[Bug 1809601] [NEW] grub-install crashes installer in 18.04 and 18.10, works in 16.04

[Micah]

Public bug reported:

Trying to install on an old Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) with upgraded CPUs. This
model has 64-bit processors but uses a 32-bit EFI, so i have to add a
32-bit .efi entry to /EFI/BOOT on the installer USB, and with recent
kernels must add noefi or noexec=off to the linux line on GRUB to boot.

Once running, the 18.04 and 18.10 installer consistently crashes on
grub-install, which fails with an error from efibootmgr. This leaves me
with a system I can still manually boot to by building a grub entry at
the grub command line.

Oddly enough, 16.04 installs and runs fine. Logs during a distribution
upgrade from 16.04 to 18.04 suggests this error occurs during that
process too but the upgrade completes successfully, with a working grub
install that just needs noefi or noexec=off passed on the linux line of
the grub entry.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: ubiquity 18.04.14.6
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-29.31-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-29-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.2
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.394
Date: Mon Dec 24 07:26:42 2018
InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash noefi ---
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
SourcePackage: grub-installer
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

** Affects: grub-installer (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: amd64 apport-bug bionic ubiquity-18.04.14.6 ubuntu

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1809601

Title:
  grub-install crashes installer in 18.04 and 18.10, works in 16.04

Status in grub-installer package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Trying to install on an old Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) with upgraded CPUs.
  This model has 64-bit processors but uses a 32-bit EFI, so i have to
  add a 32-bit .efi entry to /EFI/BOOT on the installer USB, and with
  recent kernels must add noefi or noexec=off to the linux line on GRUB
  to boot.

  Once running, the 18.04 and 18.10 installer consistently crashes on
  grub-install, which fails with an error from efibootmgr. This leaves
  me with a system I can still manually boot to by building a grub entry
  at the grub command line.

  Oddly enough, 16.04 installs and runs fine. Logs during a distribution
  upgrade from 16.04 to 18.04 suggests this error occurs during that
  process too but the upgrade completes successfully, with a working
  grub install that just needs noefi or noexec=off passed on the linux
  line of the grub entry.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
  Package: ubiquity 18.04.14.6
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-29.31-generic 4.15.18
  Uname: Linux 4.15.0-29-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.2
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperVersion: 1.394
  Date: Mon Dec 24 07:26:42 2018
  InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash noefi ---
  LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
  SourcePackage: grub-installer
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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