ubuntu-20.04 doesn't have default tzdata installed

[paaguti]

When building an image, one of the packages depends on tzdata. The apt-get install process is halted when it arrives at the point where tzdata is configured;

Setting up tzdata (2020a-0ubuntu0.20.04) ...
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (TERM is not set, so the dialog frontend is not usable.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
Configuring tzdata
------------------

Please select the geographic area in which you live. Subsequent configuration
questions will narrow this down by presenting a list of cities, representing
the time zones in which they are located.

  1. Africa      4. Australia  7. Atlantic  10. Pacific  13. Etc
  2. America     5. Arctic     8. Europe    11. SystemV
  3. Antarctica  6. Asia       9. Indian    12. US
Geographic area: 1

Enter or Ctrl-D doesn't help. Only Ctrl-C leads to something and that is the interruption of the build process. This doesn't happen on 18.04

[tianon]

This is a little bit of a combination between https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-images/+bug/1682622 and https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-images/+bug/1782577 and thus upstream in Debian, https://bugs.debian.org/929417. 😞

Edit: fixed bug reference (I'd put 1682622 twice -- I meant 1782577 for one of those)

[paaguti]

In the meantime, it seems that docker exec <container> bash -c "DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get ... is a viable workaround. Just FYI best, /PA

…

On Mon, 20 Jul 2020 at 19:58, Tianon Gravi ***@***.***> wrote: This is a little bit of a combination between https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-images/+bug/1682622 and https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-images/+bug/1682622 and thus upstream in Debian, https://bugs.debian.org/929417. 😞 — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#181 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAZKU4EWKRVE5FYPQNM5NSDR4SAS5ANCNFSM4PBOU7TA> .

-- Fragen sind nicht da um beantwortet zu werden, Fragen sind da um gestellet zu werden Georg Kreisler

[mwhudson]

I think not having tzdata installed is fine, having it debconf at you when you install it is definitely unfriendly though. Can we preseed debconf somehow so it just assumes UTC?

And yes, people will eventually need to learn all the flags to keep it quiet but we can fix this one I think.

[woodz-]

But how to connect to a time service to periodically update system time in container? It starts with complete wrong date and time: Thu Feb 26 14:01:31 UTC 1970.
While host's system date and time are OK

[tianon]

@woodz- that's likely to be the same underlying issue as #183 and #184.

In other words, in order to resolve this, your host needs to have installed:

• Docker version 19.03.9 or newer
• libseccomp version 2.4.2 or newer

[tianon]

This repository is no longer canonical; see #248 for more details.