[Bug 1620678] [NEW] grub2 fails to boot when built using binutils 2.27

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre]

Public bug reported:

grub2 images built using binutils 2.27 fail to boot or otherwise delay
boot by showing an error message that requires pressing a key to
continue.

Specifically; "no symbol table" and "Aborted. Press any key to
continue".

On EFI system, this means no booting, on BIOS/MBR systems, boot can
still continue after pressing a key.

Specifically, 'strip --strip-unneeded' used to include a section symbols
anyway for each existing section, even if it stipped away all symbols.
This was considered a bug and removed in later versions (apparently, at
least starting at 2.27; with 2.26.1 the last version with this side-
effect). This was fixed in binutils 14f2c699.

Grub2 has some modules without any code or data and that are used only
to pull in dependencies via .moddeps sections; which would make all
symbols unneeded and thus stripped.

A fix exists upstream as
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.git/commit/?id=67dba97e4598eaf2deb14da044fbfb1c119cf76f

** Affects: grub
     Importance: Unknown
         Status: Unknown

** Affects: grub2 (Ubuntu)
     Importance: High
     Assignee: Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)
         Status: In Progress

** Bug watch added: GNU Savannah Bug Tracker #46986
   http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?46986

** Also affects: grub via
   http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?46986
   Importance: Unknown
       Status: Unknown

** Changed in: grub2 (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => In Progress

** Changed in: grub2 (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided => High

** Changed in: grub2 (Ubuntu)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1620678

Title:
  grub2 fails to boot when built using binutils 2.27

Status in grub:
  Unknown
Status in grub2 package in Ubuntu:
  In Progress

Bug description:
  grub2 images built using binutils 2.27 fail to boot or otherwise delay
  boot by showing an error message that requires pressing a key to
  continue.

  Specifically; "no symbol table" and "Aborted. Press any key to
  continue".

  On EFI system, this means no booting, on BIOS/MBR systems, boot can
  still continue after pressing a key.

  Specifically, 'strip --strip-unneeded' used to include a section
  symbols anyway for each existing section, even if it stipped away all
  symbols. This was considered a bug and removed in later versions
  (apparently, at least starting at 2.27; with 2.26.1 the last version
  with this side-effect). This was fixed in binutils 14f2c699.

  Grub2 has some modules without any code or data and that are used only
  to pull in dependencies via .moddeps sections; which would make all
  symbols unneeded and thus stripped.

  A fix exists upstream as
  http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.git/commit/?id=67dba97e4598eaf2deb14da044fbfb1c119cf76f

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