Bug#1016644: simple-cdd: Please allow to preseed the 'error' type

[Arnaud Rebillout]

Package: debian-cdd
Severity: normal
User: de...@kali.org
Usertags: origin-kali

Dear Maintainer,

Lately I tried to preseed a question of the type 'error', and it wasn't
really straightforward.

Such a question can be seen in the package encfs, at:
https://sources.debian.org/src/encfs/1.9.5-1/debian/encfs.templates

The template looks like that:

Template: encfs/security-information
Type: error
_Description: Encfs security information
According to a security audit by Taylor Hornby (Defuse Security), the current
[...]

In effect, when the package encfs is installed by the Debian installer,
it displays an error message. It's not really a question, it's simply an
error message.

I tried to use preseeding to prevent the Debian installer from showing
this message. The tentative preseed line that I applied was:

encfs encfs/security-information seen true

However, this leads to a build failure in live-build-config:

$ ./build.sh --verbose --installer --variant netinst
[...]
2022-08-04 10:05:37,846 DEBUG Checking configuration...
error: Cannot find a question for encfs/security-information
2022-08-04 10:05:38,016 ERROR preseed file invalid:
<<LBDIR>>/simple-cdd/profiles/default.preseed

Fortunately, there's a workaround! We have to apply this preseeding instead:

encfs encfs/security-information boolean true
encfs encfs/security-information seen true

It seems like the first line is enough to trick simple-cdd/debconf into
accepting the second line. This workaround has been use to build the
Kali Linux ISOs:
https://gitlab.com/kalilinux/build-scripts/live-build-config/-/commit/d9040785

Note that the error message above seems to come from debconf, and I
wonder if it can be solved by adding 'error' to the list of known types
here: https://sources.debian.org/src/debconf/1.5.79/debconf-set-selections/#L154

To finish this report, a few URLs showing that other people struggle
with this issue:
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/encfs/+bug/1672827
- https://askubuntu.com/q/1401467/424636

Thanks,

Arnaud

[Arnaud Rebillout]

On Thu, 04 Aug 2022 15:57:36 +0200 Arnaud Rebillout <arn...@kali.org>
wrote:

>
> Note that the error message above seems to come from debconf, and I
> wonder if it can be solved by adding 'error' to the list of known types
> here:
https://sources.debian.org/src/debconf/1.5.79/debconf-set-selections/#L154

No, it doesn't work, I just tried.

--
Arnaud Rebillout / Offensive Security / Kali Linux Developer

[Vagrant Cascadian]

Control: reassign 1016644 debconf
Control: retitle 1016644 debconf-set-selections: Please allow to preseed the 'error' type
Control: affects 1016644 simple-cdd

On 2022-08-04, Arnaud Rebillout wrote:
> Lately I tried to preseed a question of the type 'error', and it wasn't
> really straightforward.
>
> Such a question can be seen in the package encfs, at:
> https://sources.debian.org/src/encfs/1.9.5-1/debian/encfs.templates
>
> The template looks like that:
>
> Template: encfs/security-information
> Type: error
> _Description: Encfs security information
> According to a security audit by Taylor Hornby (Defuse Security), the current
> [...]
>
> In effect, when the package encfs is installed by the Debian installer,
> it displays an error message. It's not really a question, it's simply an
> error message.
>
> I tried to use preseeding to prevent the Debian installer from showing
> this message. The tentative preseed line that I applied was:
>
> encfs encfs/security-information seen true
>
> However, this leads to a build failure in live-build-config:
>
> $ ./build.sh --verbose --installer --variant netinst
> [...]
> 2022-08-04 10:05:37,846 DEBUG Checking configuration...
> error: Cannot find a question for encfs/security-information
> 2022-08-04 10:05:38,016 ERROR preseed file invalid:
> <<LBDIR>>/simple-cdd/profiles/default.preseed

Where does this build.sh script come from? What is it calling? Not sure
how "live-build-config" is involved here. Please share the script so we
know what's actually being called.

This does sound likely to be simple-cdd calling out to debconf's
debconf-set-selections --checkonly ... so reassigning to debconf.

> Fortunately, there's a workaround! We have to apply this preseeding instead:
>
> encfs encfs/security-information boolean true
> encfs encfs/security-information seen true

At least there's a workaround...

> It seems like the first line is enough to trick simple-cdd/debconf into
> accepting the second line. This workaround has been use to build the
> Kali Linux ISOs:
> https://gitlab.com/kalilinux/build-scripts/live-build-config/-/commit/d9040785
>
> Note that the error message above seems to come from debconf, and I
> wonder if it can be solved by adding 'error' to the list of known types
> here: https://sources.debian.org/src/debconf/1.5.79/debconf-set-selections/#L154
>
> To finish this report, a few URLs showing that other people struggle
> with this issue:
> - https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/encfs/+bug/1672827
> - https://askubuntu.com/q/1401467/424636

Thanks for providing follow-up links...


live well,
vagrant