grub-install fails due to uninitialized variable

[dann frazier]

[Impact]
grub-install can fail, either by segfaulting or reporting an Internal Error.

[Test Case]
The issue is due to an uninitialized variable, so reproducing it is somewhat unpredictable (depends what randomness is in memory). However, a user seems to have a reliable reproduction setup as reported in LP: #1904226.

[Fix]
This upstream patch fixes it:
https://github.com/rhboot/efivar/commit/5dc12cc56c79d293cf68d12a0b84373a785745e7

[Where problems could occur]
Most likely a problem with this fix would have little to do with the fix itself (which is simple/obvious), so I'll just state the usual issues/problems that can occur with upgrading packages (e.g. disk too full to unpack, etc).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package efivar - 37-4ubuntu2

---------------
efivar (37-4ubuntu2) groovy; urgency=medium

  * Cherrypick upstream patch to fix uninitialized variable in
    parse_acpi_root(), which can lead to a segfault when calling
    grub-install. LP: #1892792.

 -- dann frazier <email address hidden> Mon, 24 Aug 2020 17:21:15 -0600

[Steven Clarkson (sclarkson)]

This same bug now applies to the focal release as of the 37-2ubuntu2.1 package. However it does not segfault, the parser simply fails.

$ grub-install /dev/nvme0n1 --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: warning: Internal error.
grub-install: error: failed to register the EFI boot entry: Operation not permitted.

This patch should be backported to the focal-updates release, as well.

Also reported in LP: #1904226

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello dann, or anyone else affected,

Accepted efivar into focal-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/efivar/37-2ubuntu2.2 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-focal to verification-done-focal. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-focal. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Steven Clarkson (sclarkson)]

With 37-2ubuntu2.1

$ sudo grub-install
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: warning: Internal error.
grub-install: error: failed to register the EFI boot entry: Operation not permitted.

And with 37-2ubuntu2.2

$ sudo grub-install
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
Installation finished. No error reported.

Looks like the issue has been resolved.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package efivar - 37-2ubuntu2.2

---------------
efivar (37-2ubuntu2.2) focal; urgency=medium

  * Cherrypick upstream patch to fix uninitialized variable in
    parse_acpi_root(), which can lead to a segfault when calling
    grub-install. LP: #1892792.

 -- dann frazier <email address hidden> Mon, 16 Nov 2020 17:25:19 -0700

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for efivar has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.