Bug#955733: cloud-init does not set locale specified in user data
On Wed, Jun 28, 2023 at 08:51:46PM -0700, Noah Meyerhans wrote: > I think that each of the components is working correct if viewed in > isolation, but the end result is not what you expect. If we document > that you must first populate /etc/locale.gen with the desired list of > available locales, that may be sufficient. For example, the following > sets the desired locale: > > admin@ip-10-0-3-7:~$ sudo cat /var/lib/cloud/instance/user-data.txt > #cloud-config > write_files: > - path: /etc/locale.gen > content: ZW5fR0IuVVRGLTggVVRGLTgK > encoding: base64 > locale: en_GB.UTF-8 > admin@ip-10-0-3-7:~$ echo "ZW5fR0IuVVRGLTggVVRGLTgK" | openssl base64 -d > en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8 This feels like a workaround for the failure of cloud-init setting the locale on a Debian install. The locale configuration in cloud-init is expecting locale-gen to configure the generated locales with the specified locale. https://git.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cloud-init/tree/cloudinit/distros/debian.py#n401 Debian just ignores the locale passed as a parameter. > Do Ubuntu systems list all known locales in /etc/locale.gen? That would > make the locale module work without additional configuration, but seems > unnecessarily expensive. Ubuntu does not list all locales in /etc/locale.gen, but their version of locale-gen will update /etc/locale.gen to add/uncomment the specified locale before generating locales. https://git.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/glibc/tree/debian/local/usr_sbin/locale-gen?h=ubuntu/jammy#n115 It seems cloud-init has expectation on what locale-gen will do (i.e. _update_ and generate), and that is not the case. I don't know if cloud-init should take on the responsibility for updating /etc/locale.gen, or if locale-gen should update /etc/locale.gen if passed a parameter.
Bug#955733: cloud-init does not set locale specified in user data
Package: cloud-init Version: 18.3-6 I am launching a Buster 10.3 EC2 instance with the following user data to initialise and set the default locale: #cloud-config hostname: argon locale: en_GB.UTF-8 timezone: Europe/London This fails to set the locale, and "systemctl status cloud-init" shows: Apr 04 11:00:30 argon systemd[1]: Starting Apply the settings specified in cloud-config... Apr 04 11:00:43 argon cloud-init[546]: Generating locales (this might take a while)... Apr 04 11:00:43 argon cloud-init[546]: Generation complete. Apr 04 11:00:43 argon cloud-init[546]: *** update-locale: Error: invalid locale settings: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8 Apr 04 11:00:43 argon cloud-init[546]: Cloud-init v. 18.3 running 'modules:config' at Sat, 04 Apr 2020 10:00:41 +. Up 21.77 seconds. Apr 04 11:00:43 argon cloud-init[546]: 2020-04-04 10:00:43,604 - util.py[WARNING]: Running module locale () failed Apr 04 11:00:45 argon systemd[1]: cloud-config.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE Apr 04 11:00:45 argon systemd[1]: cloud-config.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. Apr 04 11:00:45 argon systemd[1]: Failed to start Apply the settings specified in cloud-config. The log file "cloud-init.log" shows the error is caused by failing to generate the requested locale. 2020-04-04 10:00:43,005 - debian.py[DEBUG]: Generating locales for en_GB.UTF-8 2020-04-04 10:00:43,005 - util.py[DEBUG]: Running command ['locale-gen', 'en_GB.UTF-8'] with allowed return codes [0] (shell=False, capture=False) The command "locale-gen" does not accept a locale as an argument, but only generates the locales listed in "/etc/locale.gen". So the locale requested does not get generated, and causes the subsequent failure when setting locale. 2020-04-04 10:00:43,196 - util.py[DEBUG]: Running command ['update-locale', '--locale-file=/etc/default/locale', 'LANG=en_GB.UTF-8'] with allowed return codes [0] (shell=False, capture=False) Nick
Bug#859213: x11vnc: stack smashing detected: x11vnc terminated
As a workaround, I found that adding "--noxrecord" to the options avoids the bug.
