[Bug 1740026] Re: ubiquity crashed with UnicodeDecodeError in decode(): 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x91 in position 269: invalid start byte

[Andrew Dyer]

Just had the same bug show up on lubuntu 18.05 trying to install on a small Atom computer. Same device, "H8G4a" suffixed by the unicode character.
Took a while to get around the issue. Ended up using a different PC to install lubuntu to a small partition on a portable HDD. Then using Clonezilla I imaged that drive and wrote the image to the embedded eMMC, followed by growing the partition into unallocated space.
I could not use the Atom computer to install to the other drive as the eMMC is non-removable. As soon as the installer looks for storage devices it hangs.
I could not work out a way disable the device or otherwise exclude the drive from the device list.
Clonezilla repeatably reported issues parsing the device name as well, but was able to proceed. Only impact being that in the device list the eMMC appeared as "emmcblk0 <default name>" or something like that.

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Title:
  ubiquity crashed with UnicodeDecodeError in decode(): 'utf-8' codec
  can't decode byte 0x91 in position 269: invalid start byte

Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Trying to install

  ProblemType: Crash
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
  Package: ubiquity 17.10.10
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-16.19-generic 4.13.4
  Uname: Linux 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperVersion: 1.387
  Date: Mon Dec 25 13:19:57 2017
  ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity
  InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python3.6
  LiveMediaBuild: Lubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Release amd64 (20171017.1)
  ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python3 /usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity gtk_ui
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=unknown
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   LANG=C.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  Python3Details: /usr/bin/python3.6, Python 3.6.3, python3-minimal, 3.6.3-0ubuntu2
  PythonArgs: ['/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity', 'gtk_ui']
  PythonDetails: /root/Error: command ['which', 'python'] failed with exit code 1:, Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: "/root/Error: command ['which', 'python'] failed with exit code 1:": "/root/Error: command ['which', 'python'] failed with exit code 1:", unpackaged
  SourcePackage: ubiquity
  Title: ubiquity crashed with UnicodeDecodeError in decode(): 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x91 in position 269: invalid start byte
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
  UserGroups:

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