[Bug 1173423] [NEW] Kernel fails to update EFI vars, rendering system unbootable

[Phillip Susi]

Public bug reported:

After an upgrade, my system failed to boot.  Fortunately I was able to
run the EFI shell and manually launch grub.  From there I discovered
that the EFI boot catalog contained no entry for GRUB.  It appears there
has been a regression in kernels later than 3.8.0-7 that causes it to
fail to update the EFI variables.  After running grub-install, it
reports no errors, yet fails to show the efi boot catalog as it does
when it works.  Manually running efivars shows the ubuntu entry has been
removed.  Checking dmesg shows:

[   25.965586] efivars: set_variable() failed: status=8000000000000009
[   25.981816] efivars: set_variable() failed: status=8000000000000009

This happens on kernels 3.8.0-{15,19,23} but works correctly in -{6,7}.

** Affects: grub2 (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Affects: linux (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Critical
         Status: New


** Tags: regression-release

** Also affects: grub2 (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided => Critical

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1173423

Title:
  Kernel fails to update EFI vars, rendering system unbootable

Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  After an upgrade, my system failed to boot.  Fortunately I was able to
  run the EFI shell and manually launch grub.  From there I discovered
  that the EFI boot catalog contained no entry for GRUB.  It appears
  there has been a regression in kernels later than 3.8.0-7 that causes
  it to fail to update the EFI variables.  After running grub-install,
  it reports no errors, yet fails to show the efi boot catalog as it
  does when it works.  Manually running efivars shows the ubuntu entry
  has been removed.  Checking dmesg shows:

  [   25.965586] efivars: set_variable() failed: status=8000000000000009
  [   25.981816] efivars: set_variable() failed: status=8000000000000009

  This happens on kernels 3.8.0-{15,19,23} but works correctly in
  -{6,7}.

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