Bug 2293672 - VNC question will never be shown (e.g. when booting with "inst.text")
Summary: VNC question will never be shown (e.g. when booting with "inst.text")
Keywords:
Status: POST
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: anaconda
Version: 42
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
unspecified
low
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Martin Kolman
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2024-06-21 16:10 UTC by Adam Williamson
Modified: 2025-02-26 13:04 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

Fixed In Version: anaconda-41.22
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2024-07-23 13:07:45 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Adam Williamson 2024-06-21 16:10:55 UTC
Description of problem:
Since 55e0317541b8ce7373c51b4ba8f9867f67a29388 , I believe anaconda no longer ever asks if you want to install using VNC, when starting text mode. That commit includes this change:

@@ -154,7 +156,7 @@ def check_vnc_can_be_started(anaconda):
         vnc_startup_possible = False
 
     # disable VNC question if we were explicitly asked for text in kickstart
-    if anaconda.ksdata.displaymode.displayMode == DISPLAY_MODE_TEXT:
+    if anaconda.display_mode == constants.DisplayModes.TUI:
         error_messages.append("Not asking for VNC because text mode was explicitly asked for in kickstart")
         vnc_startup_possible = False
 
which makes the block no longer behave exactly as the comment says. It doesn't only suppress the question if text mode is requested in the *kickstart* any more. I think in practice it will just mean the question never gets displayed. I don't think it's possible to *be* in text mode without `anaconda.display_mode` being `constants.DisplayModes.TUI`. Specifically, at least, it means the question is no longer asked if you boot with `inst.text`, but looking at the code, it looks like all implementations of "go to text mode" involve doing `anaconda.display_mode = constants.DisplayModes.TUI`. So this check is effectively just "are we in text mode".

The question was initially added because VNC was considered the "preferred" method for headless install - https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=453551 . If that's still the case, we should find a way to put it back in all cases except when text mode was requested via kickstart (presumably we suppressed it in that case to allow for non-interactive text mode installs). If it's not the case, we should just get rid of all the code related to asking the question.

How reproducible: 100%


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot with `inst.text`
2. Look for the question

Actual results:
No question

Expected results:
Question

Comment 1 Katerina Koukiou 2024-07-23 13:07:45 UTC
Hi @Adam sorry for delayed response. I believe this was fixed in https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda/releases/tag/anaconda-41.21
First upstream release containing this fix is https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2024-3d40a8aab7 
For completeness the bug fix was implemented here https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda/pull/5710

Comment 2 Adam Williamson 2024-07-27 00:46:29 UTC
It does not seem to be fixed. Booting with `inst.text` still does not ask the question, see https://openqa.fedoraproject.org/tests/2749749#step/_boot_to_anaconda/3 - note it still says "Not asking for VNC because text mode was explicitly asked for in kickstart", which is not true. There is no kickstart.

AFAICS the PR you linked does nothing about this bug. It does not touch the code I pointed out as the cause of the problem at all.

Comment 3 Martin Kolman 2024-07-31 15:30:27 UTC
This PR should fix it: https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda/pull/5794

Comment 4 Aoife Moloney 2025-02-26 13:04:12 UTC
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora Linux 42 development cycle.
Changing version to 42.


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