Bug 2381896

Summary:	Handling of the runtime module
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	Simon de Vlieger <cmdr>
Component:	anaconda	Assignee:	anaconda-maint
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	unspecified
Version:	rawhide	CC:	anaconda-maint, kkoukiou, w
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	RFE
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	---
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:		Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Simon de Vlieger 2025-07-18 10:47:12 UTC

In Fedora 39 a new `Runtime` module got introduced [1]. The changelog notes that Anaconda will crash if this module is not enabled.

Anaconda is configurable as to which modules are allowed to be activated, or explicitly forbidden from running through files in `/etc/anaconda` (either dropins, or directly in `anaconda.conf`).

Recently I was working on a bug where we didn't have the runtime module available in `activatable_modules`. We never did this (and we didn't observe any crashes of Anaconda, FWIW), however with a PR that landed for Fedora 42 [2] the execution of `%post` scriptlets is now handled by this module which made us notice that the ISOs we build aren't correct.

This is clearly user error since it is noted in the changelog that this module should *always* be activated.

However, after some chats I think this could be handled more gracefully. If the intent is that Anaconda without the runtime module activated crashes (as written in the changelog) then to me it doesn't make a lot of sense that I can make it not run through configuration. Perhaps the runtime module should be activated unconditionally, no matter the configuration?

[1]: https://anaconda-installer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/release-notes.html#new-runtime-module

Reproducible: Always