[Bug 1090829] Re: grub-efi fails to install with Input/output error

[Roderick Smith]

I'm speculating, but I suspect that this problem may have to do with the
Windows "fast startup" feature. This feature essentially turns the
"shutdown" option in Windows into something more akin to a suspend-to-
disk operation. As such, any filesystems that are mounted at the time of
"shutdown" (perhaps including the ESP) will be left in an inconsistent
state. If they're then accessed from another OS (such as Linux), the
result could be disk corruption, which could then be worsened when
Windows is booted again. (Windows might write back the disk state from
before Linux wrote files to the ESP, causing those files to disappear or
be corrupted.) This can quickly turn into a real mess.

I'd like to emphasize that this is speculative; I haven't run any
controlled tests to see how this feature affects the ESP. The symptoms
reported seem consistent with what I'd expect, though, with the possible
exception of I/O errors. (Those might occur if filesystem data
structures were left pointing outside of the partition, but that seems
odd.)

If this hypothesis is correct, the solution is to disable the "fast
startup" feature -- preferably BEFORE installing Linux. Various Web
pages describe how to do this; for instance:

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/6320-fast-startup-turn-off-
windows-8-a.html

Ideally, the Ubuntu installer should attempt to detect this condition
and refuse to install until the feature is disabled in Windows, since
failure to disable "fast startup" will almost certainly lead to
problems.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1090829

Title:
  grub-efi fails to install with Input/output error

Status in “dosfstools” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  HP G6 laptop with Windows 8 installed, and looking to have a dual-boot
  with Ubuntu 12.10

  With SecureBoot enabled: http://paste.ubuntu.com/1421098
  And with SecureBoot disabled: http://paste.ubuntu.com/1421155

  grub-efi fails writing on the original ESP:

  # grub-install --efi-directory=/boot/efi --target=x86_64-efi
  mkdir: cannot create directory `/boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu': Input/output error

  Remark: this is similar but not duplicate of Bug #1091477


  **************** WORKAROUND1 (works):
  1) Via Gparted create another EFI partition (FAT32, 200MB, located in the first 100GB of the disk), move the 'boot' flag on it
  2) Install grub-efi in this new ESP (eg https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI#Converting_Ubuntu_into_EFI_mode ).

  **************** WORKAROUND2 (to be tested):
  1) Backup the files in the ESP
  2) Format the ESP
  3) Recreate the ESP (FAT32, same size) via Gparted, place the 'boot' flag on it
  4) Restore the backups into this new ESP
  5) Install grub-efi in this new ESP.

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