Release: Ubuntu 9.04/Jaunty
Arch: x86_64
Packages:
python-vm-builder: 0.10-0ubuntu2
debootstrap: 1.0.12
console-setup: 1.28ubuntu8
upstart: 0.3.9-8
Running vmbuilder on a text console to build a kvm based VM causes gettys to stop respawning. Each getty needs to be restarted using 'initctl start tty#' where # is the tty number. Some existing getty's seem to accept login but then try and respawn themselves after login if the login is successful before the user has logged out.
I suspect that this may not actually be a vmbuilder bug, but may be related to vmbuilder's use of debootstrap (and in turn interactions with upstart), and the setup of getty's within the vm image causing issues with the text console.
Notes:
The version of Ubuntu that I am installing in the vm image is 9.04/Jaunty.
I don't have X on this machine. Will test further with another machine (once again x86_64) that has X to see if I can replicate it when run from a shell while running X (eg: Xterm).
Using vmbuilder --debug I have narrowed it down to somewhere around the install of console-setup, but I am not 100% sure of this.
During the build process, the text console font changes at almost the same time that the getty's stop respawning, which seems to coincide with the configuration of the console-setup package by debootstrap.
The command 'initctl events' shows no events being sent to respawn the gettys on logout, as compared to what usually happens prior to building the vm image using vmbuilder, or after manually restarting them.
The vmbuilder process is being spawned using sudo (directly or using a shell created with 'sudo -i'), which in turn is being spawned by the initial user created at install time of the host system.
While test config files and command lines are available on request, I have been able to produce this with minimal vm builds using vmbuilder (eg: 'vmbuilder kvm ubuntu --part=test.part' and a simple partition file containing root & swap only).
If you have any test commands that I can try (eg: directly calling debootstrap the way vmbuilder does to isolate it to debootstrap, or even a way to reinstall individual packages in an image using chroot to try and replicate it), just let me know.
Update: Confirmed using a new machine that has X installed and a brand new install of vmbuilder (on same new machine) that when vmbuilder is run in an xterm that text consoles no longer respawn.
Note: In case it wasn't apparent previously, it's only during the build process this happens and only on the machine the build is taking place on. The vm images themselves are working and they work fine (without any issue) on the same machine (or even on a different machine).