[Bug 2057454] Re: [Ubuntu 24.04] Failed to Install Ubuntu 24.04 with ISO attached to VirtualMedia of OSM.

[Raphaël Droz]

If this issue must be indeed critical, it's not specifically about a CDROM read-error but rather about the general *behavior* of `subiquity` in such a situation and more generally when encountering any *transitory* error like:
- GPG signature: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/subiquity/+bug/2076943
- custom mirror: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/subiquity/+bug/1883401
- apt hash mismatch: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/subiquity/+bug/2009034
- "something went wrong": https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/subiquity/+bug/2059304

So I suggest to make this a meta-bug about the many error-handling
defects affecting this package.

I recently had the opportunity to test a 24.04 LTS installation:
1. Get informed that an error occurred
2. Broad error-message in a popup
3. Can't even *retry*
4. Even after trying to debug the underlying issue...
... still can't *retry* the process by clicking the dedicated icon.

Let's go step by step over this absurd UX:

- First, when I get an installation error and the window closes I *must* always be able to rerun the process by clicking the button.
(A bug in the installer making it implicitly "stateful" *is* critical and contrary to the reliable nature of the installer any sane user [and developer] would expect)

It's not the case anymore, mainly because some genius(es) got the idea to make the installer an HTTP client-server process making:
- way more complicated
- less reliable
- issue identification harder

- An error impacts the client which exits or crashes, but the Python
server stays in a buggy/error state refusing future client-initiated
installation requests. (*This* is a critical design-flaw)

- When a network error happens (in my case, a mirror in South America
returned a hash mismatch), then a *clear* error message should be output
(be it from the client or the server) so that the user is truly given a
chance to fix manually it before restarting.


We could add that "offline" installation (supposed to fix the mirror error), isn't actually truly offline (if drivers are involved) or that logs are now split into different places or that this hash mismatch triggered unhandled Python errors, ...

There is nothing more worrying than seeing all these code-smell in a GNU/Linux installer.
In the end this installer is in no way better than that of 8.04/Hardy and definitely less reliable: Almost twenty years of software development to end up with strace & debug tools to workaround a buggy installation software.

(Sorry to be verbose and somehow sarcastic but it's well-deserved given
the sensitive nature of a visibly alpha-quality level installer which
was unreasonably given the charge of the LTS version of a mainstream
distribution.)


To paraphrase the laconic popup: _"Something went wrong"_, but it's deeper and much more serious than a mere Python error...

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2057454

Title:
  [Ubuntu 24.04] Failed to Install Ubuntu 24.04 with ISO attached to
  VirtualMedia of OSM.

Status in subiquity package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Committed
Status in subiquity source package in Noble:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  On Dell PowerEdge system unable to complete Installation of Ubuntu
  24.04 using ISO mounted by Virtual media option.

  Steps to Reproduce: -

  1. Attach Ubuntu 24.04 ISO to RFS path of Virtual media.
  2. Boot to F11 and select the Virtual Optical drive from Oneshot UEFI boot menu.
  3. Begin the Ubuntu24.04 Installation.
  4. Installation was failed.

  Expected Results: - The Installation should be successful without any
  errors.

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