server install does not have 'standard' task installed
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
tasksel (Ubuntu) |
Confirmed
|
High
|
Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre | ||
Xenial |
Confirmed
|
High
|
Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre |
Bug Description
Tests of the server ISO install are run from [1]
The 'default' test uses the preseed at [2] to install, and then verifies that the 'irqbalance' package is installed.
The test is failing because it is *not* installed as it was in wily given the same preseed file.
Further diagnosis shows that the 'standard' task is not being installed, which was bringing in irqbalance in wily.
cyphermox suggested that possibly the preseed had to be updated to have 'server' rather than 'Basic Ubuntu server', like
tasksel tasksel/first multiselect Basic Ubuntu server
as a result of a tasksel change [3].
That didnt seem to make a difference, and to be clear it is the 'standard' seed, not the 'server' seed that is missing.
Looking at logs of wily shows:
$ grep "apt-get" /var/log/
Jan 28 21:10:29 in-target: debconf (developer): starting /usr/bin/
Where xenial shows:
$ grep "apt-get" /var/log/
Jan 28 18:45:08 in-target: debconf (developer): starting /usr/bin/
Note the lack of 'standard^' in the xenial grep.
Some conversation in ubuntu-devel (mostly summarized here) though at [4]
[1] https:/
[2] http://
[3] https:/
[4] http://
Changed in ubuntu: | |
status: | New → Confirmed |
importance: | Undecided → High |
affects: | Ubuntu Xenial → debian-installer (Ubuntu Xenial) |
affects: | debian-installer (Ubuntu Xenial) → tasksel (Ubuntu Xenial) |
Changed in tasksel (Ubuntu Xenial): | |
assignee: | nobody → Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (mathieu-tl) |
I am confused why this test relies on tasksel to install packages to begin with. My understanding is that the server ISO today uses a fastpath installer, where the base system is copied from a loopback squashfs on the ISO, rather than being handled as a bootstrap of individual packages. On IRC, Scott said to me that "this is just tests to verify d-i works; we don't want to break that either". However, I don't thinkit's correct that we should have tests of the server ISO that do not map to how our users will actually install their systems. If we expect the 'standard' task to be included automatically on every server installation, it should be included in the squashfs, and our tests of the ISO should use the fastpath installation method. If we do not expect this task to be automatically installed on every server installation, then I would argue that the test is wrong and the installer behavior is (unexpectedly) correct.
My understanding was that all ISO installs should now use the fastpath method; so the tests for the ISO should not be using other methods (and we should probably disable those other methods from the ISO). If there is a need to use the non-fastpath install method for other install media - such as for netboot installs - the tests should be associated with that install media, not with the server ISO.