sudo unity8-lxc-setup fails on 15.04

[Spencer Effron]

Ubuntu Release: 15.04
Package 'unity8-lxc' Version:
##
  Installed: 1.0.3+15.04.20150305.1-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.0.3+15.04.20150305.1-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.3+15.04.20150305.1-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
##

Expected: 'unity8-lxc-setup' should setup an LXC container.
What happens instead: 'unity8-lxc-setup' returns
##
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/unity8-lxc-setup", line 204, in <module>
    devel_release = UbuntuDistroInfo().devel()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/distro_info.py", line 96, in devel
    raise DistroDataOutdated()
distro_info.DistroDataOutdated: Distribution data outdated. Please check for an update for distro-info-data. See /usr/share/doc/distro-info-data/README.Debian for details.
##

APT confirms 'distro-info-data' is already the newest version.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Florian W. (florian-will)]

I think this should fix itself when /usr/share/distro-info/ubuntu.csv is updated to contain the "w" series. The error occurs in lots of ubuntu-related tools when there is no known development release. See LP Bug #1068390 for example.

Nevertheless, unity8-lxc-setup should be fixed to handle that error, I guess.

[bademux (bademux)]

any suggestions how to fix it locally?

[Christopher Townsend (townsend)]

Sorry about this folks! I didn't realize that something like this would happen when there is no current development release. Lesson learned:)

As far as a fix, I will work on one, but for the archive version of unity8-lxc, we will have to issue an SRU and that takes a bit. The "fix" in disto-info-data will probably occur sooner than a unity8-lxc SRU.

However, I do have a development ppa (ppa:unity8-desktop-session-team/unity8-preview-lxc) that will contain a fix for this after I upload it later today.

[Florian W. (florian-will)]

This bug appears to be fixed now in the PPA, thanks!

[bademux (bademux)]

Cool, works from ppa
Thanks!

[corrado venturini (corradoventu)]

I have this PPA in sources.list:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/unity8-desktop-session-team/unity8-preview-lxc/ubuntu vivid main

and I reveive messages:
corrado@corrado-HP-620-u8:~$ sudo unity8-lxc-setup
usage: unity8-lxc-setup [-h] [--rebuild-all] [--rebuild-config]
                        [--rebuild-rootfs] [--redownload] [--test SECONDS]
                        [--destroy] [--update-lxc]
unity8-lxc-setup: error: The container already exists.
corrado@corrado-HP-620-u8:~$ sudo unity8-lxc-setup --update-lxc
Starting the container
usage: unity8-lxc-setup [-h] [--rebuild-all] [--rebuild-config]
                        [--rebuild-rootfs] [--redownload] [--test SECONDS]
                        [--destroy] [--update-lxc]
unity8-lxc-setup: error: Unable to start the container.

should I change PPA?
Thanks

[corrado venturini (corradoventu)]

doing sudo unity8-lxc-setup --rebuild-all ... I have:

corrado@corrado-HP-620-u8:~$ sudo unity8-lxc-setup --rebuild-all
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/unity8-lxc-setup", line 204, in <module>
    devel_release = UbuntuDistroInfo().devel()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/distro_info.py", line 96, in devel
    raise DistroDataOutdated()
distro_info.DistroDataOutdated: Distribution data outdated. Please check for an update for distro-info-data. See /usr/share/doc/distro-info-data/README.Debian for details.
corrado@corrado-HP-620-u8:~$

[corrado venturini (corradoventu)]

unistalled and re-installed with the new PPA.
sudo apt-get install unity8-lxc ... ok
sudo unity8-lxc-setup --rebuild-all ... ok (long time ... unload and unpack ISO)
reboot ... LightDM seems ok ... logon ... black screen with just the mouse arrow ...

[corrado venturini (corradoventu)]

for apt-get install unity8-lxc I find log in /var/log/apt
but after unity8-lxc-setup I'm unable to find a log of the installation (/var/log/lxc/unity8-lxc.log is empty)

[Giovanni Panozzo (giox069)]

I tried to reinstall unity8-lxc-setup. After a painful removal (the apt removal script fails when the container is already destroyed) now the ISO is no longer downloadable

giovanni@pg2:~$ sudo unity8-lxc-setup
failed on url http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-desktop-next/daily-live/current/vivid-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync
could not read control file from URL http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-desktop-next/daily-live/current/vivid-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync
usage: unity8-lxc-setup [-h] [--rebuild-all] [--rebuild-config]
                        [--rebuild-rootfs] [--redownload] [--test SECONDS]
                        [--destroy] [--update-lxc]
unity8-lxc-setup: error: No Unity 8 Desktop Next ISO exists!

