Kernel Upgrade forces removal of grub-efi due to missing recommends entry

[Keith Ward]

I'm currently experiencing an issue with installing kernel updates on natty.

It seems to want to force install grub-pc -- ignoring the fact that grub-efi is installed.

Looking at the dsc for the kernels at present, it seems linux-image-* recommends grub , grub-pc or lilo, but omits grub-efi which means when a kernel upgrade happens it forces removal of it for a recommended bootloader - despite the fact that grub-efi-* is perfectly valid, and is required for EFI booting.

keith@Jarvis:~$ uname -a
Linux Jarvis 2.6.38-8-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Mon Apr 11 03:31:24 UTC 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

keith@Jarvis:~$ apt-cache show linux-image-2.6.38-10-generic | grep Recommends
Recommends: grub-pc | grub | lilo (>= 19.1)

-Keith

[Keith Ward (kward)]

keith@Jarvis:~$ dpkg -l linux-image-generic
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 Description
+++-=====================================================-=====================================================-==========================================================================================================================
ii linux-image-generic 2.6.38.8.22 Generic Linux kernel image
keith@Jarvis:~$ dpkg -l linux-image-2.6.38-8-generic
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 Description
+++-=====================================================-=====================================================-==========================================================================================================================
ii linux-image-2.6.38-8-generic 2.6.38-8.42 Linux kernel image for version 2.6.38 on x86/x86_64
keith@Jarvis:~$ sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.38-10-generic
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  grub-gfxpayload-lists grub-pc
Suggested packages:
  desktop-base fdutils linux-doc-2.6.38 linux-source-2.6.38 linux-tools
The following packages will be REMOVED
  grub-efi grub-efi-amd64
The following NEW packages will be installed
  grub-gfxpayload-lists grub-pc linux-image-2.6.38-10-generic
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 2 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 37.4 MB of archives.
After this operation, 148 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

SRU Justification

Description: EFI bootloaders are not in the recommends list

Impact: Due to a bug in apt, bootloader packages not in the recommends list are removed when linux-image is upgraded or installed.

Patch: add appropriate EFI bootloaders to the recommends clause.

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

Michael - cjwatson suggested this is likely an apt bug. As its unlikely to get fixed in Natty, perhaps you could look at fixing Oneiric (if it is indeed an apt bug).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package linux - 3.0-2.3

---------------
linux (3.0-2.3) oneiric; urgency=low

  [ Andy Whitcroft ]

  * ubuntu: AUFS -- update to 0e2bafab74f0d1463383faeb93f9fc5eb8c2c54e

  [ Leann Ogasawara ]

  * rebase to v3.0-rc4
  * [Config] updateconfigs after rebase to 3.0-rc4
  * fix ERROR: __devcgroup_inode_permission undefined

  [ Stefan Bader ]

  * SAUCE: iscsitarget: Remove driver from the kernel

  [ Tim Gardner ]

  * SAUCE: rtl8192se: Force a build for a 2.6/3.0 kernel
  * [Config] Add grub-efi as a recommended bootloader for server and
    generic
    - LP: #800910

  [ Upstream Kernel Changes ]

  * Fix node_start/end_pfn() definition for mm/page_cgroup.c

  [ Leann Ogasawara ]

  * rebase to v3.0-rc4
 -- Leann Ogasawara <email address hidden> Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:51:12 -0700

[Didier Fort (didier-fort)]

I reinstalled grub-efi on my desktop to fix it.
I had to use the LiveCD. It wasn't fun.

Is there a documented work around?

Thanks.
Didier

[Craig Maloney (craig-decafbad)]

Any reason why this isn't getting fixed in Natty? I just managed to upgrade my machine into a paperweight, and would really like it to eventually boot at some point.

Work-arounds, recommendations very much appreciated.

[Herton R. Krzesinski (herton)]

This bug is awaiting verification that the kernel in -proposed solves the problem. Please test the kernel and update this bug with the results. If the problem is solved, change the tag 'verification-needed-natty' to 'verification-done-natty'.

If verification is not done by one week from today, this fix will be dropped from the source code, and this bug will be closed.

See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you!

[exactt (giesbert)]

I just upgraded to the latest Natty Proposed kernel and everything went smooth. Grub-efi wasn't supposed to be removed this time.

Verified from my side.

Thx

[Steve Williams (steve-fi)]

I have an Asus e35m1-i deluxe and I cannot upgrade GRUB without seeing this happen in the update manager.

For reference, when updating GRUB, I am asked where I want to install the update, to which I am offered to install it to /dev/sda which is my Samsung hard disk or to it's primary partition.

I have tried both of them separately and then both together and still can't get it to work.

Every time I get the error:

"error: invalid arch independent ELF magic"

Thanks

Steve

[Petros Tsantoulis (ptsant)]

Grub-uefi is still removed by default when updating 11.04. I don't see how this issue has been solved if a fresh installation is broken immediately after update...