Grub update hangs while upgrading Lucid to Precise

[Thorsten Hesemeyer]

Hi everyone,

on a full disk LUKS encrypted system with an unused partition grub update hangs while updating operating system.
The distribution upgrade does not continue / hangs - the operating system is still responsive.

Ran distribution upgrade, last window that came up was a debconf window "Configuring grub-pc", clicked "Forward" here with "Continue without installing GRUB?" ***not*** selected.

DISTRIBUTION UPGRADE
====================
Distribution upgrade window shows 2minutes remaining for several hours now.
Last lines from distribution upgrade window:
  Setting up rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder (2.96-0ubuntu4) ...
  Setting up grub2-common (1.99-21ubuntu3.1) ...
  Setting up grub-pc-bin (1.99-21ubuntu3.1) ...
  Setting up grub-gfxpayload-lists (0.6) ...
  Setting up grub-pc (1.99-21ubuntu3.1) ...
  Removing update-grub hooks from /etc/kernel-img.conf in favour of
  /etc/kernel/ hooks.
  Replacing config file /etc/default/grub with new version

PROCESS LIST
===========
The process list shows these grub processes:
root 10199 0.0 0.2 6780 5276 pts/2 Ss+ Jul11 0:04 /usr/bin/dpkg --force-overwrite --status-fd 6 --configure libbsd0 libedit2 openssh-client mime-support libexpat1 libncursesw5 libsqlite3-0 python2.7 python python-support libdbus-1-3 netd

root 23485 0.0 0.0 6148 1568 ? Ss Jul11 0:00 grub-mount /dev/mapper/ubu1004-lv_temp /var/lib/os-prober/mount

root 32713 0.0 1.0 54848 22156 pts/2 Sl+ Jul11 0:03 /usr/bin/perl -w /usr/share/debconf/frontend /var/lib/dpkg/info/grub-pc.postinst configure 1.98-1ubuntu13

root 32729 0.0 0.0 5336 1652 pts/2 S+ Jul11 0:00 /bin/bash /var/lib/dpkg/info/grub-pc.postinst configure 1.98-1ubuntu13

DPKG.LOG
=========
Last messages in /var/log/dpkg.log:
2012-07-11 19:27:33 status installed grub-pc-bin 1.99-21ubuntu3.1
2012-07-11 19:27:33 configure grub-gfxpayload-lists 0.6 <none>
2012-07-11 19:27:33 status unpacked grub-gfxpayload-lists 0.6
2012-07-11 19:27:33 status half-configured grub-gfxpayload-lists 0.6
2012-07-11 19:27:33 status installed grub-gfxpayload-lists 0.6
2012-07-11 19:27:33 configure grub-pc 1.99-21ubuntu3.1 <none>
2012-07-11 19:27:33 status unpacked grub-pc 1.99-21ubuntu3.1
2012-07-11 19:27:33 status unpacked grub-pc 1.99-21ubuntu3.1
2012-07-11 19:27:33 status unpacked grub-pc 1.99-21ubuntu3.1
2012-07-11 19:27:33 status half-configured grub-pc 1.99-21ubuntu3.1

HARD DRIVE PARTITIONS
====================
Hard drive setup:
 1 boot partition /dev/sda1
 1 encrypted / partition lv_root
 1 encrypted /home partition lv_home
 1 encrypted (not mounted) partition lv_temp <====== this may trigger the issue
 1 encrypted swap partition lv_swap

I've seen this issue two times now. Both times with an unmounted logical volume that is not listed in /etc/fstab (see "this may trigger the issue" above).
First hang while updating grub happened on my physical system, this bug report is now done from a virtual machine now.

Kind regards,
Thorsten

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: grub-pc 1.99-21ubuntu3.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-41.91-generic 2.6.32.59+drm33.24
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-41-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu8
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Jul 12 16:56:50 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20120214.2)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: grub2
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-07-11 (0 days ago)

[Thorsten Hesemeyer (thorsten-hesemeyer)]

Screenshot after grub-update from yesterday afternoon - nothing changed since then.

[Tomasz Czapiewski (xeros)]

I'm getting similar problem when upgrading Maverick (10.10) to Precise (12.04).
In my case /usr/sbin/update-grub hangs on kexec-tools configuration:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Configuring kexec-tools (1:2.0.2-3ubuntu4) ...
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-27-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-32-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-30-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-28-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-27-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-25-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-24-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
Found GRUB 2: /boot/grub/core.img
Found kernel: /boot/memtest86+.bin
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rest of packages are already installed and configured.

Processes list:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
root 12636 0.0 0.0 22296 2024 pts/3 Ss 08:22 0:01 | \_ /bin/bash
root 11084 0.5 1.2 86972 49136 pts/3 S+ 14:46 0:01 | \_ apt-get -f dist-upgrade
root 11096 0.0 0.3 26824 12956 pts/8 Ss+ 14:47 0:00 | | \_ /usr/bin/dpkg --status-fd 94 --configure kexec-tools:amd64
root 11097 0.0 0.3 63824 14284 pts/8 S+ 14:47 0:00 | | \_ /usr/bin/perl -w /usr/share/debconf/frontend /var/lib/dpkg/info/kexec-tools.postinst configure 1:2.0.1-2ubuntu2.2
root 11104 0.0 0.0 4392 708 pts/8 S+ 14:47 0:00 | | \_ /bin/sh /var/lib/dpkg/info/kexec-tools.postinst configure 1:2.0.1-2ubuntu2.2
root 11114 0.0 0.0 15176 1980 pts/8 S+ 14:47 0:00 | | \_ /bin/bash /usr/sbin/update-grub
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No disk activity is reported during this state, no CPU load.
There are no encrypted partitions, no LUKS or LVM.

[Tomasz Czapiewski (xeros)]

Running /usr/sbin/update-grub from shell works properly and completes all actions, but it doesn't help with configure of kexec-tools:
# /usr/sbin/update-grub
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-27-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-32-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-30-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-28-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-27-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-25-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-24-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
Found GRUB 2: /boot/grub/core.img
Found kernel: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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On 8/7/2012 8:54 AM, Tomasz Czapiewski wrote:
> I'm getting similar problem when upgrading Maverick (10.10) to
> Precise (12.04).

You can not upgrade from 10.10 to 12.04; you must upgrade to 11.04,
then 11.10 first.

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[Tomasz Czapiewski (xeros)]

To workaround the problem I have temporarirly linked /bin/true to /usr/sbin/update-grub:
# sudo mount --bind /bin/true /usr/sbin/update-grub
# sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
(installation of kexec-tools completed)
Then grub config update and installation:
# sudo umount /usr/sbin/update-grub
# sudo update-grub
# sudo grub-install /dev/sda
After that everything went fine and 12.04 boots properly.

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for grub2 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]