grub-install: error: failed to register the EFI boot entry: Operation not permitted.

[Haw Loeung]

Hi,

Seeing a bunch of these across various units, all of which were recently provisioned in Azure:

| ubuntu@machine-1:~$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
| Reading package lists... Done
| Building dependency tree
| Reading state information... Done
| Calculating upgrade... Done
| 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
| 1 not fully installed or removed.
| After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
| Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
| Setting up grub-efi-amd64-signed (1.142.8+2.04-1ubuntu26.6) ...
| Installing grub to /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.

It keeps trying to install on either /dev/sda15 or /dev/sdb15 (some units have attached volumes).

| ubuntu@machine-1:~$ sudo parted -l
| Model: Msft Virtual Disk (scsi)
| Disk /dev/sda: 34.4GB
| Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
| Partition Table: gpt
| Disk Flags:
|
| Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
| 14 1049kB 5243kB 4194kB bios_grub
| 15 5243kB 116MB 111MB fat32 boot, esp
| 1 116MB 34.4GB 34.2GB ext4

Focal.

| Start-Date: 2020-10-26 16:02:51
| Upgrade: perl-base:amd64 (5.30.0-9build1, 5.30.0-9ubuntu0.2), bind9-dnsutils:amd64 (1:9.16.1-0ubuntu2.3, 1:9.16.1-0ubuntu2.4), grub-common:amd64 (2.04-1ubuntu26.4, 2.04-1ubuntu26.6), snapd:amd64 (2.46.1+20.04, 2.47.1+20.04), bind9-host:amd64 (1:9.16.1-0ubuntu2.3, 1:9.16.1-0ubuntu2.4), perl-modules-5.30:amd64 (5.30.0-9build1, 5.30.0-9ubuntu0.2), grub2-common:amd64 (2.04-1ubuntu26.4, 2.04-1ubuntu26.6), plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text:amd64 (0.9.4git20200323-0ubuntu6, 0.9.4git20200323-0ubuntu6.1), grub-pc:amd64 (2.04-1ubuntu26.4, 2.04-1ubuntu26.6), libplymouth5:amd64 (0.9.4git20200323-0ubuntu6, 0.9.4git20200323-0ubuntu6.1), libperl5.30:amd64 (5.30.0-9build1, 5.30.0-9ubuntu0.2), grub-pc-bin:amd64 (2.04-1ubuntu26.4, 2.04-1ubuntu26.6), grub-efi-amd64-bin:amd64 (2.04-1ubuntu26.4, 2.04-1ubuntu26.6), plymouth:amd64 (0.9.4git20200323-0ubuntu6, 0.9.4git20200323-0ubuntu6.1), grub-efi-amd64-signed:amd64 (1.142.6+2.04-1ubuntu26.4, 1.142.8+2.04-1ubuntu26.6), perl:amd64 (5.30.0-9build1, 5.30.0-9ubuntu0.2), accountsservice:amd64 (0.6.55-0ubuntu12~20.04.1, 0.6.55-0ubuntu12~20.04.2), bind9-libs:amd64 (1:9.16.1-0ubuntu2.3, 1:9.16.1-0ubuntu2.4), libaccountsservice0:amd64 (0.6.55-0ubuntu12~20.04.1, 0.6.55-0ubuntu12~20.04.2)
| Error: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
| End-Date: 2020-10-26 16:03:54

With apt term.log - https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/5HnGZ43QzH/

[Haw Loeung (hloeung)]

Other user reports - https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/issues/1605

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

We think this is not a bug in grub. It might be a bug in the kernel, but it's also likely to be a bug in the firmware implementation. Probably in the reference EDK2, given that it happens across various machines, whether real or virtual.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Robert Sander (gurubert)]

May a dup of bug #1872212 ?

The solution there is to add --no-nvram to grub-install.

[Haw Loeung (hloeung)]

Adding '--no-nvram' as advised by Robert in #5 seems to work.

Without:

| ubuntu@machine-0:~$ sudo /usr/lib/grub/grub-multi-install --target=x86_64-efi
| Installing grub to /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.
| Installing grub to /boot/efi.
| Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
| ^C
| ubuntu@machine-0:~$

With:

| ubuntu@machine-0:~$ sudo /usr/lib/grub/grub-multi-install --target=x86_64-efi --no-nvram
| Installing grub to /boot/efi.
| Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
| Installation finished. No error reported.
| ubuntu@machine-0:~$