Building Ubuntu VM challenges

[ColoradoMarmot]

Well, shoot.  

Finding the right ubuntu ISO's is a huge PITA.  No wonder Linux never succeeded on the desktop 🙂

Seriously, most of the links in the testing guide aren't valid anymore.  All of the arm links I can find for 21.x releases are for server only.  And for 22.04, the installer crashes and won't work.

Tried Debian too, but for the life of me I can't get the tools to install.  I know I'm rusty, but wow this is a major challenge.

[the_Jessica]

I downloaded my iso file a few hours ago from https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/jammy-desktop-arm64.iso.

and I'm using vmware fusion tech preview

and my system is Macbook pro M1

[Technogeezer]

If you've downloaded the installer recently (within the last week or so), it's very likely that the installer is impacted by Linux kernel security changes that render it unbootable on the Tech Preview.

If so, there is nothing you can do until VMware responds to the situation. Try a full released Ubuntu Server ARM version (not a network install) and don't let it update to the latest kernel..

[JeffH322]

I kept running into similar issues when trying to install the ARM64 version of Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS from the official Ubuntu ISO.

It never failed - as soon as I got past the page where I accepted the option to format the virtual disk and was prompted to enter my name, the installer would crash.

What I figured out was the installer was automatically getting updated during the installation routine as the VM was able to connect to the network - subsequently out to the Internet.

I decided to try disconnecting (not removing) the network adapter, then rebooting the VM and ran through the installation process again. It worked! And I've been able to demonstrate this consistently.

The one thing to keep in mind is that, for any processes where the installer attempts to connect to anything on the network (i.e. cloud-init), the process will take a lot longer to complete and the installer will ask you if you want to continue without network connectivity. Yes you do! 🙂

Once the installation is complete, select the option to "Reboot Now". You can safely update the OS after the first boot.

Make sure you connect the network adapter before rebooting the VM otherwise it will hang during the boot routine.

WORD OF WARNING - for whatever reason, updating the kernel did cause the VM to fail to start up. I ended up having to manually select the original kernel, then modify the GRUB configuration so the VM would always boot off the original version of the kernel. I also need to go back and figure out how to disable apt from downloading kernel updates.

Good luck!

[Mikero]

I know this doesn't help anyone yet, but. we do have some fixes for this in the wings.

It's a two stage thing... Linux needed a patch, and we patched Fusion. The Fusion patches haven't yet shipped, so we're thinking through that.

The Linux patch is here:

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/drivers/video/fbdev/core/f...

And that patch has not yet been picked up by Ubuntu in 22.04. (i.e. so there's no point shipping an update from us until that's in the wild).

That's at least for this "the display is black and it doesn't boot" issue... I know there are others but we're having more dialogue and it feels very positive 😃

I know it's been frustrating (for me too, seriously), so thanks for bearing with us as we work through it together with the community.  (You can see Suse and Redhat folks both reviewing and approving the changes in the patch... Open Source FTW!)

[JeffH322]

Hello,

Thank you for your response. I'm happy to know that there will eventually be a fix checked into Ubuntu 22.04 but what about 20.04 LTS? Given that 20.04 is a Long Term Support release, I hope that there are plans to incorporate whatever the fix is there too.

[Technogeezer]

---

@JeffH322 wrote:

Hello,

Thank you for your response. I'm happy to know that there will eventually be a fix checked into Ubuntu 22.04 but what about 20.04 LTS? Given that 20.04 is a Long Term Support release, I hope that there are plans to incorporate whatever the fix is there too.

---

That will be up to the kernel maintainers and/or Ubuntu distro maintainers to back port the fixes into earlier kernel versions.

[tseliot]

As a suggestion, one you can successfully get the virtual machine booting, you can use "apt-mark hold" to stop updates on certain packages.

I've found success on Ubuntu 20.04 (ARM64 server) since the live install doesn't seem to have the kernel updates mentioned.  I followed the recommendations here https://gist.github.com/rhaleblian/44f2cb4418ee978603dc0b15dadf0e02) and removed the network card for install.  I didn't need to pass any boot parameters during the install process.  Once I had the virtual machine installed, I added the network card back and used the command below to stop kernel updates:

"apt-mark hold linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic"

"apt-mark showhold" will verify that apt is holding updates on the package.  Whenever everything is fixed, we should just be able to remove the hold an update the VM.

