[Bug 1773687] Re: [bionic] no unattended installation

[Steve Langasek]

Ok, I see what's happening here.  The reason artful doesn't prompt is
because /etc/localtime is prepopulated within the image:

$ tar tvf ubuntu-artful-core-cloudimg-amd64-root.tar.gz |grep zoneinfo
lrwxrwxrwx root/root         0 2018-05-24 13:44 etc/localtime -> /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC
$

This is despite the fact that the tzdata package itself is not
installed.

In bionic, this symlink is not present:

$ tar tvf ubuntu-bionic-core-cloudimg-amd64-root.tar.gz |grep zoneinfo
$

This is in fact a deliberate change in bionic as part of the minimal
image work; in livecd-rootfs live-build/auto/build:

        if [ "${SUBPROJECT:-}" = minimized ] \
           && ! Chroot chroot dpkg -l tzdata 2>&1 |grep -q ^ii; then
                # workaround for tzdata purge not removing these files
                rm -f chroot/etc/localtime chroot/etc/timezone
        fi

The behavior you're seeing in bionic is the *expected* behavior on a
completely fresh install of the tzdata package.  The reason you don't
see this behavior in prior releases is that it's not truly a fresh
install, and there is cruft left on the filesystem in the form of
/etc/localtime.  If /etc/localtime already exists, tzdata has no need to
prompt instead of using the existing configuration on the system.  If it
doesn't exist, tzdata will ask debconf, which means a prompt by default.

So your setting DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive, if you don't care about
/etc/localtime and just tzdata to use the default, is the correct fix
here.

** Changed in: tzdata (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Invalid

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1773687

Title:
  [bionic] no unattended installation

Status in tzdata package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  Package: tzdata
  Version: 2018d-1
  Ubuntu release: 18.04

  There appears to be a regression with the preseeding data for tzdata in the 18.04 release.
  When running 

     apt-get install tzdata

  I now _always_ drop into an interactive selection of the timezone
  'area' and 'zone'. This was not the case before; it is also not the
  case in Debian 'unstable' right now.

  I looked into the postinst script, but I can't figure out where the
  preseeded info would be. I tried debconf-set-selections with a preseed
  file, but no luck.

  This blocks usage of tzdata in Docker containers and is there for a
  bit annoying.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
  Package: tzdata 2017c-0ubuntu0.17.10
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-41.46-generic 4.13.16
  Uname: Linux 4.13.0-41-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia
  ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.8
  Architecture: amd64
  CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
  Date: Sun May 27 13:17:42 2018
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-12-31 (147 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Release amd64 (20171017.1)
  PackageArchitecture: all
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=screen-256color
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: tzdata
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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