[Bug 1962225] Re: preinst check that kernel revision < 255 now does more harm than good

[Michael Hudson-Doyle]

Verified that libc6 2.27-3ubuntu1.6 can be installed fine in a bionic
docker container an Amazon Linux 2 system with the problematic kernel
version:

root at eef8e8932f4b:/# apt install libc6
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  glibc-doc locales
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libc6
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 2831 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1024 B disk space will be freed.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-proposed/main amd64 libc6 amd64 2.27-3ubuntu1.6 [2831 kB]
Fetched 2831 kB in 1s (3348 kB/s)
debconf: delaying package configuration, since apt-utils is not installed
(Reading database ... 4140 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libc6_2.27-3ubuntu1.6_amd64.deb ...
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (No usable dialog-like program is installed, so the dialog based frontend cannot be used. at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Dialog.pm line 76.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Readline
debconf: (Can't locate Term/ReadLine.pm in @INC (you may need to install the Term::ReadLine module) (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.26.1 /usr/local/share/perl/5.26.1 
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl5/5.26 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.26 /usr/share/perl/5.26 /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl-base) at /usr/share/perl5/Debcon
f/FrontEnd/Readline.pm line 7.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Teletype
Unpacking libc6:amd64 (2.27-3ubuntu1.6) over (2.27-3ubuntu1.5) ...
Setting up libc6:amd64 (2.27-3ubuntu1.6) ...
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (No usable dialog-like program is installed, so the dialog based frontend cannot be used. at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Dialog.pm line 76.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Readline
debconf: (Can't locate Term/ReadLine.pm in @INC (you may need to install the Term::ReadLine module) (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.26.1 /usr/local/share/perl/5.26.1 
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl5/5.26 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.26 /usr/share/perl/5.26 /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl-base) at /usr/share/perl5/Debcon
f/FrontEnd/Readline.pm line 7.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Teletype
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.27-3ubuntu1.5) ...
root at eef8e8932f4b:/# uname -r
4.14.275-207.503.amzn2.x86_64


** Tags removed: verification-needed verification-needed-bionic
** Tags added: verification-done-bionic

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to glibc in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1962225

Title:
  preinst check that kernel revision < 255 now does more harm than good

Status in glibc package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in glibc source package in Bionic:
  Fix Committed
Status in glibc source package in Focal:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  [impact]
  Amazon Linux 2 currently has a kernel with version 4.14.262-200.489.amzn2.x86_64. This causes complaints from libc6's preinst that asserts that the "revision" part of the kernel version is less than 255.

  The significance of the check is much less than it used to be when the
  major part of the kernel version was stuck at 2, so we should follow
  Debian and just drop it.

  [test case]
  Boot an Amazon Linux 2 instance. Install docker. Run an ubuntu container of the series being tested. Run "apt-get update && apt-get install --reinstall libc6" and look for error messages / failures.

  [regression potential]
  It's possible that some binaries run using the "uname26" personality will fail -- but they will already fail with the glibc as currently installed, there's no value in preventing an upgrade.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/glibc/+bug/1962225/+subscriptions