[Bug 1892526] Re: dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc no longer prompts for grub-pc/install_devices

[Brian Murray]

Hello Brian, or anyone else affected,

Accepted grub2 into bionic-proposed. The package will build now and be
available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/2.02-2ubuntu8.19
in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package.  See
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how
to enable and use -proposed.  Your feedback will aid us getting this
update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug,
mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been
performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-
bionic to verification-done-bionic. If it does not fix the bug for you,
please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-
failed-bionic. In either case, without details of your testing we will
not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification .  Thank you in
advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s)
fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in
-proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

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

** Tags removed: verification-done
** Tags added: verification-needed verification-needed-bionic

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1892526

Title:
  dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc no longer prompts for grub-pc/install_devices

Status in grub2 package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in grub2 source package in Trusty:
  Confirmed
Status in grub2 source package in Xenial:
  Confirmed
Status in grub2 source package in Bionic:
  Fix Committed
Status in grub2 source package in Focal:
  Fix Released
Status in grub2 source package in Groovy:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  [Impact]

   * dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc no longer reinstalls grub, as it should.

  [Test Case]

   * Set grub-pc/install_devices to some invalid device that does not
  exist (i.e. /dev/hda)

   * Execute $ sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc

  One should expect attempts to grub-instal onto /dev/hda, fail that,
  and see dialogues asking which devices to install grub-pc onto, and
  successfully install them.

  [Regression Potential]

   * We are patching, the recently/newly added postinst condition to
  skip trying to install grub-install during typical/regular upgrades.
  Further tighten the conditions there, to still force install grub-
  install when executing grub-reconfigure to be inline with existing
  documentation that this is the command to use when one wishes to
  reinstall grub-pc interactively.

  [Other Info]
   
   * Original bug report

  I recently had a RAID-5 disk failure and was greeted by an inoperable
  grub due to not having installed grub on all the disks.  I temporarily
  fixed this problem by manually running "grub-install" on the other
  disks in the array and got my system working.

  Previously it was advised to run "dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc" and select
  the relevant disks to ensure that future grub updates installed on all
  the disks in the array.  This command no longer prompts for the
  install disks due to the changed introduced by
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1889556.  In
  /var/lib/dpkg/info/grub-pc.postinst, the following elif block
  immediately precedes the elif block that prompts for grub-
  pc/install_devices and short circuits on all recent grub versions:

    elif dpkg --compare-versions "$2" ge 2.04-1ubuntu26; then
      # Avoid the possibility of breaking grub on SRU update
      # due to ABI change
      :

  I can confirm this issue is present on 20.04.1 and it appears to be
  present on 18.04.4 per https://askubuntu.com/questions/1212569/dpkg-
  reconfigure-grub-pc-no-option-to-select-boot-device

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