Ubuntu 24.04 unattended installation

[pevogam]

Hi all,

I just added the following configuration to perform unattended installation of the newest Ubuntu LTS:

                     - 16.04-server.s390x:
                         image_name += -16.04-server-s390x
                         vm_arch_name = s390x
                         # os level 2 indicator
                         os_variant = ubuntu
                         # install subvariant configuration
                         unattended_install:
                             cdroms = cd1
                             configure_install = unattended_install
                             unattended_file = Ubuntu-16-04.preseed
                         unattended_install, svirt_install:
                             kernel = images/ubuntu-server-16-04-s390/vmlinuz
                             initrd = images/ubuntu-server-16-04-s390/initrd.gz
                             boot_path = install
                         unattended_install.cdrom, svirt_install:
                             host_services = yes
                             cdrom_cd1 = isos/ubuntu-16.04-server-s390x.iso
                             md5sum_cd1 = 01545fa976c8367b4f0d59169ac4866c
                             md5sum_1m_cd1 = 4982356696dd141a340798a22bbf36e1
+                    - 24.04-server.x86_64:
+                        image_name += 24.04.2-live-server-amd64
+                        vm_arch_name = x86_64
+                        os_variant = ubuntutrusty
+                        # install subvariant configuration
+                        unattended_install:
+                            cdroms = cd1
+                            configure_install = unattended_install
+                            unattended_file = Ubuntu-24-04.preseed
+                        unattended_install, svirt_install:
+                            kernel = images/ubuntu-server-24-04-64/vmlinuz
+                            initrd = images/ubuntu-server-24-04-64/initrd
+                            boot_path = casper
+                        unattended_install.cdrom, svirt_install:
+                            host_services = yes
+                            cdrom_cd1 = isos/ubuntu-24.04.2-live-server-amd64.iso
+                            md5sum_cd1 = d0013676be5d53a9a160abd3ca1f762f
+                            md5sum_1m_cd1 = 4982356696dd141a340798a22bbf36e1

However, the unattended install breaks at this point

[stderr]   File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/virttest/tests/unattended_install.py", line 1180, in setup      │
[stderr]     self.setup_cdrom()                                                                                    │
[stderr]   File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/virttest/error_context.py", line 141, in new_fn                 │
[stderr]     return fn(*args, **kwargs)                                                                            │
[stderr]            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                            │
[stderr]   File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/virttest/tests/unattended_install.py", line 981, in setup_cdrom │
[stderr]     self.preseed_initrd()                                                                                 │
[stderr]   File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/virttest/tests/unattended_install.py", line 718, in preseed_init│
rd                                                                                                                 │
[stderr]     process.run(                                                                                          │
[stderr]   File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/avocado/utils/process.py", line 1018, in run                    │
[stderr]     raise CmdError(cmd, sp.result)                                                                        │
[stderr] avocado.utils.process.CmdError: Command 'gzip -d < ../initrd | fakeroot cpio --extract --make-directories │
--no-absolute-filenames' failed.                                                                                   │
[stderr] stdout: b''                                                                                               │
[stderr] stderr: b'\ngzip: stdin: not in gzip format\ncpio: premature end of archive\n'                            │
[stderr] additional_info: None   

because it seems the initrd is no longer in gunzip format. Has anyone tried installing newer Ubuntu recently?

@YongxueHong, @luckyh, @richtja Any suggestion on how to add support to the newest LTS?

[luckyh]

Not use Ubuntu too much, anyway. It looks we could check the file format dynamically before doing extracting/uncompressing, therefore a right tool would be easy to choose in this manner.

$ file -i /boot/initramfs-6.12.10-200.fc41.x86_64.img 
/boot/initramfs-6.12.10-200.fc41.x86_64.img: application/x-cpio; charset=binary

[pevogam]

I see, what I observe if I do this is

../initrd: application/x-cpio; charset=binary

but an edit like

         base_initrd = os.path.basename(self.initrd)
         os.chdir(remaster_path)
-        process.run(
-            "gzip -d < ../%s | fakeroot cpio --extract --make-directories "
-            "--no-absolute-filenames" % base_initrd,
-            verbose=DEBUG,
-            shell=True,
-        )
+
+        # Check the initramfs archive format
+        file_cmd = "file -i ../%s" % base_initrd
+        file_output = process.run(file_cmd, verbose=DEBUG, shell=True).stdout_text
+        if "gzip" in file_output:
+            unpack_cmd = "gzip -d < ../" + base_initrd
+        elif "bzip2" in file_output:
+            unpack_cmd = "bzip2 -d < ../" + base_initrd
+        elif "xz" in file_output:
+            unpack_cmd = "xz -d < ../" + base_initrd
+        elif "x-cpio" in file_output:
+            unpack_cmd = "cat ../" + base_initrd
+        else:
+            raise ValueError("Unsupported initramfs format: %s" % file_output)
+        unpack_cmd += " | fakeroot cpio --extract --make-directories --no-absolute-filenames"
+
+        process.run(unpack_cmd, verbose=DEBUG, shell=True)
         process.run("cp %s %s" % (self.unattended_file, dest_fname), verbose=DEBUG)

doesn't amount to much. I also tried

            unpack_cmd = "cpio -id < ../" + base_initrd

but the "remastered initrd" remains unbootable.

[luckyh]

but the "remastered initrd" remains unbootable.

@pevogam it looks Ubuntu preferred a new manner for unattended installation [1], is your previous attempt performing in that way?

https://canonical-subiquity.readthedocs-hosted.com/en/latest/tutorial/providing-autoinstall.html#providing-autoinstall

[pevogam]

but the "remastered initrd" remains unbootable.

@pevogam it looks Ubuntu preferred a new manner for unattended installation [1], is your previous attempt performing in that way?

https://canonical-subiquity.readthedocs-hosted.com/en/latest/tutorial/providing-autoinstall.html#providing-autoinstall

Indeed, I have not tried this. But I am surprised that there is already an Ubuntu 24.04 variant defined in Avocado VT which means some form of unattended installation must have worked. See #3926.