do-release-upgrade fails due to full zfs partition

[Chelmite]

I used do-release-upgrade to upgrade from 22.10 x86-64 to 23.10.
Towards the end of the upgrade, it rebooted, but stuck me in the recovery console.
I enabled networking and opened a root shell.
1. Networking was not working. I fiddled with this for days, and could not get networking working. I tried starting NetworkManager, playing with rfkill, and a few other things, but, ultimately, could not get networking working.
2. The problem that seemed to kill the upgrade was the zfs boot partition being too full for the new image, even though the new image was present. After a few days I found a way to remove old snapshots and created lots of free space on /boot. Linux still doesn't boot.

Ultimately, if FOSS is supposed to be a good thing, and attract non-sysadmins, it should be easy to install/upgrade.

1. do-release-upgrade should be able to deal with full filesystems, whether they're zfs or ext4 or the other front-running file systems, giving the user the tools to remove snapshots and/or files to make the new upgrade/release work as flawlessly as it can. I should be able to convert a zfs partition to ext4, (or vice versa) and get on with my real work.

2. When the user is dumped into the recovery console, give him more tools to work with. There should be, at the very least, a way to get the network working when you press "enable networking" (not by having to download and figure out how to use network-tools, ifconfig, rfkill, dhclient, etc.), and deal with and fix ZFS issues.

I know this isn't going to be fixed by the weekend, so I'm considering 3 "nuclear" options, in decreasing order of desirability: (1) reformat the zfs boot partition as ext4, then copy the (saved) contents of /boot into the pristine partition. (2) Reinstall 23.04 from the thumb drive. I learned, decades ago, to keep my user partition on a separate drive, so it should be safe. What I'll lose is my network and wifi settings and printer setups. There are, undoubtedly other things that will have to be recovered, but those are the most important. (3) Pay through the nose for an Apple. I'd have to learn a new UI and transfer my files somehow, and bow down to my kids who have been pushing for me to get off this old Linux thing. "You'll have to pry my cold dead fingers off my Linux computers..."

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Libera.chat.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/2018125/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. While running an Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline or third-party kernel) please enter the following command in a terminal window:

apport-collect 2018125

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Chelmite (steve-kelem)]

######################################
# I ran apport-collect, but got undesirable results:
######################################
% apport-collect 2018125
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/httplib2/__init__.py", line 1343, in _conn_request
    conn.connect()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/httplib2/__init__.py", line 1119, in connect
    address_info = socket.getaddrinfo(host, port, 0, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.11/socket.py", line 962, in getaddrinfo
    for res in _socket.getaddrinfo(host, port, family, type, proto, flags):
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
socket.gaierror: [Errno -3] Temporary failure in name resolution

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/apport-cli", line 436, in <module>
    if not app.run_argv():
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/ui.py", line 966, in run_argv
    return self.run_update_report()
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/ui.py", line 780, in run_update_report
    if not self.crashdb.can_update(self.args.update_report):
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/crashdb_impl/launchpad.py", line 586, in can_update
    bug = self.launchpad.bugs[crash_id]
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/crashdb_impl/launchpad.py", line 170, in launchpad
    self.__launchpad = Launchpad.login_with(
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/launchpadlib/launchpad.py", line 700, in login_with
    return cls._authorize_token_and_login(
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/launchpadlib/launchpad.py", line 451, in _authorize_token_and_login
    credentials = authorization_engine(credentials, credential_store)
                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/launchpadlib/credentials.py", line 625, in __call__
    request_token_string = self.get_request_token(credentials)
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/launchpadlib/credentials.py", line 640, in get_request_token
    authorization_json = credentials.get_request_token(
                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/launchpadlib/credentials.py", line 194, in get_request_token
    response, content = _http_post(url, headers, params)
                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/launchpadlib/credentials.py", line 108, in _http_post
    ).request(url, method="POST", headers=headers, body=urlencode(params))
      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/httplib2/__init__.py", line 1701, in request
    (response, content) = self._request(
                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^...

[Chelmite (steve-kelem)]

I tried running:
% apport-cli --save apport.save 2018125
No pending crash reports. Try --help for more information

The problem is that, in the middle of upgrading from 22.10 to 23.04, it reboots and dumps me into the recovery console. There appears to be no "crash", no "core".

There's also no network, no gnome or X-windows or any kind of gui.

The upgrade seems to have worked...mostly... I can access my other disk drives. The latest kernel seems to be in /boot, and uname says:
% uname -a
Linux Omen 6.2.0-20-generic #20-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Apr 6 07:48:48 UTC 2023 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
%

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

ubuntu-release-upgrader could probably do a better job of checking for free space on zfs partitions, although we might not "support" a zfs boot partition.

[Chelmite (steve-kelem)]

Yes, Brian. I'm still not up to 100% after the failed upgrade to 23.04. I don't have printing, a clipboard manager, and several other things that used to work, plus all the external ppas.

I did get rid of zfs, because being able to work is more important than being able to have a redundant file system.