[Bug 1302418] Re: grub-installer should fall back to grub-pc instead of grub-efi when there is no EFI system partition

[Erick Brunzell]

Regarding my comment #13 at duplicate bug #1050940 I now believe (after
much investigation & help from others) that my issue was actually more
firmware related than due to a bug in Ubuntu.

What had happened is that I installed Ubuntu Trusty in UEFI mode
alongside Windows 8.1 (made sure that the live DVD booted in UEFI mode)
but after installation the machine just booted straight into Windows
8.1. I knew however that you could display the BIOS boot menu pressing
F10 so I did so, but Ubuntu did not show up anywhere in the boot menu,
and selecting any of the other options either booted straight into
Windows or did nothing at all.

I then ran Boot Repair just to collect a boot info summary and next
actually ran the Boot Repair recommended repair (also collecting a
second boot info summary when complete) and still the machine would just
boot straight into Windows with no intervention, but if I pressed F10 at
boot Ubuntu did now appear in the BIOS boot menu and selecting that
showed the grub boot screen as it should with both Ubuntu and Windows -
both of which worked OK.

It was at that point that I made the assumption that I'd been affected
by duplicate bug #1050940 but I followed up by asking a question at the
forums, and after following the instructions provided by oldfred I now
get the grub boot menu at boot with no intervention:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2264348&p=13223803#post13223803

Sadly I still don't 100% understand what went wrong, or what exactly I
did to fix it, but I now assume that I was mistaken about being affected
by this specific bug.

Sorry, there's just a huge learning curve involved in learning UEFI
basics and to be honest I'm not 100% certain which of my assumptions is
correct and which is not.

BTW I'd have been glad to collect actual logs rather than just posting
the pastebin links but I was unsure what was needed or where to find it
:^(

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1302418

Title:
  grub-installer should fall back to grub-pc instead of grub-efi when
  there is no EFI system partition

Status in grub-installer package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in grub-installer source package in Trusty:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  During a side-by-side installation, the EFI partition is not created..
  If it doesn't already exist (which given recent bug reports seems to
  be the case on systems with MS Windows installed), installation fails
  at grub stage.

  TEST CASE:
  Note: This test case simulates in qemu the behavior found on real HW eg. bug 1299134

  1. Install trusty in BIOS mode

  $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 /tmp/disk.img 16G
  $ qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm \
      -drive file=/tmp/disk.img,if=ide,media=disk \
      -pflash /tmp/bios.bin \
      -cdrom $ISO

  2. Reboot
  3. Reuse the same disk and Install trusty in UEFI mode for example start qemu with the option -pflash=/tmp/ovmf.bin and the binary file attached to this bug report.

  $ qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm \
      -drive file=/tmp/disk.img,if=ide,media=disk \
      -pflash /tmp/bios.bin \
      -cdrom $ISO

  4. Proceed to the partitioner and select a side-by-side installation
  5. Proceed with the rest of the installation

  ACTUAL RESULT:
  This crash

  EXPECTED RESULT:
  There are several ways to address this issue, I see 2 options there are probably more:
  1.  Warn the user and refuse to proceed past the partitioner
  2. Create an EFI partition like the entire disk installation does.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
  Package: ubiquity 2.17.10
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-22.44-generic 3.13.8
  Uname: Linux 3.13.0-22-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.14-0ubuntu1
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperVersion: 1.339
  Date: Fri Apr  4 10:36:19 2014
  InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz.efi file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash --
  LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Daily amd64 (20140403)
  ProcEnviron:
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: grub-installer
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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