Defining base snap breaks snapping Subiquity
Metadata
Current evaluation
Subiquity snap build with base: core18 leaves /snap/bin empty and snapd stuck seeding in ISO; works without base keyword. Reported ~6.5 years ago with zero comments; core18 is EOL and snapcraft 8.x rewrote base handling, so it is no longer applicable.
Suggested action: close stale
Reason: The issue is 2413 days old with last activity 2307 days ago, zero comments, and no labels, and it targets snapcraft classic behavior with base: core18, an EOL base no longer supported by current snapcraft. Related Launchpad bug 1839604 confirms base/build-base validation was rewritten in snapcraft 8.x, so the original problem is no longer reproducible in the current codebase. Closing as stale-and-obsolete is appropriate rather than leaving an unactionable report open.
Impact:
20
Quick Win:
9.0
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
55
Confidence:
80
Support Request:
15
Issue body
Subiquity basically uses an old snapcraft.yaml configuration. I updated this configuration to use base: core18 and multipass and set up all of its dependencies and packages to be local. When injecting the snap into an ISO, snapd gets stuck in "Wait until snapd is fully seeded". Checking back with TTY2, I see that the /snap/bin directory is empty. When not specifying a base keyword, the /snap/bin directory consists of the required snap parts and runs correctly.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
20
Quick Win:
9.0
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
55
Confidence:
80
Support Request:
15
|
close stale | Subiquity snap build with base: core18 leaves /snap/bin empty and snapd stuck seeding in ISO; works without base keyword. Reported ~6.5 years ago with zero comments; core18 is EOL and snapcraft 8.x rewrote base handling, so it is no longer applicable. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
92
Support Request:
20
|
close stale | Subiquity ISO installation hangs when snapcraft.yaml defines base: core18, leaving /snap/bin empty. The report has zero comments and no maintainer engagement. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
95
Support Request:
15
|
close stale | Report describes Subiquity snap failing to seed when using base: core18 in snapcraft.yaml, leaving /snap/bin empty. Issue is over 6 years old, uses deprecated base, and has had no maintainer interaction. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
20
|
close stale | Report of Subiquity failing to seed when snapcraft.yaml specifies base: core18, leaving /snap/bin empty. Unaddressed for over six years with no maintainer interaction. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
20
|
close stale | Setting base: core18 in snapcraft.yaml causes Subiquity snap to hang during seeding with an empty /snap/bin directory. The issue is unlabelled, has no maintainer response, and has been inactive for over six years. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1839604 build-base seems broken | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Seven-year-old question about snapcraft rejecting 'base: bare' with 'build-base: core18' via a confusing validation error. No maintainer response; validation was rewritten in snapcraft 8.x, where build-base is now required for bare bases, so the reported combination is now valid. | |
| #1752538 Building snap using base-18 is broken with 2.39 | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | snapcraft 2.39 broke base-18 builds on bionic due to shebang expansion and missing LD_LIBRARY_PATH. The report was closed without resolution, likely abandoned or superseded by newer base versions. | |
| #1857019 cannot build snapd snap with build-base: core w/o base: core | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed without resolution or comments. The snapcraft TypeError when using build-base: core without base: core remains unresolved. | |
| #4972 Cannot create a snap with base:bare in destructive mode | snapcraft | open | Snapcraft 8.3.2 fails with 'cannot determine build-for architecture' when building a base:bare snap in destructive mode without build-base. Maintainer confirmed build-base is required for bare and plans an earlier, clearer validation error. |