Unattended "apt-get dist-upgrade -qq --force-yes" on 14.04 fails on grub configuration.

[Anders Hall]

Unattended "apt-get dist-upgrade -qq --force-yes" on 14.04 fails on Grub configuration.

Reproduce by using "apt-get dist-upgrade -qq --force-yes" on the latest Ubuntu 14.04 image (https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/locator/ec2/). It will not select grub defaults ("install the package maintainer's version") during upgrade. Setup will prompt the user for input.

This is a new behavior (for me, since Ubuntu 6). It breaks automatic/scripted setup of servers.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

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[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Is this when upgrading to 14.04? If so from what release? Or is this when upgrading from 14.04 to 14.10?

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

No when using dist-upgrade as stated. The kernel was upgraded from 3.13.0-24 to 3.13.0-27. The current AMI, at given URL, seems to have been upgraded to 3.13.0-27 so the case is not reproducible from that source. Yet it might happen with later upgrades.

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

Any news on this Brian? This should be reproducable by using AMIs with kernel 3.13.0-24.

[nickg (nickg)]

This bug breaks any automated tooling in building AMsI using ubuntu.

to reproduce:

Launch in us-west-1 ami-c6bdba83 (found via https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/locator/ec2/)

This ami is a:

us-west-1 trusty 14.04 LTS amd64 hvm:ebs-ssd 20140607.1 ami-c6bdba83 hvm

to reproduce

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y upgrade
sudo reboot # just because, likely not necessary

sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade (and various other -force-yes)

Now complains about /boot/grub/menu.lst being modified and in conflict with update.

the fix is what peter.waller suggested in https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-init/+bug/1309079?comments=all

before fist-upgrade do the following

sudo rm /boot/grub/menu.lst
sudo update-grub-legacy-ec2 -y
sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade

please advise.

thanks!

nickg

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

Why is there no response to this bug? You keep pushing up releases with this bug for no good reason!

Confirmed in the "eu 14.04 ebs ami-cb4986bc" version at https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/locator/ec2/

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

Related bug marked as fixed: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1009294

Discussion of workarounds: http://askubuntu.com/questions/146921/how-do-i-apt-get-y-dist-upgrade-without-a-grub-config-prompt

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

Note that the bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-init/+bug/1309079 mentions that the work-around is not good enough. Will test myself today.

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

The work-around in https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-init/+bug/1309079/comments/5 did work as expected:

"sudo rm /boot/grub/menu.lst
sudo update-grub-legacy-ec2 -y
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -qq --force-yes"

However, as I understand, the prompt will still appear when doing later upgrades.

[Robie Basak (racb)]

I have filed separate bug 1485685 with a detailed investigation that perhaps covers this issue, but I deliberately didn't take over this bug in case it is different. I'll mark this as a duplicate for now; if when the other bug is fixed your issue still exists then we can always unduplicate.

[Robie Basak (racb)]

(note that this isn't a bug in apt whichever way, so that's probably why this bug wasn't seen by relevant developers)

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

That makes no sense since the workaround in this thread is useful for those searching for a solution to the problem (this year) and your description appears to be the duplicate since it was filed later :-)

Secondly, this bug indicates that this is an bug with ties to older bugs, which can perhaps be of use. I.e., why is the bug not addressed properly, which is another issue to resolve. 11 people (at least) are affected as well which can give input instead of six.

I have deployed the workaround during several Ubuntu releases. It still works!

[Robie Basak (racb)]

I've linked to this bug from my bug to make it clear.

> and your description appears to be the duplicate since it was filed later

Yes, but I think my root cause investigation is more useful to be the lead summary to actually get this fixed, which is why I did it this way round and explained what I did. Launchpad ties the bugs together as long as they are linked (including number of users affected). I'm just arranging the bugs this way to maximise the help to developers to get it fixed.