Defining base snap breaks snapping Subiquity

Metadata

Project: snapcraft (launchpad)
Number: #1860550
Type: issue
State: open
Author: ~nwessels
Labels: —
Created: 2020-01-22 01:10 PM UTC
Updated: 2020-05-07 10:27 PM UTC
Closed: —

Current evaluation

Adding `base: core18` to Subiquity's snapcraft.yaml left the ISO's seed invalid, so snapd hung seeding with empty /snap/bin. snapd maintainers traced it to seed.yaml generation in the ISO builder, not snapcraft, and marked their task Invalid.

Suggested action: close not a bug

Reason: mwhudson ("Ah yes, we need to fix this") and chipaca diagnosed the hang as an invalid seed.yaml — "There is not much snapd can do on a system with an invalid seed; it needs checking before creating the system image" — and chipaca explicitly set the snapd bug task to Invalid. Snapcraft produced a valid snap; the defect lies in how the livecd/ISO builder assembles the seed when a base is declared, which is outside this repo, so nothing actionable remains here.

Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot

Impact: 28 Quick Win: 4 Complexity: 42 Confidence: 76 Actionability: 25

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
2026-10-02 07:35 PM UTC	stealth/space-bunny-alpha	Impact: 28 Quick Win: 4 Complexity: 42 Confidence: 76 Actionability: 25	close not a bug	Adding `base: core18` to Subiquity's snapcraft.yaml left the ISO's seed invalid, so snapd hung seeding with empty /snap/bin. snapd maintainers traced it to seed.yaml generation in the ISO builder, not snapcraft, and marked their task Invalid.
2026-09-30 09:09 PM UTC	stealth/space-bunny-alpha	Impact: 30 Quick Win: 2 Complexity: 70 Confidence: 72 Actionability: 25	close not a bug	Defining a base (core18) in Subiquity's snapcraft.yaml made an ISO-injected seed invalid, so snapd hung seeding with empty /snap/bin; maintainers assigned the fix to the ISO builder, not snapcraft.
2026-09-24 07:43 PM UTC	stealth/space-bunny-alpha	Impact: 35 Quick Win: 6 Complexity: 65 Confidence: 93 Actionability: 45	close stale	Legacy Subiquity snap injection with base core18 left snapd unseeded; this path is obsolete because current Snapcraft requires the legacy 7.x release for core18 builds.
2026-09-01 09:14 AM UTC	qwen/qwen3.8-27b	Impact: 20 Quick Win: 9 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.
2026-07-23 02:09 PM UTC	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.
2026-07-22 01:26 PM UTC	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.
2026-07-10 04:37 AM UTC	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.

Update history

Date	Change
2020-05-07 10:27 PM UTC	created

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