failling unattended installation of RockyLinux 8.7 et 9.x

[Yorkish]

I've tested on version 7.0.4 AND 7.0.6

everything is done through the wizard

I'm also facing problems installation RockyLinux on VirtualBox with the unattended option

I downloaded the version 9.1 and verified the SHA256. It booted the ISO (in a brand new VM) but it didn't go any further. I got this message : " ISOLINUX 6.04 ETCDisolinux: image checksum error, sorry..." redid a new VM, skipped the unattended option, boots fine, even test the media from the boot menu (before launching the installation. Everything is fine!

ALSO

I downloaded the version 8.7 and verified the SHA256. Brand new VM, failed right after configuring the VM. Got this message :

Failed to run unattended guest installation. Unknown guest OS major version '8'. Result Code: E_FAIL (0X80004005) Component: UnattendedWrap Interface: IUnattended {6f89464f-7773-436a-a4df-592e4e537fa0}

redid a new VM, skipped the unattended option, boots fine, even test the media from the boot menu (before launching the installation. everything is fine!

8.6 works likes a charm both ways!

the ostype that gets auto-detected in every case is 'Red Hat (64-bit)'

for reference: I used those ISOs

​https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/8.7/isos/x86_64/Rocky-8.7-x86_64-dvd1.iso

​https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/9.1/isos/x86_64/Rocky-9.1-x86_64-dvd.iso

[Yorkish]

.treeinfo and .discinfo files from 3 rockyLinux DVD ISOs

[Yorkish]

I know my initial report is saying that 8.6 is working flawlessly, but a college, told me that an unattended setup performed on Rocky Linux v8.6 isn't not working on 7.x for him.

I've tested the unattended setup on Virtual Box v6.1.40 and it worked.

[Yorkish]

I've tested an unattended installation of Rocky Linux 8.7 using Virtual Box 6.1.42 and is it working.

Rocky Linux 9.1 unattended on 6.1.42 is outputting same error as in 9.1 ("ISOLINUX 6.04 ETCDisolinux: image checksum error, sorry...") must be something to do with the .viso that VBox is generating for the unattended install.

so as it stands : 9.1 unattended is not working on 6.1.42 and on 7.0.6 8.7 unattended is working on 6.1.42 but not on 7.0.6

[Yorkish]

in UnattendedScript.cpp a change was made while obtaining the version for the placeholder GUEST_OS_MAJOR_VERSION

in v6.1.38

        Utf8Str strOsVer(mpUnattended->i_getDetectedOSVersion());
        RTCList<RTCString> partList = strOsVer.split(".");
        if (partList.size() < 1) { /* returns VERR_NOT_FOUND */}

in 7.0.4

        Utf8Str const &rstrOsVer = mpUnattended->i_getDetectedOSVersion();
        size_t offDot = rstrOsVer.find('.');
        if (offDot > 0 && offDot != Utf8Str::npos) { ... }
        else if (...) {...} 
        else { return VERR_NO_DATA }

the split function that 6.1.38 is using returns the entire string if no dot (.) is found.

the find function that 7.0.4 now uses returns Utf8Str::npos when no dot(.) is found. the test condition that follows only cares about a (.) beeing found and in my case the else at the end returns that guest major version 8 is unknown.

[erwindon]

this is actually a major defect, as it prevents the unattended install of all-or-most RedHat derived operating systems (CentOS/CentOSSTream/Rocky/Fedora/alma/etc). these fail in this way, both in the GUI and in the "VBoxManage unattended" command.