[Bug 1539329] Re: server install does not have 'standard' task installed

[Steve Langasek]

I am confused why this test relies on tasksel to install packages to
begin with.  My understanding is that the server ISO today uses a
fastpath installer, where the base system is copied from a loopback
squashfs on the ISO, rather than being handled as a bootstrap of
individual packages.  On IRC, Scott said to me that "this is just tests
to verify d-i works; we don't want to break that either".  However, I
don't thinkit's correct that we should have tests of the server ISO that
do not map to how our users will actually install their systems.  If we
expect the 'standard' task to be included automatically on every server
installation, it should be included in the squashfs, and our tests of
the ISO should use the fastpath installation method.  If we do not
expect this task to be automatically installed on every server
installation, then I would argue that the test is wrong and the
installer behavior is (unexpectedly) correct.

My understanding was that all ISO installs should now use the fastpath
method; so the tests for the ISO should not be using other methods (and
we should probably disable those other methods from the ISO).   If there
is a need to use the non-fastpath install method for other install media
- such as for netboot installs - the tests should be associated with
that install media, not with the server ISO.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1539329

Title:
  server install does not have 'standard' task installed

Status in tasksel package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in tasksel source package in Xenial:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Tests of the server ISO install are run from [1]
  The 'default' test uses the preseed at [2] to install, and then verifies that the 'irqbalance' package is installed.
  The test is failing because it is *not* installed as it was in wily given the same preseed file.
  Further diagnosis shows that the 'standard' task is not being installed, which was bringing in irqbalance in wily.

  cyphermox suggested that possibly the preseed had to be updated to have 'server' rather than 'Basic Ubuntu server', like
    tasksel tasksel/first multiselect Basic Ubuntu server
  as a result of a tasksel change [3].

  That didnt seem to make a difference, and to be clear it is the 'standard' seed, not the 'server' seed that is missing.
  Looking at logs of wily shows:
  $ grep "apt-get" /var/log/utah/utah-7-install.log  | grep server
  Jan 28 21:10:29 in-target: debconf (developer): starting /usr/bin/debconf-apt-progress --from 160 --to 800 --logstderr -- apt-get -q -y install minimal^ server^ standard^

  Where xenial shows:
  $ grep "apt-get" /var/log/utah/utah-2-install.log  | grep server
  Jan 28 18:45:08 in-target: debconf (developer): starting /usr/bin/debconf-apt-progress --from 160 --to 800 --logstderr -- apt-get -q -y -o APT::Install-Recommends=true -o APT::Get::AutomaticRemove=true -o APT::Acquire::Retries=3 install server^ minimal^

  Note the lack of 'standard^' in the xenial grep.
  Some conversation in ubuntu-devel (mostly summarized here) though at [4]

  
  [1]  https://platform-qa-jenkins.ubuntu.com/view/smoke-default/job/ubuntu-xenial-server-amd64-smoke-default/
  [2] http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-server-dev/ubuntu-test-cases/server-tests-raring/view/head:/preseeds/default.preseed
  [3] https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tasksel/3.34ubuntu3
  [4] http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2016/01/28/%23ubuntu-devel.html

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