[Bug 580408] Re: Option 'No' at question 'Continue without installing GRUB?' does nothing. Forced to answer 'Yes'.
Marcus Tomlinson
marcus.tomlinson at canonical.com
Thu Mar 5 12:32:32 UTC 2020
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** Changed in: grub2 (Ubuntu)
Status: Triaged => Incomplete
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/580408
Title:
Option 'No' at question 'Continue without installing GRUB?' does
nothing. Forced to answer 'Yes'.
Status in grub2 package in Ubuntu:
Incomplete
Status in grub2 source package in Lucid:
Fix Released
Bug description:
Binary package hint: grub2
This bug is in the debconf screens of grub-pc.
During upgrades it asks 'You chose not to install GRUB to any devices.
[ ... ] Continue without installing GRUB?' and offers two options: Yes
or No. Answering 'No' does nothing and brings you back to the same
screen which forces you to answer 'Yes' and continue upgrading (and
manually installing / updating GRUB in the MBR of your disks).
It would be nice if answering 'No' in that screen brings you to a
screen to select which devices to install GRUB to and disable the
question in later upgrades.
SRU justification:
IMPACT: This was caused by the fact that there's a while loop around
the code that asks the grub-pc/install_devices or grub-
pc/install_devices_disks_changed question, in order that it can be
asked again on failure, but the code that did upgrade analysis on the
previous value of that question ran every time round the while loop
instead of just once; plus, we failed to make sure that the question
would be asked again on subsequent runs around the while loop. The
above description is one possible symptom; the other major ones are
that if disk device names changed on upgrade from Lucid or later (e.g.
due to removing a removable device to which GRUB had been installed)
then the wrong question will be asked second and subsequent times
round the loop, and that on upgrades from Karmic the question may have
the wrong defaults second and subsequent times round the loop. This
can cause upgrades to get stuck in a loop unless you give a probably-
undesirable answer to a question, at which point you have to use dpkg-
reconfigure in a terminal to fix it.
DEVELOPMENT BRANCH: While I haven't uploaded this yet due to the
Alpha-2 freeze, I've committed it to the Maverick branch for grub2
1.98+20100614-2ubuntu4: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-
dev/ubuntu/maverick/grub2/maverick/revision/1998
PATCH: The raw patch is quite large due to indentation changes (the
result would have been much more confusing without those changes!).
'diff -bu' makes it much more readable, though:
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/51174650/580408.patch
TEST CASE: Install Karmic on a two-disk system, run 'echo SET grub-
pc/install_devices /dev/sda | sudo debconf-communicate' to arrange for
initial conditions that trigger this bug, then upgrade to Lucid. The
first time round the loop, uncheck all the boxes, and then answer "No"
to "Continue without installing GRUB"; it should ask you the same
question with a list of checkboxes again, and should have left all of
them unchecked. Also try an upgrade from Lucid as released to this
update on the same system, running 'echo SET grub-pc/install_devices
/dev/hda | sudo debconf-communicate' before starting the upgrade; this
should give you a dialog reading "The GRUB boot loader was previously
installed to a disk that is no longer present ...", and again if you
uncheck all the boxes you should get consistent behaviour the second
time round the loop. You may be able to save time by testing this
together with bug 576724.
REGRESSION POTENTIAL: As with bug 576724, upgrades or dpkg-reconfigure
might break. I think this test case should exercise most of the
possible problem cases, though.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: grub-pc 1.98-1ubuntu6
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-server 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-server x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri May 14 11:22:47 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100427)
ProcEnviron:
LC_COLLATE=C
PATH=(custom, user)
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/zsh
SourcePackage: grub2
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