[Bug 1822407] [NEW] Installing 18.04 to a virtio device produces an unbootable system on armhf

[Robert Merrill]

Public bug reported:

Using the netboot vmlinuz and initrd found here: http://ports.ubuntu.com
/ubuntu-ports/dists/bionic-updates/main/installer-armhf/current/images
/generic-lpae/netboot/

Running in a QEMU "virt" machine, the install goes fine but the result
can't boot because virtio_blk is not compiled into the kernel and
update-initramfs is stubbed out (appears to be a copy/hardlink of
/bin/true). I should note that the install produces /boot/initrd.img as
a broken/dangling symlink which may or may not be desirable.

I am currently attempting to produce a bootable system by:
- Running the installer again on the same virtual disk
- Getting to the point where it asks how to partition the install
- Backing out until I can drop to a shell
- chrooting into the install (involves mounting /, /boot, and bind-mounting /dev /sys and /proc)
- adding virtio_blk to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
- running mkinitramfs manually

This is very painful even if it works because the installer is *slow*
inside QEMU and there's no clear way to get to the state where I can
mount /dev/vda more quickly.

>From what I gather people did not have this problem on xenial, and I'm
not the only one who tripped on this.

** Affects: debian-installer (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1822407

Title:
  Installing 18.04 to a virtio device produces an unbootable system on
  armhf

Status in debian-installer package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Using the netboot vmlinuz and initrd found here:
  http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/dists/bionic-updates/main
  /installer-armhf/current/images/generic-lpae/netboot/

  Running in a QEMU "virt" machine, the install goes fine but the result
  can't boot because virtio_blk is not compiled into the kernel and
  update-initramfs is stubbed out (appears to be a copy/hardlink of
  /bin/true). I should note that the install produces /boot/initrd.img
  as a broken/dangling symlink which may or may not be desirable.

  I am currently attempting to produce a bootable system by:
  - Running the installer again on the same virtual disk
  - Getting to the point where it asks how to partition the install
  - Backing out until I can drop to a shell
  - chrooting into the install (involves mounting /, /boot, and bind-mounting /dev /sys and /proc)
  - adding virtio_blk to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
  - running mkinitramfs manually

  This is very painful even if it works because the installer is *slow*
  inside QEMU and there's no clear way to get to the state where I can
  mount /dev/vda more quickly.

  From what I gather people did not have this problem on xenial, and I'm
  not the only one who tripped on this.

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