[Bug 1311247] Re: [Grubenv] error: malformed file, press any key to continue

[Quirin Lohr]

Disregarding #52, which seems to be a completely different thing:

I did some testing and found out that the malfornmed file only occurs when /etc/init.d/grub-common is executed.
I narrowed it down to the line

 grub-editenv /boot/grub/grubenv unset recordfail

If I skip execution of /etc/init.d/grub-common (by setting an exit 0 in
it's second line), I get no more malformed file errors, if I start
testing from a working state.

If I execute the causing line from a shell, I get the error the next
boot.

After some more testing, I found a working workaround:
Execute the line 4 times. (5 times works as well, I did not test more)
No more errors.

This matches the previous solution of calling grub-set-default, which
executes the grub-editenv binary 3 times. After it was called one time
from grub-common.

So I edited the /etc/init.d/grub-common file and let it execute the same command four times, which solves the problem for me.
I did only three reboots to test it.

I checked with strace, each of the commands has the same output.

My /boot is an extra partition, filesystem ext4,

I do really, really want to hear an explanation for this, because it
drives me crazy...


TL;DR:
- Remove workaround from #50
- Edit /etc/init.d/grub-common
- Duplicate the line 
 grub-editenv /boot/grub/grubenv unset recordfail
until it is there 4 times in a row
- Reboot

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1311247

Title:
  [Grubenv] error: malformed file, press any key to continue

Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  I have just upgraded from 12.04 to 14.04

  Since the upgrade, when I boot up, the process stops and the normal
  grub screen is replaced after a short while by a message saying

  "error: malformed file, press any key to continue"

  Pressing a key allows booting to continue.

  Someone else who experienced this found that the problem went away
  after having re-installed grub.  I tried this but this did not resolve
  the problem for me.

  synaptic reports the grub package as 2.02~beta2-9

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