[Impact]
Ubuntu installations, even using the graphical installer, are often scripted in order to reduce the burden on administrators. With the increasing importance of security now in enterprise environments, scripted installations may be used to set up fully-encrypted desktop systems, which in the end need to be fed a custom password for full-disk encryption; by the end user or otherwise, which may need to explicitly not be scripted.
[Test case]
Use the included preseed file: one could customize a CD to include it in preseed/.
1 - Boot on the CD
2 - Press F6 to see the full command-line
3 - Edit the command-line to point to the custom preseed
4 - Add "only-ubiquity automatic-ubiquity" to boot in the installer, set up for automatic install.
5 - Start the system by hitting the Enter key.
The installation should complete succesfully. Without the patch, it will crash, and show an error message repeatedly.
[Regression Potential]
This affects the encryption page of the installer only, so could cause issues in the rendering of that page, or cause properly-scripted encryption settings to be missing in case of a regression.
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I was trying to preseed creating encrypted lvm for enabling unattended installation with ubiquity 2.18.8.2 (in trusty).
The encryption password has NOT been preseeded. I was expecting a UI with a password prompt.
The installation fails before partitioning with a message box:
"Keyfile creation failed. An error occurred while creating the keyfile."
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10
Package: ubiquity (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-23.31-generic 3.16.4
Uname: Linux 3.16.0-23-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.7-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Mon Oct 27 11:05:16 2014
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
This issue is similar to #1386113 but the cause it different, because the patch provided for the other issue does not fix this problem.
I looked at popping up a separate dialog here, but I think that's going to involve an unreasonable amount of code duplication. I think the right answer here is probably to detect the situation and present the user with the usual automatic partitioning page, but with the relevant preseeded entries filled in and just the password entry boxes left blank. This is still going to be some work to get right.