FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Malformed output discovered from systemd list-unit-files: apparmor.service enabled"}

[ketan-vijayvargiya]

Hi,
I am facing the above-mentioned problem while trying to deploy.

Details:

• OS: Canonical-Ubuntu-20.04-Minimal.
• Command: ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=start. (setup-all succeeded earlier.)

Any ideas on how to fix this? (Please let me know if someone needs more details.)

Stack trace:

TASK [matrix-common-after : Ensure Matrix services are started] *********************************************************************************************************************
changed: [matrix.flister.cf] => (item=matrix-mailer)
changed: [matrix.flister.cf] => (item=matrix-postgres)
changed: [matrix.flister.cf] => (item=matrix-synapse)
changed: [matrix.flister.cf] => (item=matrix-client-element)
changed: [matrix.flister.cf] => (item=matrix-ma1sd)
changed: [matrix.flister.cf] => (item=matrix-nginx-proxy)
ok: [matrix.flister.cf] => (item=matrix-coturn)

TASK [matrix-common-after : Wait a bit, so that services can start (or fail)] *******************************************************************************************************
ok: [matrix.flister.cf -> 127.0.0.1]

TASK [matrix-common-after : Populate service facts] *********************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [matrix.flister.cf]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Malformed output discovered from systemd list-unit-files: apparmor.service                       enabled         enabled      "}

PLAY RECAP **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
matrix.flister.cf          : ok=18   changed=2    unreachable=0    failed=1    skipped=93   rescued=0    ignored=0   

[ketan-vijayvargiya]

ubuntu@public-matrix-instance-1090:~/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy$ ansible --version
ansible 2.9.6
  config file = /home/ubuntu/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/ubuntu/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.8.5 (default, Jul 28 2020, 12:59:40) [GCC 9.3.0]

I see a few posts on the internet that say that this issue is with Ansible 2.9.6 and upgrading to 2.9.7 should fix the problem. Let me try that out once.

[ketan-vijayvargiya]

The problem went away once I migrated to 2.10.2 (Apparently, there are no builds beyond 2.9.6 for Ubuntu 20.04-Minimal, so I had to build from source.)

So, it seems like the minimal Ansible version this playbook works with is 2.9.7 - is this something that should be enforced through the version check inherent in the playbook?

In any case, please feel free to close this issue if you'd like.

[spantaleev]

It's a problem that happens with a specific (older) Ansible version and new systemd.

If we are to add some check to the playbook, it should try to match against both of these. It may be a bit tricky, so we're not doing it.

---

Ubuntu 20.04 still ships an old and buggy version of Ansible, even though this has been a known issue for months: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ansible/+bug/1880359

It's not the first time we see such a thing (Ubuntu not updating software, despite known issues). It's even funnier, because 20.04 is labelled as LTS.

I think the proper solution is to avoid horrible distros like Ubuntu, which are obviously not your friend, as they are not even "short-term supported", let alone "long-term supported".

[aaronraimist]

A note on https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy/blob/master/docs/prerequisites.md that Ubuntu can work but isn't recommended might not be a bad idea, and maybe another note on https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy/blob/master/docs/ansible.md#supported-ansible-versions that Ubuntu ships with a buggy version.

[spantaleev]

Good idea! I've added some notes via 3fd198e