Comment 0 for bug 1311827

Installing a node configured to boot in EFI/UEFI mode results in Ubuntu registering GRUB with the firmware, thus overriding the node's original PXE-boot setting. This can be seen via efibootmgr after the node has been started:

$ sudo efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0006
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0006,000E,0007,0008,0009,000A,000B,000C,000D
Boot0000 Setup
Boot0001 Boot Menu
Boot0002 Diagnostic Splash Screen
Boot0003 Lenovo Diagnostics
Boot0004 Startup Interrupt Menu
Boot0005 ME Configuration Menu
Boot0006* ubuntu HD(1,800,100000,2017753f-1b99-424d-811b-91c2e8c3c816)File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0007* USB CD 030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b86701296aa5a7848b66cd49dd3ba6a55
Boot0008* USB FDD 030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b6ff015a28830b543a8b8641009461e49
Boot0009* ATAPI CD0 030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25baea2090adfde214e8b3a5e471856a35401
Boot000A* ATA HDD0 030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f600
Boot000B* ATA HDD1 030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f601
Boot000C* ATA HDD2 030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f602
Boot000D* USB HDD 030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b33e821aaaf33bc4789bd419f88c50803
Boot000E* PCI LAN 030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b78a84aaf2b2afc4ea79cf5cc8f3d3803
Boot000F* IDER BOOT CDROM ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(16,2)ATAPI(0,1,0)
Boot0010* IDER BOOT Floppy ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(16,2)ATAPI(0,0,0)
Boot0012 Rescue and Recovery

Note that the system's BootOrder is set to load \EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi (which in turn launches GRUB; item Boot0006) from the hard disk, and to PXE-boot (item Boot000E) second. When the process began, it was set to PXE-boot first.

This works fine for bringing up a node initially, but it's different from the way a BIOS-mode installation works, in which the system is left PXE-booting by default. The UEFI approach will result in an inability to delete the node and re-enlist it, or even to stop the node and then re-start it and have Ubuntu re-installed, without either manually running efibootmgr or delete the file or partition to which the boot manager entry points.

I'm attaching my MAAS log files. The UEFI-booting system is 192.168.0.56.

Here's the MAAS server version information:

$ dpkg -l '*maas*'|cat
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-=====================================================-===================================================-============-===============================================================================
ii maas 1.5+bzr2252-0ubuntu1 all MAAS server all-in-one metapackage
ii maas-cli 1.5+bzr2252-0ubuntu1 all MAAS command line API tool
ii maas-cluster-controller 1.5+bzr2252-0ubuntu1 all MAAS server cluster controller
ii maas-common 1.5+bzr2252-0ubuntu1 all MAAS server common files
ii maas-dhcp 1.5+bzr2252-0ubuntu1 all MAAS DHCP server
ii maas-dns 1.5+bzr2252-0ubuntu1 all MAAS DNS server
ii maas-region-controller 1.5+bzr2252-0ubuntu1 all MAAS server complete region controller
ii maas-region-controller-min 1.5+bzr2252-0ubuntu1 all MAAS Server minimum region controller
ii python-django-maas 1.5+bzr2252-0ubuntu1 all MAAS server Django web framework
ii python-maas-client 1.5+bzr2252-0ubuntu1 all MAAS python API client
ii python-maas-provisioningserver 1.5+bzr2252-0ubuntu1 all MAAS server provisioning libraries