For the GUI addicted, "apt install ubuntu-desktop" should give you the desktop GUI packages.

[k_ronny]

The patch has just been released for kernel versions 5.17.2, 5.16.19 and 5.15.33.

[Mikero]

Great to see... Now we wait for Ubuntu et. al. to update...

https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/jammy-desktop-arm64.manifest 

linux-headers-5.15.0-25

They're in `Mainline` tho:

https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.17.2/arm64/  

[trodemaster]

Looks like those have not hit the daily ubuntu builds yet. 

curl -s https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-server/daily-live/current/jammy-live-server-arm64.manifest | grep linux-image
linux-image-5.15.0-23-generic 5.15.0-23.23
linux-image-generic 5.15.0.23.25

[Mikero]

Heh, I guess we were on the same thought-train this morning 😉

[trodemaster]

Jinks! 

Yep with some new hardware showing up this week updating my ubuntu packer template is top of mind. 

Looked at this doc that potentially you could cram the newer kernel into the live installer image. 
https://askubuntu.com/questions/94156/installing-with-a-different-kernel

Stares at the pile of projects I have started recently. I'll probably just wait as burning hours hacking up an iso is not the best use of time. 

Cheers,
Blake

[Rikosintie1]

Thanks for posting this information!
I built a Debian 11 VM for a class I am taking. I have a lot of time invested in building all the Apache, PHP, MariaDB, etc configs.

I have been making snapshots but I would like to shut it down and create an external backup. At this point I'm afraid it won't restart.

Here is the output of uname -a
Linux debianvm 5.10.0-11-arm64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.92-1 (2022-01-18) aarch64 GNU/Linux

Can someone tell me if this kernel is affected by the security update and won't restart? 

Thanks!

[k_ronny]

debian - kernel version 5.10.106+1:

https://tracker.debian.org/news/1311890/accepted-linux-signed-amd64-5101061-source-into-proposed-upd... 

...
- [arm64] add ID_AA64ISAR2_EL1 sys register
...

upstream - kernel version 5.10.105:

https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/ChangeLog-5.10.105 

arm64: cpufeature: add HWCAP for FEAT_RPRES
commit 1175011a7d0030d49dc9c10bde36f08f26d0a8ee upstream.
...
Also expose this to userspace in the ID_AA64ISAR2_EL1 feature register.

[Rikosintie1]

Thanks K_Ronny!

Do you know if the kernel I am running is affected?

All I really want to do is shut it down, take a backup, then start it up.

This class has specific software and it's all tested on that kernel, I don't want to upgrade if I don't have to.

[k_ronny]

I can't say for sure. But I don't think a working kernel won't boot anymore. All I know is that according to the Debian changelog, all kernels from version 5.10.0-13-arm64 (5.10.106-1) onwards are affected by the problem.

You have a kernel version 5.10.0-11-arm64 (5.10.92-1). So there should be no problems.

But please do not hold me responsible for any problems that may arise.

[Rikosintie1]

Thanks, K_Ronny, your responses are great!  

I think I am OK then, 

I will be careful not to do an upgrade of Debian until I see a new release from VMware.

[Rikosintie1]

K_Ronny, 

I forgot and applied macOS updates that required a reboot. 

Luckily the VM booted right back up, thanks for your help on this!

[mbreneis]

Thanks for all the good info in this thread.    I am using the VM Ware Tech Preview version on my new MAC Book pro with the M1 chip.   Trying to run "jammy-desktop-arm64.iso".     I was able to modify the line at the grub menu with the "acpi=force' .  Hit ctrl-x and then I get this. 

 Any suggestions? 

[Technogeezer]

I am assuming that the Jammy Desktop ISO is a "daily-live" pre-release build. 22.04 LTS "Jammy Jellyfish" was released about a week ago, and Canonical has in its infinite wisdom deemed it not necessary to post a released arm64 version of Jammy Desktop, only AMD64.

The last daily-live build (https://cdrom.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current) is from 4/19). This build (and pretty much every build on or after March 2022) will not boot on the Tech Preview and there's nothing you can do to get it to boot. 

My suggestion would be to get a copy of Ubuntu Server 21.10 or 20.04.4 LTS and upgrade it to Jammy, taking care not to update the kernel in the process.

See the unofficial document posted here for information collected from this forum that might help you: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Fusion-for-Apple-Silicon-Tech/Tips-Techniques-Gotchas-for-the-Tech...