[Bug 2125687] Update Released
Nick Rosbrook
2125687 at bugs.launchpad.net
Wed May 6 17:04:07 UTC 2026
The verification of the Stable Release Update for ubuntu-release-
upgrader has completed successfully and the package is now being
released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates
Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug
report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package
from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug
report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2125687
Title:
Fail to upgrade from plucky to questing in a basic Ubuntu
Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader package in Ubuntu:
Fix Released
Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader source package in Plucky:
Won't Fix
Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader source package in Questing:
Fix Committed
Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader source package in Resolute:
Fix Released
Bug description:
[ Impact ]
* Users of minimal cloud images fail to run do-release-upgrade,
during the gpg validation, at the start of the tool.
The error can be worked around by manually installing gpg.
* The dependencies of u-r-u includes gpgv.
This replaces call point to gpgv instead of the possibly missing gpg command.
[ Test Plan ]
* lxc launch ubuntu-minimal:questing test
* lxc exec test -- do-release-upgrade -d
* follow interactive prompts
[ Where problems could occur ]
* The GPG validation is done at the start of the tool. If call to gpgv
was to fail, it would happen before a release upgrade starts and likely
show up as a stack trace. Although unsettling, to the user, no harm should
have been done yet.
* It is considered that gpgv, which is already set as a dependency, is a valid
drop-in replacement for calling gpg --verify in this context. In the
negative, validation of the upgrade tool integrity might be at risk.
[ Other Info ]
* The patch is already merged to resolute, but has seen only minimal testing
considering resolute doesn't have a release to upgrade to.
[ Original Description ]
Reproducer is very straightforward:
```
podman run -it ubuntu:plucky sh -c "apt update && apt upgrade -y && apt install -y ubuntu-release-upgrader-core && do-release-upgrade -d"
```
This is an interactive session, so make sure to provide answers.
Just when confirming the upgrade, the tool instantly crashes, complaining about a missing `gpg`:
```
Continue [yN] y
Get:1 Upgrade tool signature [833 B]
Get:2 Upgrade tool [966 kB]
Fetched 967 kB in 0s (0 B/s)
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeFetcherCore.py:180: Warning: W:Download is performed unsandboxed as root as file 'questing.tar.gz.gpg' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
result = fetcher.run()
authenticate 'questing.tar.gz' against 'questing.tar.gz.gpg'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/do-release-upgrade", line 229, in <module>
fetcher.run()
~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeFetcherCore.py", line 215, in run
if not self.authenticate():
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeFetcherCore.py", line 104, in authenticate
if self.gpgauthenticate(f, sig):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeFetcherCore.py", line 119, in gpgauthenticate
ret = subprocess.call(gpg, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
File "/usr/lib/python3.13/subprocess.py", line 395, in call
with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as p:
~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/lib/python3.13/subprocess.py", line 1039, in __init__
self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
pass_fds, cwd, env,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
...<5 lines>...
gid, gids, uid, umask,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
start_new_session, process_group)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/lib/python3.13/subprocess.py", line 1969, in _execute_child
raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg, err_filename)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'gpg'
```
Working around that is as simple as installing `gnupg` alongside
`ubuntu-release-upgrader-core`, and for that reason, the bug usually
doesn't happen on less basic installation.
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