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

[Jason Perrin]

Is this something that's going to be included in xenial-updates/bionic-
updates? I'd definitely like to see it there if that's possible, as this
has made remediation of
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1889556 and
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1889509 more
difficult to perform on those releases.

Thanks for all your work in fixing this and on grub overall!

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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:
  Confirmed
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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