crossing the distributions

[George {Skip} F VerDuin]

I may have created an unsolvable problem perhaps requiring me to start 
over?  It seems to be a case of up-to-date software...

Please consider the following excerpt from /tmp/fai/fai.log that was 
reporting on task_updatebase on the target host after an install procedure:
=========================================
Get: 63 http://lug.mtu.edu/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main libdpkg-perl all 
1.16.1.2ubuntu7.5 [182 kB]
Get: 64 http://lug.mtu.edu/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main build-essential 
i386 11.5ubuntu2.1 [5796 B]
Fetched 42.4 MB in 39s (1077 kB/s)
debconf: delaying package configuration, since apt-utils is not installed
(Reading database ... 13988 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace base-files 6.5ubuntu6 (using 
.../base-files_6.5ubuntu6.8_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement base-files ...
Setting up base-files (6.5ubuntu6.8) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/issue ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/issue.net ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/lsb-release ...
(Reading database ... 13989 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace bash 4.2-2ubuntu2 (using 
.../bash_4.2-2ubuntu2.6_i386.deb) ...
/bin/bash: BASH_FUNC_task_softupdate(): line 0: syntax error near 
unexpected token `)'
/bin/bash: BASH_FUNC_task_softupdate(): line 0: 
`BASH_FUNC_task_softupdate() () {  echo Performing FAI system update. 
All data may be overwritten!;'
/bin/bash: error importing function definition for 
`BASH_FUNC_task_softupdate'
/bin/bash: BASH_FUNC_ifclass(): line 0: syntax error near unexpected 
token `)'
/bin/bash: BASH_FUNC_ifclass(): line 0: `BASH_FUNC_ifclass() () { if [ 
$# -eq 1 ]; then'
==========================================

I see two issues in the above:

1) apt gives the message:

Preparing to replace base-files 6.5ubuntu6 (using 
.../base-files_6.5ubuntu6.8_i386.deb) ...

and IMHO the suffix "_i386.deb" in the target version is a bug. Actually 
a correct target version has loaded and the problem may be only a faulty 
message.  I have not found "386.deb" in FAI config space and therefore I 
do not know where it comes from.

2) I focus on the BASH_FUNC error.  I find mail list conversation in 
October 2014 and bug #764313 that seem related.  On Oct 20 the bug was 
closed when considering the Debian wheezy environment and my results do 
seem OK while installing wheezy on the target host. However I have 
created a Ubuntu base.tgz to provide an optional OS for the target host 
and now I find the task_updatebase to be giving the above results.   All 
of this is done on 32bit hosts.

The BASH_FUNC is reported to be an issue with versions of software. I 
have done the following:
My FAI server is on a workstation with Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS.  The FAI 
package is loaded from wheezy repo and is version 4.3.1+wheezy1.  A 
base.tgz is created on the same host as the FAI server.  The target host 
repositories are only the Ubuntu 12.04.5 versions (for use by the chroot 
apt-get on the target host).  The bash versions are seen accurately in 
the fai.log above.  So the questions(?) become:

  * Are the changes in bash for wheezy now brought forward into bash for
    Ubuntu?
  * Is is safe to install a bash for wheezy on the target host while the
    rest of the OS is ubuntu?
  * What other options might work?

Some time ago I installed the Ubuntu version of FAI and found that I 
liked the wheezy version much better.  So I do have an interest in 
staying with the wheezy version of FAI.  However I am nervous about 
mixing sources and I don't have another host with wheezy that will take FAI.

Many thanks for insight.
George
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