[Bug 1582899] Re: in-target: mkinitramfs: failed to determine device for /

[TJ]

I've now successfully reproduced the issue in the virtual machine.

Firstly, at the installer boot menu, choose Expert Mode.

This allows selection of each installer step from a menu and causes
debconf to ask many more questions.

At "Install the System" choose a "normal" installation and then for
"Drivers to include in the initrd:" choose "targeted: only include
drivers needed for this system".

syslog shows:

May 17 22:55:29 base-installer: info: Using kernel 'linux-generic'
May 17 22:55:29 base-installer: warning: Failed to get debconf answer 'base-installer/kernel/linux/initrd'.
May 17 22:55:29 base-installer: info: Setting do_initrd='yes'.
May 17 22:55:29 base-installer: info: Setting link_in_boot='no'.
May 17 22:55:29 in-target: Reading package lists...
...
May 17 22:56:21 in-target: Running depmod.^M
May 17 22:56:22 in-target: update-initramfs: deferring update (hook will be called later)^M
May 17 22:56:22 in-target: Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.^M
May 17 22:56:22 in-target: run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 4.4.0-21-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-21-generic^M
May 17 22:56:22 in-target: run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 4.4.0-21-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-21-generic^M
May 17 22:56:22 in-target: update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-21-generic^M
May 17 22:56:22 in-target: mkinitramfs: failed to determine device for /^M
May 17 22:56:22 in-target: mkinitramfs: workaround is MODULES=most, check:^M
May 17 22:56:22 in-target: grep -r MODULES /etc/initramfs-tools/^M
May 17 22:56:22 in-target: ^M
May 17 22:56:22 in-target: Error please report bug on initramfs-tools
May 17 22:56:22 in-target: ^M
May 17 22:56:22 in-target: Include the output of 'mount' and 'cat /proc/mounts'^M

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to base-installer in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1582899

Title:
  in-target: mkinitramfs: failed to determine device for /

Status in base-installer package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Sysadmin reported in #ubuntu (later #ubuntu-kernel) the 16.04 ubuntu-
  server failed due to being unable to configure linux-
  image-4.4.0-21-generic.

  Lots of diagnostics and one SSH remote session later we seem to have
  narrowed it down to the installer.

  The cause of the error message appears to be that the symlink names in
  /dev/disk/by-uuid/  haven't been updated after the partitioning stage
  if there were pre-existing partitions and file-systems on the install
  device, *and* the sysadmin chose to format the existing partitions
  when selecting mountpoints.

  In this case a hardware RAID device presents:

  /dev/sda1 (/boot/)
  /dev/sda2 (swap)
  /dev/sda3 (/)

  From the shell I noticed:

  root at tmpstorage:/# ll /dev/disk/by-uuid/
  total 0
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 May 17 19:39 130e4419-4bfd-46d2-87f9-62e5379bf591 -> ../../sda1
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 May 17 19:39 127d3fa1-c07c-48e4-9e26-1b926d37625c -> ../../sda3
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 May 17 19:39 78b88456-2b0b-4265-9ed2-5db61522d887 -> ../../sda2
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 May 17 19:39 2016-04-20-22-45-29-00 -> ../../sr1
  drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 120 May 17 19:39 ..
  drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 May 17 19:39 .

  root at tmpstorage:/# blkid /dev/sda*
  /dev/sda: PTUUID="a84e60fd" PTTYPE="dos"
  /dev/sda1: UUID="61365714-8ff7-47a2-8035-8aed9e3191a6" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="a84e60fd-01"
  /dev/sda2: UUID="78b88456-2b0b-4265-9ed2-5db61522d887" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="a84e60fd-02"
  /dev/sda3: UUID="75f68451-9472-47c7-9efc-ed032bfa9987" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="a84e60fd-03"

  More details to follow.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/base-installer/+bug/1582899/+subscriptions