[Bug 1568050] Re: grub-install removes other EFI boot entries

Tue Jul 26 01:38:45 UTC 2016

> AIUI you can have the same label as many times as you want

FWIW, my practical attempts say the same name can be used any number of
times on some computers.

I don't like the same name, though. I don't think every boot should be a
mystery about which I'm picking. It's not like the EFI menu has any
smarts that lets me investigate before it goes. It might matter in ways
that have nothing to do with redundancy of booting the same machine
instance.

For an attempt at brevity and sanity, can we make the "ubuntu" label
have appended " on $udevserialpart" IFF there is more than one disk? On
install, perhaps mutate all entries starting with "ubuntu" or "ubuntu on
".

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Title:
  grub-install removes other EFI boot entries

Status in grub2 package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Suppose you have some kind of RAID array. You expect disks to burst
  into flame, and the machine continue to work.

  Without some special effort, grub will insist that exactly one EFI
  entry is active for Ubuntu, which is not what we should want. If the
  disk fails that has the only boot entry on it, then you don't boot
  again!

  EFI has a boor order built-in. There's no reason to insist on having
  exactly one.

  Here's a healthy EFI configuration with two disks, each of which can
  be used for booting to Ubuntu.  Then, we install grub to a third disk.
  "grub-install" removes the other two boot entries!

  Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
  | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
  |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
  ||/ Name           Version              Architecture Description
  +++-==============-====================-============-=======================================================
  ii  efibootmgr     0.12-4               amd64        Interact with the EFI Boot Manager
  ii  grub-common    2.02~beta2-36ubuntu2 amd64        GRand Unified Bootloader (common files)
  ii  grub-efi-amd64 2.02~beta2-36ubuntu2 amd64        GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (EFI-AMD64 version)

  $ sudo efibootmgr -v
  BootCurrent: 0000
  Timeout: 5 seconds
  BootOrder: 0001,0000
  Boot0000* ubuntu    HD(2,GPT,9cff8ce0-5651-4b27-9ce9-afcef877feaa,0xe8d14800,0xf4000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi)
  Boot0001* ubuntu    HD(2,GPT,747727cb-581b-42a3-b8d7-9bbf0b3eeff8,0x74612800,0xf4000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi)

  $ ls -l /dev/disk/by-partuuid/9cff8ce0-5651-4b27-9ce9-afcef877feaa /dev/disk/by-partuuid/747727cb-581b-42a3-b8d7-9bbf0b3eeff8
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr  8 10:45 /dev/disk/by-partuuid/747727cb-581b-42a3-b8d7-9bbf0b3eeff8 -> ../../sdb2
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr  8 10:45 /dev/disk/by-partuuid/9cff8ce0-5651-4b27-9ce9-afcef877feaa -> ../../sda2

  #### Here comes the deletion lines!  "-B" is delete!
  $ sudo umount /boot/efi && sudo mount /dev/sdc2 /boot/efi && sudo grub-install /dev/sdc2 -v
  ...
  grub-install: info: copying `/boot/grub/x86_64-efi/core.efi' -> `/boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi'.
  grub-install: info: Registering with EFI: distributor = `ubuntu', path = `\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi', ESP at hostdisk//dev/sdc,gpt2.
  grub-install: info: executing efibootmgr --version </dev/null >/dev/null.
  grub-install: info: executing modprobe -q efivars.
  grub-install: info: executing efibootmgr -b 0000 -B.
  BootCurrent: 0000
  Timeout: 5 seconds
  BootOrder: 0001
  Boot0001* ubuntu
  grub-install: info: executing efibootmgr -b 0001 -B.
  BootCurrent: 0000
  Timeout: 5 seconds
  No BootOrder is set; firmware will attempt recovery
  grub-install: info: executing efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sdc -p 2 -w -L ubuntu -l \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi.
  BootCurrent: 0000
  Timeout: 5 seconds
  BootOrder: 0000
  Boot0000* ubuntu
  Installation finished. No error reported.

  $ sudo efibootmgr -v
  BootCurrent: 0000
  Timeout: 5 seconds
  BootOrder: 0000
  Boot0000* ubuntu    HD(2,GPT,5e30b533-242f-4aaa-8800-1bdd4e13f44e,0xe8d14800,0xf4000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi)

  $ ls -l /dev/disk/by-partuuid/5e30b533-242f-4aaa-8800-1bdd4e13f44e
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr  8 10:45 /dev/disk/by-partuuid/5e30b533-242f-4aaa-8800-1bdd4e13f44e -> ../../sdc2

  If you're installing something that has the same name, like "ubuntu", expect all your prized redundancy to be squashed flat.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
  Package: grub-common 2.02~beta2-36ubuntu2
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-16.32-generic 4.4.6
  Uname: Linux 4.4.0-16-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zcommon znvpair zavl
  ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu1
  Architecture: amd64
  CurrentDesktop: GNOME
  Date: Fri Apr  8 12:56:54 2016
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-05-07 (701 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
  SourcePackage: grub2
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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