Fwd: ubuntu and problems with grub handling??

Fri Oct 16 04:52:05 UTC 2020

Hi Fritz,
I could confirm issue you mentioned regarding Ubuntu (and LinuxMint) booting straight into itself instead of showing menu. I found a solution for my issue and hope it helps you too.

Firstly, apologies for making wrong assumptions. I had actually seen your bug reports and posts in mailing list/forums but just wondered if you had taken a look at /etc/default/grub. I should have checked with you to confirm instead of assuming, but did not. At that time I did not have such issue. That is possibly because, I was using one of Debian/Fedora Silverblue/openSUSE grub to boot. Now that I've Ubuntu 20.04 on one PC and LinuxMint on Mac, I can clearly see the issue.

Mine was funnier case than yours. On Ubuntu MATE 20.04, I _had_ grub menu but no matter what I set in /etc/default/grub, it would not boot straight into UM but always showed menu. On the Mac, no matter what changes I made in /etc/default/grub, LM would _not show menu_ and always booted straight into LM.

When I adjusted boot order (using efibootmgr) and used Debian (Buster) to handle grub, the behavior was as expected; if you set DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_STYLE to hidden, it will hide menu and when you disable it, it would show menu.

As Debian had grub version 2.02 and UM 20.04/LM20 had version 2.04, I downgraded the version to 2.02. No luck. That means this issue is present in Ubuntu 18.04/LinuxMint 19 as well. Not checked though.

I noticed that when I used LM to boot, there was an error related to MokListRT but there was no such error when using Debian. It was something like, 'Failed to set MokListRT: Invalid Parameter'. A quick search online informed me that solution was to copy grubx64.efi to shimx64.efi. So, I did, 
  # cd /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/
  # cp grubx64.efi shimx64.efi

That fixed my problem. Now, LM grub is behaving as per settings in /etc/default/grub. If you set timeout style to hidden, it hides menu and if disabled, shows menu.

I do not know if this is same issue on your end, or if it will be consistent and not be overwritten on next update but you can try. 

To sum up, 
1) make sure "DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden" is commented out in /etc/default/grub in order to see menu.
2) copy grubx64.efi to shimx64.efi in /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/

Regards,
Sai

On Thu, 8 Oct 2020 10:18:44 -0700, Fritz Hudnut <este.el.paz at gmail.com> wrote:

> @Bug-squad:
> 
> I filed a bug report on an issue that has been recurring in my three ubuntu
> distro installs wherein upgrades to grub2 packages have wiped out the grub
> menu and the ability to boot other OSs, other than ubuntu.  The problem has
> been happening for at least a year, I have filed several bug reports on the
> issue, none of them were actually resolved, and often quickly closed.  This
> recent bug was filed 9/4/20 and was marked as "invalid" a few days ago,
> basically claiming "problems with the firmware in the computer" . . . .
> Nothing was stated as to how that conclusion was arrived at, no follow up
> inquiries were asked of me . . . hands were washed of it, etc.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1894242
> 
> The issue is confined to only the ubuntu apt upgrades, the problem can be
> resolved by using SG2 disk to boot into OpenSUSE and running their
> "grub2-mkconfig" command . . . so SUSE can fix the problem and grub menu
> returns with all of the 6 or so linux distros available to select from . .
> . but in early Sept, I believe there were several grub upgrades in ubuntu,
> so the problem kept happening, which it is time-consuming to fix, each
> time.  Posts have been made on various ubuntu forums, but the depth of
> experience in grub and multi-boot conditions is "not deep" . . . .  I
> reached out to Walter to see if he could point me in a direction to get
> some attention, he pointed here to this list.  Whether my bug report is
> "invalid" on some minor technicality or whether it is "correct" . . .
> still, the problem continues within ubuntu handling of grub2 . . . and is
> fixed by running "os prober" in SUSE . . . .
> 
> Other bug reports relating to grub issues have been filed . . .
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1863434
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1889509
> 
> My question is, is my bug report really "invalid" or is it reporting a
> problem with ubuntu's handling of grub, which is simply not being dealt
> with?  The devs comment, that, "only one ubuntu can be listed in grub" . .
> . seems "casual" at best???  I have U-MATE 20.10, Lubuntu 20.10, and LM
> 20.04 . . . all showing in my present grub menu, with two OpenSUSE and one
> Manjaro distros.  Right now I'm using gui updater and unchecking any grub2
> packages in ubuntu to avoid having to fix the wiping of all systems except
> the last ubuntu installed, often U-MATE, now LM . . . .
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> F
> 
> To: Walter Lapchynski <wxl at ubuntu.com>
> 
> 
> Walter:
> 
> I thought I had sent an email to you on this but couldn't find it, but
> reaching out to you because of the issue of ubuntu and how it handles grub
> connections is a problem for a lot of people, myself included, filed
> several bug reports on it over the last year . . . others have as well.
> Devs don't seem to be doing anything positive, my recent bug report was
> marked "invalid" because the guy claimed there "are firmware problems with
> the computer"???  Updated the firmware a year or so back to upgrade to OSX
> 10.14 . . . .  One grub bug report had 43 people marked as affecting,
> that's a big number is it not???
> 
> Got an email reminder this morning on a main forum thread where the OP was
> "giving up" and it was linked to another one . . . it's a problem.  If
> ubuntu has grub2 upgrade packages in apt running them seems to wipe out all
> other OSs . . . leaving only itself, in my case, either U-MATE or Lubuntu .
> . . now I have an LM edition as well . . . .
> 
> https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2451265&p=13991079#post13991079
> 
> https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2448089&page=2
> 
> You could find my bug reports under my name or "este.el.paz" . . . but
> point is other peopple are complaining about it, and I'm on the line as to
> whether to just wipe ubuntu and shop on . . . because it's a PITA to have
> to fix grub each time ubuntu runs a grub2 upgrade . . . shouldn't have to
> be this way, etc.
> 
> F
> -- 
> Ubuntu-bugsquad mailing list
> Ubuntu-bugsquad at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugsquad

Regards,

Sai