kickstart error can't locate debconf frontend: Newt

Bug #145162 reported by Lars Noodén
12
This bug affects 2 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
kickseed (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Medium
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: system-config-kickstart

In a kickstart install, I notice the following error in the installation log:

 Sep 26 07:31:02 kickseed: debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Newt
 Sep 26 07:31:02 kickseed: debconf: (Can't locate Debconf/FrontEnd/Newt.pm in @IN
 C (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.
 8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/loc
 al/lib/site_perl .) at (eval 20) line 2, <> line 120.)
 Sep 26 07:31:02 kickseed: debconf: falling back to frontend: Noninteractive

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Could I have the full log file, please, as well as a copy of your Kickstart file (with any passwords removed)?

Changed in system-config-kickstart:
assignee: nobody → kamion
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Lars Noodén (larsnooden) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Lars Noodén (larsnooden) wrote : sanitized ks.cfg
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

OK, the %post handler should probably use in-target or similar.

Changed in kickseed:
importance: Undecided → Medium
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Lars Noodén (larsnooden) wrote : using in-target or similar in %post handler

    "the %post handler should probably use in-target or similar"

Is that something I should do? If so please point to a page describing the details.

If it's of any use, there is a similar error in the kickstart for gutsy, but using more or less the same ks.cfg as above. Here are the last few lines from the syslog produced during the installation (the installation stops at kickseed):

 Oct 7 08:23:53 kickseed: locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such f
 ile or directory
 Oct 7 08:23:53 kickseed: debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Newt
 Oct 7 08:23:53 kickseed: debconf: (Can't locate Debconf/FrontEnd/Newt.pm in @IN
 C (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.
 8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/loc
 al/lib/site_perl .) at (eval 20) line 2, <> line 11.)
 Oct 7 08:23:53 kickseed: debconf: falling back to frontend: Noninteractive
 Oct 7 08:23:53 finish-install: Preconfiguring packages ...
 Oct 7 08:23:54 kickseed: /tmp/cvs.config.278821: 5: 3: Bad file descriptor
 Oct 7 08:27:50 init: Starting pid 3081, console /dev/tty3: '/bin/sh'

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

No, I experimented and it didn't quite work; I'll revisit this in gutsy+1.

Revision history for this message
Lars Noodén (larsnooden) wrote : there in feisty, too

I've checked and the problem seems to be there in Feisty as well. The end result is that a lot of packages specified in the kickstart installation don't get installed.

I'm wondering if the workaround isn't to have a shell script which loops the installation of each package until the return value indicates success.

Revision history for this message
Lars Noodén (larsnooden) wrote : Problem present in Gutsy, too

The problem is present in Gutsy as well.

Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in kickseed (Ubuntu):
assignee: Colin Watson (cjwatson) → nobody
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