[Bug 1104463] Re: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub triggers a grub update in lxc containers

[Colin Watson]

"Skip update-grub in containers" is already in Debian/experimental/bzr
for now, just not yet in raring.  Sure, it's not really the best answer
- but it'll do for the moment.

I actually prefer Adam's option one, because leaving manual calls to
update-grub broken makes it clear that GRUB isn't really functional in
this environment.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1104463

Title:
  /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub triggers a grub update in lxc
  containers

Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Before anyone points it out, this is NOT a duplicate of bug 1060404,
  just a different but extremely similar problem :)

  So I'm doing 12.10 => 13.04 desktop upgrade testing in a container.
  That means setting up a full dekstop 12.10 system, including grub and
  kernel, then dist-upgrading that to 13.04.

  In the past, this used to fail because of bug 1060404 but now that it's been fixed, I'm getting into a different problem bcause of zz-update-grub calling update-grub, bypassing the check added to grub's postinst and causing a similar error:
  ===
  Setting up linux-image-3.8.0-1-generic (3.8.0-1.5) ...
  Running depmod.
  update-initramfs: deferring update (hook will be called later)
  Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
  run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 3.8.0-1-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-1-generic
  run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 3.8.0-1-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-1-generic
  update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-1-generic
  cryptsetup: WARNING: could not determine root device from /etc/fstab
  run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/pm-utils 3.8.0-1-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-1-generic
  run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/update-notifier 3.8.0-1-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-1-generic
  run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub 3.8.0-1-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-1-generic
  /usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: failed to get canonical path of /dev/mapper/castiana-home.
  run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub exited with return code 1
  Failed to process /etc/kernel/postinst.d at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-3.8.0-1-generic.postinst line 1010.
  dpkg: error processing linux-image-3.8.0-1-generic (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
  No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
  dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-extra-3.8.0-1-generic:
   linux-image-extra-3.8.0-1-generic depends on linux-image-3.8.0-1-generic; however:
    Package linux-image-3.8.0-1-generic is not configured yet.

  dpkg: error processing linux-image-extra-3.8.0-1-generic (--configure):
   dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
  No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
  dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-generic:
   linux-image-generic depends on linux-image-3.8.0-1-generic; however:
    Package linux-image-3.8.0-1-generic is not configured yet.
   linux-image-generic depends on linux-image-extra-3.8.0-1-generic; however:
    Package linux-image-extra-3.8.0-1-generic is not configured yet.

  dpkg: error processing linux-image-generic (--configure):
   dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
  dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-generic:
   linux-generic depends on linux-image-generic (= 3.8.0.1.14); however:No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already

    Package linux-image-generic is not configured yet.

  dpkg: error processing linux-generic (--configure):
   dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
  No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   linux-image-3.8.0-1-generic
   linux-image-extra-3.8.0-1-generic
   linux-image-generic
   linux-generic
  E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
  ===

  Proposed ways of fixing this as discussed in #ubuntu-devel include:
   - Make update-grub exit 0 if running-in-container returns 0
   - Patch just zz-update-grub with a similar check
   - Make the scripts check for the presence of the device and only then attempt to read/write to it (but limit that check to containers)

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