[Bug 1173423] Re: Kernel fails to update EFI vars, rendering system unbootable [P8P67 PRO REV 3.1, BIOS 1904 08/15/2011]

[Phillip Susi]

It seems this was fixed upstream by:

commit 31ff2f20d9003e74991d135f56e503fe776c127c
Author: Matthew Garrett <matthew.garrett at nebula.com>
Date:   Mon Apr 15 13:09:47 2013 -0700

    efi: Distinguish between "remaining space" and actually used space
    
    EFI implementations distinguish between space that is actively used by a
    variable and space that merely hasn't been garbage collected yet. Space
    that hasn't yet been garbage collected isn't available for use and so isn't
    counted in the remaining_space field returned by QueryVariableInfo().
    
    Combined with commit 68d9298 this can cause problems. Some implementations
    don't garbage collect until the remaining space is smaller than the maximum
    variable size, and as a result check_var_size() will always fail once more
    than 50% of the variable store has been used even if most of that space is
    marked as available for garbage collection. The user is unable to create
    new variables, and deleting variables doesn't increase the remaining space.
    
    The problem that 68d9298 was attempting to avoid was one where certain
    platforms fail if the actively used space is greater than 50% of the
    available storage space. We should be able to calculate that by simply
    summing the size of each available variable and subtracting that from
    the total storage space. With luck this will fix the problem described in
    https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=55471 without permitting
    damage to occur to the machines 68d9298 was attempting to fix.
    
    Signed-off-by: Matthew Garrett <matthew.garrett at nebula.com>
    Signed-off-by: Matt Fleming <matt.fleming at intel.com>

This patch needs backported to the Ubuntu kernel.


** Tags added: patch

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Title:
  Kernel fails to update EFI vars, rendering system unbootable [P8P67
  PRO REV 3.1, BIOS 1904 08/15/2011]

Status in The Linux Kernel:
  Unknown
Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

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}.
  --- 
  ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8
  Architecture: amd64
  AudioDevicesInUse:
   USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
   /dev/snd/controlC1:  psusi      2310 F.... pulseaudio
   /dev/snd/controlC0:  psusi      2310 F.... pulseaudio
  CRDA: Error: command ['iw', 'reg', 'get'] failed with exit code 1: nl80211 not found.
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
  IwConfig:
   eth1      no wireless extensions.
   
   lo        no wireless extensions.
  MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
  MarkForUpload: True
  Package: linux (not installed)
  ProcFB: 0 radeondrmfb
  ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-15-generic root=/dev/sda2 ro crashkernel=384M-2G:64M,2G-:128M quiet splash acpi_enforce_resources=lax vt.handoff=7
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-15.25-generic 3.8.4
  RelatedPackageVersions:
   linux-restricted-modules-3.8.0-15-generic N/A
   linux-backports-modules-3.8.0-15-generic  N/A
   linux-firmware                            1.106
  RfKill:
   0: hci0: Bluetooth
   	Soft blocked: no
   	Hard blocked: no
  Tags:  raring
  Uname: Linux 3.8.0-15-generic x86_64
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-02-13 (73 days ago)
  UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
  WifiSyslog:
   
  dmi.bios.date: 08/15/2011
  dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
  dmi.bios.version: 1904
  dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
  dmi.board.name: P8P67 PRO REV 3.1
  dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
  dmi.board.version: Rev 1.xx
  dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
  dmi.chassis.type: 3
  dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
  dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr1904:bd08/15/2011:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnP8P67PROREV3.1:rvrRev1.xx:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
  dmi.product.name: System Product Name
  dmi.product.version: System Version
  dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer

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