(non-UEFI) package shim-signed 1.33.1+13-0ubuntu2 failed to install/upgrade: installed shim-signed package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1

[rgonnering]

Trying to install speedtest-cli on Ubuntu 18.04.

$ sudo apt install speedtest-cli
[sudo] password r:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  speedtest-cli
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 417 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 22.8 kB of archives.
After this operation, 100 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 speedtest-cli all 2.0.0-1 [22.8 kB]
Fetched 22.8 kB in 1s (22.0 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package speedtest-cli.
(Reading database ... 284033 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../speedtest-cli_2.0.0-1_all.deb ...
Unpacking speedtest-cli (2.0.0-1) ...
Setting up shim-signed (1.33.1+13-0ubuntu2) ...
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: error: cannot find EFI directory.
dpkg: error processing package shim-signed (--configure):
 installed shim-signed package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Setting up grub-efi-amd64-signed (1.93+2.02-2ubuntu8) ...
grub-install: error: /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.
dpkg: error processing package grub-efi-amd64-signed (--configure):
 installed grub-efi-amd64-signed package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-1) ...
Setting up speedtest-cli (2.0.0-1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 shim-signed
 grub-efi-amd64-signed
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: shim-signed 1.33.1+13-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-13.14-lowlatency 4.15.10
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-13-lowlatency x86_64
.proc.sys.kernel.moksbstate_disabled: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/proc/sys/kernel/moksbstate_disabled'
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu4
AptOrdering:
 speedtest-cli:amd64: Install
 NULL: ConfigurePending
Architecture: amd64
BootEFIContents:
 fw
 fwupx64.efi
Date: Mon Apr 23 12:33:31 2018
EFIBootMgr: Error: command ['efibootmgr', '-v'] failed with exit code 2: EFI variables are not supported on this system.
EFITables: Apr 23 11:18:26 roger-desktop fwupd[4469]: disabling plugin because: failed to startup uefi: UEFI firmware updating not supported
ErrorMessage: installed shim-signed package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Python3Details: /usr/bin/python3.6, Python 3.6.5, python3-minimal, 3.6.5-2
PythonDetails: /usr/bin/python2.7, Python 2.7.14+, python-minimal, 2.7.14-4
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.19.0.5ubuntu1
 apt 1.6~beta1
SourcePackage: shim-signed
Title: package shim-signed 1.33.1+13-0ubuntu2 failed to install/upgrade: installed shim-signed package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Jorge Gustavo (jgr)]

This package fails to install on a fresh Ubuntu 18.04.

My laptop has the UEFI boot security disabled. It is an ASUS N552VX.206.

jgr@zoe:~$ cat /sys/firmware/efi
cat: /sys/firmware/efi: No such file or directory

After installation, I tried to correct it, but if fails:

sudo apt -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up shim-signed (1.34.9+13-0ubuntu2) ...
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: error: cannot find EFI directory.
dpkg: error processing package shim-signed (--configure):
 installed shim-signed package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Setting up grub-efi-amd64-signed (1.93+2.02-2ubuntu8) ...
grub-install: error: /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.
dpkg: error processing package grub-efi-amd64-signed (--configure):
 installed grub-efi-amd64-signed package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 shim-signed
 grub-efi-amd64-signed
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Looking at the file system, there is no /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh

jgr@zoe:~$ ls -l /usr/lib/grub/
total 20
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 abr 29 14:54 grub-mkconfig_lib -> ../../share/grub/grub-mkconfig_lib
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 16384 abr 29 14:56 x86_64-efi
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 abr 29 14:56 x86_64-efi-signed

There is another modinfo.sh script, but on a different folder:

jgr@zoe:~$ ls -l /usr/lib/grub/x86_64-efi/modinfo.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2475 mar 4 13:11 /usr/lib/grub/x86_64-efi/modinfo.sh

How to reproduce? Well, in my case I've tried several times to install Ubuntu 18.04, and it always fails. Right now, the workaround is to delete this package.

[Jorge Gustavo (jgr)]

If shim-signed and grub-efi-amd64-signed packages fail to install at Ubuntu 18.04 installation, the system became unreliable.

But I found a workaround that works. I added a unused EFI partition with around 100 Mb. To be able to install Ubuntu 18.04 I needed to create such a partition.

jgr@zoe:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda
/dev/sda1 2048 194559 192512 94M Sistema EFI
/dev/sda2 194560 250068991 249874432 119.2G Linux sistema de arquivos

With this non useful partition, the packages were installed without errors.

jgr@zoe:~$ dpkg -l shim-signed grub-efi-amd64-signed
ii grub-efi-amd64-signed 1.93+2.02-2ubuntu8 amd64 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (EFI-AMD64 version, signed)
ii shim-signed 1.34.9+13-0ubuntu2 amd64 Secure Boot chain-loading bootloader (Microsoft-signed binary)