Subject: autopkgtest-build-qemu 5.13.1 always fails without $AUTOPKGTEST_APT_SOURCES_FILE

From: Ryutaroh Matsumoto <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 16 May 2020 17:05:25 +0900 (JST)

Package: autopkgtest
Version: 5.13.1
Severity: minor

Dear Maintainer,

Without $AUTOPKGTEST_APT_SOURCES_FILE,
autopkgtest-build-qemu 5.13.1 fails with

ERROR: Command failed: sh -c /usr/share/autopkgtest/setup-commands/setup-testbed $ROOT
b''
b'Generating grub configuration file ...\nFound linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.19.0-9-amd64\nFound initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.19.0-9-amd64\nFound Devuan GNU/Linux 3 (beowulf) on /dev/sda1\ndone\n/usr/share/autopkgtest/setup-commands/setup-testbed: Attempting to set up Debian/Ubuntu apt sources automatically\nFailed to auto-detect distribution release name; set $RELEASE explicitly\n'

Setting $AUTOPKGTEST_APT_SOURCES_FILE to a suitable source.list
works around this issue.
This is NOT observed in autopkgtest 5.10.

Best regards, Ryutaroh Matsumoto

-- System Information:
Distributor ID:	Debian
Description:	Devuan GNU/Linux 3 (beowulf)
Release:	3
Codename:	beowulf
Architecture: x86_64

Kernel: Linux 4.19.0-9-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=ja_JP.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=ja_JP.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages autopkgtest depends on:
ii  apt-utils       1.8.2.1
ii  libdpkg-perl    1.19.7
ii  procps          2:3.3.15-2+devuan1
ii  python3         3.7.3-1
ii  python3-debian  0.1.35

Versions of packages autopkgtest recommends:
ii  autodep8  0.18

Versions of packages autopkgtest suggests:
pn  lxc               <none>
pn  lxd               <none>
ii  ovmf              0~20181115.85588389-3+deb10u1
pn  qemu-efi-aarch64  <none>
pn  qemu-efi-arm      <none>
pn  qemu-system       <none>
ii  qemu-utils        1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u5
pn  schroot           <none>
ii  vmdb2             0.13.2+git20190215-1

-- no debconf information

---

From: Mark Hindley <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 16 May 2020 10:33:56 +0100

Control: tags -1 debian

> Setting $AUTOPKGTEST_APT_SOURCES_FILE to a suitable source.list

Ryutaroh,

Thanks. This looks as if autopkgtest doesn't recognise Devuan release names.

This package is not forked and Devuan uses Debian's package directly.

Are you able to prepare a patch for Debian that would fix this?

Thanks

Mark

---

From: Ryutaroh Matsumoto <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 16 May 2020 18:36:40 +0900 (JST)

Dear Mark,

> Are you able to prepare a patch for Debian that would fix this?

Did you mean that the Debian autopkgtest package maintainers should/ought to
support Devuan?
Or, Devuan should maintain a forked version of autopkgtest
that understands Devuan?

Best regards, Ryutaroh

From: Mark Hindley <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: bug#460: autopkgtest-build-qemu 5.13.1 always fails without $AUTOPKGTEST_APT_SOURCES_FILE
Date: Sat, 16 May 2020 10:33:56 +0100

---

From: Mark Hindley <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 16 May 2020 10:43:32 +0100

> Or, Devuan should maintain a forked version of autopkgtest

It would be preferable to submit a patch to Debian so that autopkgtest
understands Devuan releases (as it currently appears to for Ubuntu).

There are already a few Debian packages that have accepted such patches.

Best wishes

Mark

---

From: Ryutaroh Matsumoto <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 16 May 2020 19:09:31 +0900 (JST)

> There are already a few Debian packages that have accepted such patches.

Thanks for your quick clarification.
A major blocker to use autopkgtest on Devuan to test a Devuan package
(e.g. thunderbird or firefox) is #461. I have no idea on how to work around #461,
and without a workaround or a right fix to #461, fixes to #459 or #460
do not have much value, as autopkgtest remains completely unusable with
qemu testbed, besides #459 and #460 have easy workarounds.

I will put my effort on #460 after #461 finds a workaround or a fix.

Best regards, Ryutaroh

---

From: Mark Hindley <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2023 18:11:02 +0000

Control: tags -1 moreinfo

Ryutaroh,

On Sat, May 16, 2020 at 07:09:31PM +0900, Ryutaroh Matsumoto wrote:
> I have no idea on how to work around #461, and without a workaround or a right
> fix to #461, fixes to #459 or #460 do not have much value, as autopkgtest
> remains completely unusable with qemu testbed, besides #459 and #460 have easy
> workarounds.
> 

Now #461 is fixed, did you get resolutions for #460 and #459?

Thanks

Mark