[Bug 1237519] Re: Grub2 fails to install to non-standard device path

[Kent Baxley]

I'm pretty sure that  the "Oct 24 03:33:28 grub-installer: invalid
numeric value"  error comes from grub-install running efibootmgr against
the Fusion-IO device.   The naming scheme, of course, for that adapter
is /dev/fioa1...the grub-install script, however, runs the following at
around line 892:

efidir_part="$(echo "$efidir_drive" | sed 's/^([^,]*,[^0-9]*//; s/[^0-9].*//')"
efibootmgr $efi_quiet -c -d "efidir_disk" -p "$efidir_part" -w\
    -L "$bootloader_id" -l "\\EFI\\$efi_distributor\\$efi_file"

It looks like the regex search is returning basically a null value for
efidir_part, thus, the "-p" parameter in efibootmgr isn't valid.  The
regex seems to be tailored for traditional devices such as /dev/sda1,
which does return a sane value.

Ultimately, though, this isn't the total cause of efibootmgr not working
properly...if I go in and 'hard code' the -p value to 1 then re-run grub
install against the fusion IO card, efibootmgr still doesn't seem to
want to add the device to its list.  Even just running efibootmgr by
hand also produces the same result.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1237519

Title:
  Grub2 fails to install to non-standard device path

Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  Running the Ubuntu Server installer in UEFI mode fails to install the
  Grub bootloader.  Attached is the syslog output that shows grub-
  installer failed with error code 1.  I have seen this on Ubuntu 12.04,
  12.10, and 13.04.  I believe the problem is that Grub is looking for
  device paths that match something like '/dev/sdX' or '/dev/hdX' but
  the device I am installing to does not follow that convention.

  The reason I believe it is looking for specific devices paths is if,
  during installation after my device has been partitioned, I escape
  into the shell (using alt+f2) and create a hard link from my device
  name and its partitions, to a device name that matches 'sdX', then
  Grub begins to install.  For example, if my device name is /dev/fioa
  and has partitions /dev/fioa1, /dev/fioa2, and /dev/fioa3, I map those
  partitions to something like /dev/sdc, /dev/sdc1, /dev/sdc2, and
  /dev/sdc3 and continue with the installation onto /dev/sdc.  By doing
  this, Grub will begin to install on the device.

  Possibly useful background information:

  - The operating system and all files install just fine without
  problem, it is the last step of installing the bootloader that fails.

  - In order to have the device recognized during installation, I either
  need to run 'insmod' from a terminal or we have to manually modify
  initrd to include our .ko file because it is not a standard disk
  driver.  Using either method does not affect the outcome of Grub2
  failing to install.

  - Even though grub begins to install after creating the hard links
  mentioned above, it does not finish successfully due to the linked
  paths (e.g. /dev/sdc) not being in the device map.  That is a separate
  issue, but may be expected behavior and would likely need a separate
  ticket if it needed to be reported at all.

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