[Bug 1778848] [NEW] Support for grub upgrades with bios+uefi bootloader targets

[Łukasz Zemczak]

Public bug reported:

There are multiple use cases which require both BIOS and UEFI bootloaders installed on a target image and to keep them both updated.
- cloud images on clouds that support both BIOS and UEFI boot in alternate instance types
- PC installs that should remain bootable in the face of firmware upgrades or reconfigurations

This currently doesn't work because 'grub-install' selects its install
target based on which of grub-pc or grub-efi-amd64 is installed.

We should support a package upgrade workflow that supports updating both
bootloaders on disk wherever possible, including use of --no-nvram
automatically when necessary, and does not fail awkwardly if e.g. the
system is booted under BIOS and there is no EFI System Partition
present.

The problem is, if the system is booted in BIOS mode and you call grub-
install --target=x86_64-efi, the install will fail because it can't
write to EFI nvram variables.

There is a --no-nvram flag, but it's incorrect for us to pass this
unconditionally, because it's the wrong thing to do when we are booted
in UEFI mode.

So we need some smarts in grub-install for an additional mode that only
skips nvram if there is no nvram available.

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

** Affects: grub2 (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
     Assignee: Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)
         Status: New

** Affects: grub2-signed (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Affects: shim-signed (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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

** Affects: grub2 (Ubuntu Bionic)
     Importance: Undecided
     Assignee: Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)
         Status: Confirmed

** Affects: grub2-signed (Ubuntu Bionic)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Affects: shim-signed (Ubuntu Bionic)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Also affects: grub2 (Ubuntu Bionic)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Changed in: grub2 (Ubuntu Bionic)
       Status: New => Confirmed

** Changed in: grub2 (Ubuntu Bionic)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)

** Also affects: grub2-signed (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Also affects: shim-signed (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

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

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1778848

Title:
  Support for grub upgrades with bios+uefi bootloader targets

Status in grub-installer package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in grub2 package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in grub2-signed package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in shim-signed package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in grub-installer source package in Bionic:
  New
Status in grub2 source package in Bionic:
  Confirmed
Status in grub2-signed source package in Bionic:
  New
Status in shim-signed source package in Bionic:
  New

Bug description:
  There are multiple use cases which require both BIOS and UEFI bootloaders installed on a target image and to keep them both updated.
  - cloud images on clouds that support both BIOS and UEFI boot in alternate instance types
  - PC installs that should remain bootable in the face of firmware upgrades or reconfigurations

  This currently doesn't work because 'grub-install' selects its install
  target based on which of grub-pc or grub-efi-amd64 is installed.

  We should support a package upgrade workflow that supports updating
  both bootloaders on disk wherever possible, including use of --no-
  nvram automatically when necessary, and does not fail awkwardly if
  e.g. the system is booted under BIOS and there is no EFI System
  Partition present.

  The problem is, if the system is booted in BIOS mode and you call
  grub-install --target=x86_64-efi, the install will fail because it
  can't write to EFI nvram variables.

  There is a --no-nvram flag, but it's incorrect for us to pass this
  unconditionally, because it's the wrong thing to do when we are booted
  in UEFI mode.

  So we need some smarts in grub-install for an additional mode that
  only skips nvram if there is no nvram available.

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