When giving drush the a missing install profile as an argument, the error message is not so useful. Have not digged into it yet, and I guess this could be an drush issue instead of a core issue.
<?php
strpos(): Empty needle ExtensionDiscovery.php:260 [warning]
strpos(): Empty needle ExtensionDiscovery.php:260 [warning]
strpos(): Empty needle ExtensionDiscovery.php:260 [warning]
strpos(): Empty needle ExtensionDiscovery.php:260 [warning]
strpos(): Empty needle ExtensionDiscovery.php:260 [warning]
strpos(): Empty needle ExtensionDiscovery.php:260 [warning]
PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getPath() on a non-object in /srv/www/d8_sprints/web/core/includes/install.core.inc on line 755
PHP Stack trace:
PHP 1. {main}() /usr/share/drush/drush.php:0
PHP 2. drush_main() /usr/share/drush/drush.php:11
PHP 3. Drush\Boot\DrupalBoot->bootstrap_and_dispatch() /usr/share/drush/drush.php:74
PHP 4. drush_dispatch() /usr/share/drush/lib/Drush/Boot/DrupalBoot.php:46
PHP 5. call_user_func_array:{/usr/share/drush/includes/command.inc:178}() /usr/share/drush/includes/command.inc:178
PHP 6. drush_command() /usr/share/drush/includes/command.inc:178
PHP 7. _drush_invoke_hooks() /usr/share/drush/includes/command.inc:210
PHP 8. call_user_func_array:{/usr/share/drush/includes/command.inc:359}() /usr/share/drush/includes/command.inc:359
PHP 9. drush_core_site_install() /usr/share/drush/includes/command.inc:359
PHP 10. drush_core_site_install_version() /usr/share/drush/commands/core/site_install.drush.inc:273
PHP 11. drush_op() /usr/share/drush/commands/core/drupal/site_install.inc:65
PHP 12. drush_call_user_func_array() /usr/share/drush/includes/drush.inc:687
PHP 13. install_drupal() /usr/share/drush/includes/drush.inc:702
PHP 14. install_run_tasks() /srv/www/d8_sprints/web/core/includes/install.core.inc:114
PHP 15. install_tasks_to_perform() /srv/www/d8_sprints/web/core/includes/install.core.inc:503
PHP 16. install_tasks() /srv/www/d8_sprints/web/core/includes/install.core.inc:649
?>