[Bug 1870189] Re: initramfs does not get loaded

[Steve Langasek]

Yes, the design here is that, since we provide custom kernels for our
cloud partners which have all the drivers needed to boot built in,
loading an initrd is a waste of time at boot.

If someone is using a kernel other than the one we provide for the
cloud, or in the case of a bug, the system will still boot (slower)
after a panic and a reboot to try again with the initrd.

Removing this functionality would be a pessimization.  The vast majority
of Ubuntu instances in Azure are expected to be booted with the provided
linux-azure kernel, which does not require an initrd.  Canonical does
not support the use of other kernels on Azure.  And if someone needs to
use a different kernel on an instance without the double-boot process,
they can edit the /etc/default/grub.d/40-force-partuuid.cfg config file
that is provided with the image at the same time they are installing the
different kernel to get the previous behavior.

** Changed in: grub2 (Ubuntu)
       Status: Confirmed => Won't Fix

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1870189

Title:
  initramfs does not get loaded

Status in grub2 package in Ubuntu:
  Won't Fix
Status in linux-azure package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  A Gen-1 Ubuntu 19.10 VM on Azure was created and upgraded to Ubuntu
  20.04 by “do-release-upgrade –d”.

  Then the latest Ubuntu v5.6 kernel was installed from
  https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.6/. As soon as a
  reboot was performed, a panic with the v5.6 kernel occured because the
  rootfs can not be found.

  It turns out by default, initramfs does not get loaded:

  /boot/grub/grub.cfg:
  menuentry 'Ubuntu' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-3d2737e8-
  b95a-42bf-bac1-bb6fb4cda87f' {
  …
          if [ "${initrdfail}" = 1 ]; then
            linux /boot/vmlinuz-5.6.0-050600-generic root=PARTUUID=bc3d472f-401e-4774-affa-df1acba65a73 ro  console=tty1 console=ttyS0 earlyprintk=ttyS0 ignore_loglevel sysrq_always_enabled unknown_nmi_panic
            initrd        /boot/initrd.img-5.6.0-050600-generic
          else
            linux /boot/vmlinuz-5.6.0-050600-generic root=PARTUUID=bc3d472f-401e-4774-affa-df1acba65a73 ro  console=tty1 console=ttyS0 earlyprintk=ttyS0 ignore_loglevel sysrq_always_enabled unknown_nmi_panic panic=-1
            #Dexuan: here the initrd line is missing!
          fi
          initrdfail
  }

  
  As we can see, Ubuntu only uses the initrd.img if initrdfail=1. Normally, initrdfail = 0, so when we boot the v5.6 kernel for the first time, we must hit the “fail to mount rootfs” panic and the kernel will automatically reboot….   

  Also, the “initrdfail” here marks initrdfail=1, so when the kernel
  boots for the 2nd time, the kernel should successfully boot up.  Next,
  when the kernel boots for the 3rd time, it panics again since the
  userspace program resets initrdfail to 0, and next time when the
  kernel boots, it can boot up successfully -- this
  “panic/success/panic/success” pattern repeats forever…

  
  The linux-azure kernels are not affected since they have the vmbus driver and storage drivers built-in (i.e. “=y”):
  /boot/config-5.3.0-1013-azure:CONFIG_HYPERV_STORAGE=y
  /boot/config-5.3.0-1013-azure:CONFIG_HYPERV=y
  /boot/config-5.4.0-1006-azure:CONFIG_HYPERV_STORAGE=y
  /boot/config-5.4.0-1006-azure:CONFIG_HYPERV=y
  /boot/config-5.6.0-050600-generic:CONFIG_HYPERV_STORAGE=m
  /boot/config-5.6.0-050600-generic:CONFIG_HYPERV=m
  The v5.6 kernel uses =m rather than =y, so is affected here.

  
  It looks the setting may be intentional, but we should not assume a customer kernel must have the necessary vmbus/storage drivers built-in. 

  This issue only happens to the Ubuntu Marketplace image (19.10 and maybe 19.04 as well?) on Azure. 
  We installed a Ubuntu  20.04 VM from the .iso file from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/pending/ and don’t see the strange grub issue.

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