Fwd: ubuntu and problems with grub handling??

Fri Oct 16 15:51:51 UTC 2020

@Sai:

Thanks for the post on this . . . .  Your "assumption" was more or less
correct, I didn't fiddle with /etc/grub . . . because I did see other posts
where guys were saying, "I changed xxx and it didn't fix the problem . . .
."  My "solution" was to "chroot" over to the OpenSUSE partition and use
os-prober to revive grub . . . and that "worked" . . . but then each time
ubuntu flavors had an update, again grub was broken . . . .  I then found I
can use Super Grub 2 disk and it can get me to OpenSUSE . . . but, still, a
pain to have to do that after apt updates in ubuntu have broken the grub
links to all but itself . . . .

Then we have the one bug report with like 43 people posting that "it
affects them" . . . but the devs were acting like, "this is normal" . . .
????  There has been a problem, yep, I think it goes back to 18.04 and it
seemingly is still happening in 20.10 . . . .  There should have been a
better effort to get on this problem a long time back . . . but, seemingly,
no . . . .

When I get back to one of my ubuntu flavors in a day or three I'll check
into your suggestions and see if that helps staunch the wackiness . . . .

F

On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 9:52 PM Sai Vinoba <sv at sumati.net> wrote:

> 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
>
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