[Alex Elliott (gunwalloe)]

I am now also receiving this above error.
I have checked the cdimage.ubuntu.com files and there is no longer a vivid current iso there.

[Christopher Townsend (townsend)]

For those receiving the error of "No Unity 8 Desktop Next ISO", it's due to Unity 8 Desktop Next moving to Wily. The unity8-lxc-setup program tries to be smart on figuring out the development series by using the data provided distro-info-data. distro-info-data with support for Wily is current in the -proposed pockets of various Ubuntu releases. Either you can enable -proposed or wait until it gets promoted to -updates.

Sorry about the failures, but this is really out of my control...well I guess I could add a manual override in unity8-lxc-setup. MAybe I'll look into that.

Thanks!

[corrado venturini (corradoventu)]

so i may create a partition with wili and use it to test unity8 preview in lxc? can i use the same ppa?

[Christopher Townsend (townsend)]

Hi corrado,

No, there is no reason to have to create a Wily partition to run unity8-lxc, if you don't want to. One of the main points of unity8-lxc is to allow users to try out the latest and greatest Unity 8 desktop without having to upgrade their Ubuntu release of choice, be it Trusty, Utopic, Vivid, or Wily. It uses the Linux Container (LXC) technology to achieve this.

LXC is basically an isolated file hierarchy that resides on the host's disk that contains the files for the distribution you want. Think of it as a very advanced chroot.

I've taken great pains to try to make this work for all of the above listed Ubuntu versions, but I'm also relying on LXC which can change and break things. Also, Unity 8 and Mir are in constant development, so things can break there that are out of my control.

That all said, an updated distro-info-data should be in -updates now, so downloading the latest the Ubuntu Desktop Next ISO should be working again.

Thanks for you interest!

[Christopher Townsend (townsend)]

Since a new distro-info-data has been released, I'm turning down the severity of this bug.

[corrado venturini (corradoventu)]

corrado@corrado-HP-620-U8:~$ sudo unity8-lxc-setup --rebuild-all --redownload
[sudo] password for corrado:
#################### 100.0% 588.9 kBps DONE

reading seed file /var/lib/lxc/unity8-lxc/ubuntu-next.iso: *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************Read /var/lib/lxc/unity8-lxc/ubuntu-next.iso. Target 100.0% complete. *****************************************
verifying download...checksum matches OK
used 1089454080 local, fetched 0
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/unity8-lxc-setup", line 230, in <module>
    os.mkdir(iso_path)
FileExistsError: [Errno 17] File exists: '/var/lib/lxc/unity8-lxc/iso'
corrado@corrado-HP-620-U8:~$

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package unity8-lxc - 1.0.4+15.10.20150609-0ubuntu1

---------------
unity8-lxc (1.0.4+15.10.20150609-0ubuntu1) wily; urgency=medium

  [ Chris Townsend ]
  * Bump version to 1.0.4.
  * Automount /proc to avoid a race when attaching to a container to run
    a command. Also remove the ugly sleep workaround. (LP: #1428848)
  * Cache a copy of upstart-sysv when downloading the Unity 8 Desktop
    Next ISO image. This will keep the ISO and the upstart-sysv package
    in sync. (LP: #1458236)
  * Catch the exception when distro-info-data is outdated during dev
    release transitions. Use the current stable release instead when the
    dev release has not been updated. (LP: #1448521)
  * Terminate the session instead of killing the user when logging out
    of the Unity 8 LXC session. This is much less aggressive and keeps
    ssh sessions alive. (LP: #1456604)
  * Use upstart-sysv in the Unity8 container instead of systemd. This
    fixes a slew of issues when using systemd in the container. (LP:
    #1437900)

 -- CI Train Bot <email address hidden> Tue, 09 Jun 2015 14:17:23 +0000

[Gordonjcp (gordonjcp)]

Seems to be broken again, with
"unity8-lxc-setup: error: No Unity 8 Desktop Next ISO exists!"

[Christopher Townsend (townsend)]

Yes, the ISO has been removed, so unity8-lxc-setup is broken. I'm currently working on coming up with a different way to install the Unity 8 desktop session in the LXC (tracked in bug #1477720), but systemd is giving me fits.