[Bug 2020406] Re: Release upgrade fails due to unsupported DKMS modules

[Dimitri John Ledkov]

In ubuntu-release-upgrader there are quirks available to purge remove
packages upon dist-upgrade. When dkms modules are removed from the
archive, or like marked as broken. We should add them in release
upgrader as quirks to be purged from system prior to upgrade starting.

That's definitely something that we can do today and improve the
situation.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2020406

Title:
  Release upgrade fails due to unsupported DKMS modules

Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader source package in Lunar:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  The kernel team takes care that any DKMS package supported by the new
  release actually compiles and works with the new kernel. We also make
  sure that DKMS packages that are obsoleted in the new release are
  updated in the current release such that they are ignored on upgrade.

  However users can have old and/or unsupported DKMS packages installed
  from different sources, not just the Ubuntu archive, which can be
  problematic. If kernel header packages are installed, the dkms post-
  install hook tries to compile all installed and enabled DKMS modules.
  On upgrade, header packages for the new kernel are installed and the
  dkms hook is invoked. If any of the installed and enabled DKMS modules
  fails to build for the new kernel, the header package installation
  fails and ultimately the whole release upgrade fails.

  To get around this problem, we propose to disable all DKMS modules
  before attempting the upgrade and re-enable them one by one afterwards
  and notify the user if any of them failed to build. Care must be taken
  that when disabling the DKMS modules, the initrds are *not* rebuilt
  (otherwise the disabled DKMS modules might be removed from the
  initrds) so that the user can fall back to a previous kernel/initrd
  should the new kernel not work for them.

  ATM, there are 46 bugs logged for the 'linux' package because of DKMS
  build failures on upgrade to Lunar:
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bugs?field.tag=lunar-
  upgrade-dkms-
  failure&field.omit_dupes.used=&field.status%3Alist=NEW&field.status%3Alist=INVALID&field.status%3Alist=CONFIRMED&field.status%3Alist=TRIAGED&field.status%3Alist=INPROGRESS&field.status%3Alist=FIXCOMMITTED&field.status%3Alist=INCOMPLETE_WITH_RESPONSE&field.status%3Alist=INCOMPLETE_WITHOUT_RESPONSE

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