[Bug 1949102] Re: Preinstalled amd64 images cannot upgrade grub.cfg on boot partition + technical debt

[Łukasz Zemczak]

** Also affects: cloud-initramfs-tools (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Description changed:

  [Impact]
  
  This is a design flaw that needs to be fixed. Basically we inherited the
  design from old Ubuntu Core devices that the boot configuration is
  prepared in the gadget and - therefore - is quite static. Newer Core
  devices have mechanisms for updating boot assets, while classic
  images... well, we never actually thought about it.
  
  Now that we have a valid use-case for preinstalled amd64 images, we
  actually need to make sure we can update at least the grub config
  somehow. To do this, we introduce the hook from preinstalled desktop
  images from groovy+ with an additional change to generate the grub.cfg
  by using `update-grub2`. We switch the design to now only shipping a
  blanket grub.cfg on the boot partition, pointing to the rootfs one -
  which can be freely updated via existing mechanisms.
  
  While adding the hook, we also fix a few other technical dept - like
  adding a swap file and making the rootfs resizable. Everything that we
  already had for our Pi images in groovy+.
  
+ The growroot part might also require a quick workaround in cloud-
+ initramfs-tools.
+ 
  [Test Case]
  
  Build an image with -proposed enabled, make sure that it still boots as
  before on Intel IOT platforms. Try booting the image on an USB when
  there are other USB drives present on the device.
  
  [Regression Potential]
  
  This can basically only regress intel-iotg desktop images, which is what
  we want to fix right now. But it requires for the images to go through
  the whole testing cycle again, to make sure that everything still works
  - since we're basically switching to a completely new grub.cfg. The test
  case should be sufficient to make sure there are no regressions.
+ 
+ The cloud-initramfs-tools changes for growroot might, in some very weird
+ way, break cloud image resizing. So it would be good to double check
+ with the CPC team if images still work as expected with this change.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1949102

Title:
  Preinstalled amd64 images cannot upgrade grub.cfg on boot partition +
  technical debt

Status in cloud-initramfs-tools package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in livecd-rootfs package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in cloud-initramfs-tools source package in Focal:
  New
Status in livecd-rootfs source package in Focal:
  Fix Committed

Bug description:
  [Impact]

  This is a design flaw that needs to be fixed. Basically we inherited
  the design from old Ubuntu Core devices that the boot configuration is
  prepared in the gadget and - therefore - is quite static. Newer Core
  devices have mechanisms for updating boot assets, while classic
  images... well, we never actually thought about it.

  Now that we have a valid use-case for preinstalled amd64 images, we
  actually need to make sure we can update at least the grub config
  somehow. To do this, we introduce the hook from preinstalled desktop
  images from groovy+ with an additional change to generate the grub.cfg
  by using `update-grub2`. We switch the design to now only shipping a
  blanket grub.cfg on the boot partition, pointing to the rootfs one -
  which can be freely updated via existing mechanisms.

  While adding the hook, we also fix a few other technical dept - like
  adding a swap file and making the rootfs resizable. Everything that we
  already had for our Pi images in groovy+.

  The growroot part might also require a quick workaround in cloud-
  initramfs-tools.

  [Test Case]

  Build an image with -proposed enabled, make sure that it still boots
  as before on Intel IOT platforms. Try booting the image on an USB when
  there are other USB drives present on the device.

  [Regression Potential]

  This can basically only regress intel-iotg desktop images, which is
  what we want to fix right now. But it requires for the images to go
  through the whole testing cycle again, to make sure that everything
  still works - since we're basically switching to a completely new
  grub.cfg. The test case should be sufficient to make sure there are no
  regressions.

  The cloud-initramfs-tools changes for growroot might, in some very
  weird way, break cloud image resizing. So it would be good to double
  check with the CPC team if images still work as expected with this
  change.

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