Debugging gitlab job issues (was: Transition to VM based CI)

[Ben Cooksley]

On Sat, Sep 6, 2025 at 1:50 AM Thomas Friedrichsmeier <
thomas.friedrichsmeier at kdemail.net> wrote:

> On Tue, 8 Jul 2025 06:49:29 +1200
> Ben Cooksley <bcooksley at kde.org> wrote:
> [...]
> > The VM images themselves are built using some rather simplistic
> > scripting at invent.kde.org/sysadmin/ci-images.
> > Once built they're published to storage.kde.org/vm-images/ - so yes
> > you could definitely just download a CI VM image and start hacking
> > right away.
> >
> > There is tooling in sysadmin/ci-images (vm-runner folder) which
> > automates the process of downloading an image, setting up the VM, etc
> > and makes running a new one as easy as:
> >     vm-runner run --cpu 4 --ram 4G --disk 100G --image
> > storage.kde.org/vm-images/alpine-qt68 --mount ~/shared/ --ssh-keys
> > ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub mynewvm
>
> Trying to debug this build failure (while building vlc for appimage,
> using craft): https://invent.kde.org/education/rkward/-/jobs/3323793 .
> A similar job still running in a docker container succeeds
> (https://invent.kde.org/packaging/craft-blueprints-kde/-/jobs/3317222),
> so it seems to depend on some specifics of the system, and I was hoping
> to diagnose the problem by downloading the VM image.
>
> I started the "craft-appimage" image using the vm-runner script, as
> shown, entered it as "user" via ssh, and bootstrapped craft inside of
> it. To my surprise, building vlc in that setup does not show the same
> error, however (it still fails, but at a slightly later point, and with
> a different error that I do understand, and will be able to fix).
>
> So I wonder:
> 1) What do I need to do to replicate an environment identical to the
> one used on gitlab.
>

I'd suggest starting by running the commands in sequence as at
https://invent.kde.org/sysadmin/ci-utilities/-/blob/master/gitlab-templates/blocks/craft-linux-base.yml?ref_type=heads
My suspicion is the gcc-toolset-14 may have something to do with XCB not
being found.


>
> Also, while not at that point, yet:
> 2) Can I modify the image, interactively, specifically, by installing
> some stuff with root privileges? Or will I have to rebuild the image
> from scratch, for that?
>

Locally you can yes, just login as "vmadmin" and then use sudo.
The "user" account that the CI system (and you just worked with) uses does
not have those privileges so you can't change anything requiring root
privileges in a CI job.


>
> Thanks!
>

Thanks,
Ben
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