul 2020 15:29:51 +0100

[Shih-Yuan Lee (fourdollars)]

[[ QA 1 ]]
3. Try to install normally. Get online when the wifi page prompts you to. Make sure that the oem-<sku>-meta package is installed.

Failed on Dell XPS 13 9300 for oem-somerville-melisa-meta.

$ grep oem-somerville syslog
Jul 22 09:36:01 ubuntu ubiquity[5842]: ubuntu-drivers list-oem finished with: "oem-somerville-melisa-meta"
Jul 22 09:36:22 ubuntu ubiquity: oem-somerville-melisa-meta ubuntu-oem-keyring
Jul 22 09:36:23 ubuntu ubiquity: Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 oem-somerville-melisa-meta all 20.04~ubuntu3 [2220 B]
Jul 22 09:36:23 ubuntu ubiquity: Selecting previously unselected package oem-somerville-melisa-meta.#015
Jul 22 09:36:23 ubuntu ubiquity: Preparing to unpack .../oem-somerville-melisa-meta_20.04~ubuntu3_all.deb ...#015
Jul 22 09:36:23 ubuntu ubiquity: Unpacking oem-somerville-melisa-meta (20.04~ubuntu3) ...#015
Jul 22 09:36:23 ubuntu ubiquity: Setting up oem-somerville-melisa-meta (20.04~ubuntu3) ...#015
Jul 22 09:36:26 ubuntu ubiquity: oem-somerville-melisa-meta : Depends: oem-somerville-meta but it is not going to be installed
Jul 22 09:36:28 ubuntu ubiquity[5842]: ubuntu-drivers list-oem finished with: "oem-somerville-melisa-meta"
Jul 22 09:36:33 ubuntu ubiquity: oem-somerville-meta : Depends: tlp but it is not installable

[Iain Lane (laney)]

OEM team are going to copy 'tlp' into their archive and retry that test ^-.

[Shih-Yuan Lee (fourdollars)]

I will check it again.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

@fourdollars that status is incorrect.

Ubiquity update is correct, and did things correctly. The issue you reported is tracked separately in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/oem-somerville-melisa-meta/+bug/1888498

This is verification passed, and the issue with that SKU is self-inflicted with incorrect uploads in the OEM archive.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

The installer behaved correctly, and found bugs in meta package in the OEM archive.

The installer is ready for SRU release.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package ubiquity - 20.04.15.2

---------------
ubiquity (20.04.15.2) focal; urgency=medium

  * gtk_ui, prepare: Run 'apt update' before installing OEM metapackages. We
    need to pick up any which might have been released after the ISO was
    created. (LP: #1888241)

 -- Iain Lane <email address hidden> Tue, 21 Jul 2020 15:32:24 +0100

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for ubiquity has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.