[Bug 1080701] Re: After 'Preparing to install Ubuntu' screen, raring installation hangs

[Erick Brunzell]

I may, OR MAY NOT, be onto something here. But before I proceed let me
point out that I'm not shouting when I use all caps .......... I'm just
stressing a point which may or may not be important. I've spent several
hours testing this with very little rest so cut me some slack :^)

You will have to read to the end to see what I suspect the problem might
be!!!

I'm totally ignorant when it comes to using VM's other than using
testdrive w/virtualbox in a simple live test, so I use mostly bare
metal. In this case I'm using:

VIA C7 CPU @ 1500MHz
VIA CN700/P4M800 Pro/P4M800 CE/VN800 Graphics [S3 UniChrome Pro] (rev 01)
VIA VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
1GB DDR2 RAM

It's not adequate to run Ubuntu itself but it will run both Lubuntu and
Xubuntu. I prefer Lubuntu.

I tried yesterday with an Lubuntu i386 20130418 Live DVD creating a
situation where I thought this bug would manifest:

I used only an 80GB IDE drive and created 3 primary partitions with one
logical partition for swap. I then used "something else" (aka: manual
partitioning) to install three Lubuntu's. After doing so I plugged in a
USB flash drive that I use for transferring data - that drive MUST NOT
be a bootable drive!

Then I rebooted to try another installation (whether it be to replace an
existing install or resize) and it appeared to hang so I thought, "OK
this is easy to reproduce". At that point I took a prolonged toilet
break - maybe 10 to 15 minutes - but when I came back the "busy-wheel"
had stopped spinning so I decided I'd just been impatient.

NOW, we move onto todays testing. I was very methodical:

Step #1: With only the 80GB drive connected I performed an entire disc
install using an Lubuntu i386 20130418 Live DVD. No problem.

Step #2: I rebooted the same DVD and then performed  an auto-resize test
choosing a new partition size of about 15GB, again no problem.

Step #3: I rebooted the same DVD and used Gparted to shrink sda1, create
2 new primary partitions, each about 15GB, and free space of about 15GB.
I then started a new “install alongside” test, but since I now had
adequate free space the Continue button showed Install now as expected.
Once again this installation completed with no problems. So I now had:

lance at lance-VIA-desktop:~$ sudo parted -l
[sudo] password for lance: 
Model: ATA WDC WD800BB-63JK (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system     Flags
 1      1049kB  15.8GB  15.7GB  primary   ext4            boot --> entire disc install
 3      15.8GB  31.5GB  15.7GB  primary   ext4                    --> not used yet
 4      31.5GB  47.2GB  15.7GB  primary   ext4                    --> not used yet
 2      47.2GB  80.0GB  32.8GB  extended
 7      47.2GB  64.0GB  16.8GB  logical   ext4                      --> free space test
 6      64.0GB  79.0GB  15.0GB  logical   ext4                      --> auto-resize test
 5      79.0GB  80.0GB  1005MB  logical   linux-swap(v1)

It shouldn’t matter but just to be thorough I’ll mention that sda7 in
charge of booting ATM since it was the last installed.

Step #4: I shut down the computer and connected a 30GB drive as “slave"
that I’d used yesterday with the same DVD to perform an entire disc
install. And I check in BIOS that the 80GB is still the boot drive
before proceeding. I then run “update-grub”:

lance at lance-VIA-desktop:~$ sudo update-grub
[sudo] password for lance: 
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-18-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-18-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Found Ubuntu Raring Ringtail (development branch) (13.04) on /dev/sda1
Found Ubuntu Raring Ringtail (development branch) (13.04) on /dev/sda6
Found Ubuntu Raring Ringtail (development branch) (13.04) on /dev/sdb1
done

NOW IT GETS INTERESTING, and it may coincide with yesterdays prolonged
potty break.

When I tried the next install, I was hoping to install manually to
either sda3 or sda4 but it again appeared to "hang". So once again I
took a prolonged break, this time to feed the dogs and make a pot of
coffee - like I need more caffeine ;^/

Once again after a prolonged break (maybe 15 to 20 minutes) I come back
and find that the "spinning wheel" has stopped spinning.

But now, being the dummy that I am, I notice for the first time that
Raring includes a "System" column in ubiquity. That was not present in
Quantal and I tried booting Quantal to try an install which appeared
like it would work OK QUICKLY, but I didn't complete it.

So let's think for a moment. Did adding the "system ID" thing to
ubiquity contribute to this bug??????????

Maybe whatever process is identifying existing system info is simply
slowing the process so much that the user thinks things are "hung" when
in fact that process is still "reading".

Does that make any sense at all?

-- 
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Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to ubiquity in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1080701

Title:
  After 'Preparing to install Ubuntu' screen, raring installation hangs

Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in “ubiquity” source package in Raring:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Test steps:
  1. Boot the machine with usb
  2. Enter the wireless password to enable the wifi connection
  3. Wait to hear the drums  and select 'Install Ubuntu' with English being the language selection
  4. Click 'Continue' with the default selections on the 'Preparing  to install ubuntu' screen( where it shows the power, available disk space and internet connectivity statu)
  5. The installation does not proceed from this point

  Workarounds:
  It has been reported within this bug that deleting extended partitions, or disabling swap, or mounting partitions "helps" to bypass the problem.

  Why is this not fixed yet:
  Well, at the moment the cause of hangs has not been determined. The best way to aid Ubuntu Installer team at fixing this bug is to provide a reproducible test case of this hang, that is is steps that one needs to perform to setup a VM / real machine that will exhibit such hang. At the moment we don't know how to trigger this bug and thus diagnose & fix it.

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