Ubiquity does't start, hangs in "/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity", line 426, in acquire_lock, test_debconf.stdout.readline()

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

This issue is seen in the daily smoke tests too, on both amd64 and i386 installs. The VM's in concern just hang with gray screens.

I retried several images around the time of the failure and last known good image is 20140527.

On 20140528, the graphical environment starts, but there is no ubiquity-dm, ubiquity window is not displayed and the live session never starts.
On 20140529.1, ubiquity-dm is completely skipped and the live session starts directly.

I attached the manifest files for these 3 images, it corresponds with the upload of systemd.

Here are the changes from 20140527.manifest to 20140528.manifest

This bug was fixed in the package ubiquity - 2.18.9

---------------
ubiquity (2.18.9) utopic; urgency=medium

  * Flush print into debconf-communicate stdin PIPE, as print(...,file=)
    may not flush anymore. (LP: #1326707)
  * Switch sources to utopic.
  * Automatic update of included source packages: console-setup
    1.70ubuntu9, flash-kernel 3.0~rc.4ubuntu50, hw-detect 1.95ubuntu3,
    partman-basicfilesystems 95ubuntu1.
 -- Dimitri John Ledkov <email address hidden> Tue, 10 Jun 2014 01:07:43 +0100

Hello Jean-Baptiste, or anyone else affected,

Accepted ubiquity into trusty-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/2.18.8.9 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

The SRU resolved this bug, according to my testing.

This bug was fixed in the package ubiquity - 2.18.8.9

---------------
ubiquity (2.18.8.9) trusty; urgency=medium

  * Automatic update of included source packages: debian-installer-utils
    1.105ubuntu1.14.04.1, flash-kernel 3.0~rc.4ubuntu49.5, hw-detect
    1.95ubuntu2.1, netcfg 1.116ubuntu2, partman-auto 118ubuntu3.14.04.2,
    partman-efi 25ubuntu6.14.04.1, grub-installer 1.78ubuntu20.2, partman-base
    172ubuntu1.1.
  * Add trusty-updates to sources.list for d-i components too; because we want
    things to be up to date...
  * Flush print into debconf-communicate stdin PIPE, as print(...,file=)
    may not flush anymore. (LP: #1326707)

 -- Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre <email address hidden> Mon, 27 Jul 2015 21:53:31 -0400

The verification of the Stable Release Update for ubiquity has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.