[BUG] uncaught exception on pre-release Debian versions

[nmeyerhans]

This is a recurrence of #3214 (I would reopen it if I had permission). That issue is marked as resolved, but it's still present in the version of WALinuxAgent that gets downloaded as part of the self-update process. Tested today with the unrealeased Debian forky images (which set distro_version == n/a).

This check, from azurelinuxagent/common/osutil/factory.py:104 should be looking for the string n/a rather than sid:

    if distro_name == "debian":
        if "sid" in distro_version or DistroVersion(distro_version) > DistroVersion("7"):
            return DebianOSModernUtil()


        return DebianOSBaseUtil()

Please fix this in a production release.

Logs follow:

Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1086]: 2026-02-26T18:20:00.038389Z INFO ExtHandler ExtHandler Downloading agent manifest
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1086]: 2026-02-26T18:20:00.083274Z INFO ExtHandler ExtHandler Self-update discovered new Regular upgrade WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1; Will upgrade on or after 2026-02-26T18:20:00.083241Z
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1086]: 2026-02-26T18:20:00.083556Z INFO ExtHandler ExtHandler Self-update is ready to upgrade the new agent: 2.15.0.1 now before processing the goal state: incarnation_1
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1086]: 2026-02-26T18:20:00.083789Z INFO ExtHandler ExtHandler Downloading agent package
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1086]: 2026-02-26T18:20:00.131363Z INFO ExtHandler ExtHandler Unzipping agent package: /var/lib/waagent/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1.zip
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1086]: 2026-02-26T18:20:00.138738Z INFO ExtHandler ExtHandler Agent update attempt count: 1 for version: 2.15.0.1
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1086]: 2026-02-26T18:20:00.139286Z INFO ExtHandler ExtHandler Current Agent 2.12.0.2 completed all update checks, exiting current process to upgrade to the new Agent version 2.15.0.1
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]: Traceback (most recent call last):
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:   File "<frozen runpy>", line 198, in _run_module_as_main
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:   File "<frozen runpy>", line 88, in _run_code
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:   File "/var/lib/waagent/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1/bin/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1-py3.12.egg/__main__.py", line 18, in <module>
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:     import azurelinuxagent.agent as agent
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:   File "/var/lib/waagent/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1/bin/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1-py3.12.egg/azurelinuxagent/agent.py", line 35, in <module>
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:     from azurelinuxagent.ga import logcollector, cgroupconfigurator
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:   File "/var/lib/waagent/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1/bin/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1-py3.12.egg/azurelinuxagent/ga/logcollector.py", line 30, in <module>
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:     from azurelinuxagent.common.event import initialize_event_logger_vminfo_common_parameters_and_protocol, add_event, WALAEventOperation
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:   File "/var/lib/waagent/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1/bin/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1-py3.12.egg/azurelinuxagent/common/event.py", line 651, in <module>
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:     __event_logger__ = EventLogger()
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:   File "/var/lib/waagent/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1/bin/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1-py3.12.egg/azurelinuxagent/common/event.py", line 392, in __init__
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:     osutil = get_osutil()
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:   File "/var/lib/waagent/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1/bin/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1-py3.12.egg/azurelinuxagent/common/osutil/factory.py", line 54, in get_osutil
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:     return _get_osutil(distro_name, distro_code_name, distro_version, distro_full_name)
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:   File "/var/lib/waagent/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1/bin/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1-py3.12.egg/azurelinuxagent/common/osutil/factory.py", line 104, in _get_osutil
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:     if "sid" in distro_version or DistroVersion(distro_version) > DistroVersion("7"):
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:   File "/var/lib/waagent/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1/bin/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1-py3.12.egg/azurelinuxagent/common/utils/distro_version.py", line 102, in __gt__
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:     return self._compare(other) > 0
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:   File "/var/lib/waagent/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1/bin/WALinuxAgent-2.15.0.1-py3.12.egg/azurelinuxagent/common/utils/distro_version.py", line 111, in _compare
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:     if self._fragments < other._fragments:
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]:        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Feb 26 18:20:00 temp-5857 waagent[1121]: TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'str' and 'int'

[nagworld9]

Noah Meyerhans (@nmeyerhans) My understanding is that prerelease and unstable releases were previously marked as sid. Has this changed now? It appears that distros are marking prerelease versions as n/a instead?.
We cannot simply replace sid with n/a, as this may impact other users who expect sid to be handled explicitly. Additionally, we’ve lost the historical context of why sid was introduced in the first place, whether it was meant only for our internal E2E testing daily images or also for external users.