Comment 0 for bug 1649326

The EFI stub loader produces consistent boot errors when booting Trusty starting with version 3.13.0-101-generic. This bug can be reproduced in many ways (using efibootmgr, an EFI shell, rEFInd, etc.). One approach is:

1) Install an EFI shell on the computer and set it as the default boot
   option using efibootmgr.
2) Copy the kernel and initrd files from /boot to /boot/efi.
3) Rename the kernel file to use a .efi filename extension.
4) Reboot into the EFI shell.
5) Try to launch the kernel with a command like:
   fs0:\vmlinuz-3.13.0-104-generic.efi ro root=/dev/sda2 initrd=\initrd.img-3.13.0-104-generic

The result will be a hung or crashed system. (In VirtualBox, in which I've tested this, the VM produces a "guru meditation" and the session terminates.)

I myself have tested only with the 3.13.0-104 kernel; however, reports from others indicate that the problem began with the 3.13.0-101 kernel. See this Kubuntu forum thread for details:

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthread.php?71204-Cannot-load-latest-kernels

Note that early on, this thread focuses on rEFInd; however, the bug can be reproduced with other boot managers, including the EFI shell, as described in the preceding procedure, so I do not believe this is a rEFInd bug. rEFInd relies on the EFI stub loader to boot a Linux kernel, and I believe it's this component that's failing. The problem does NOT occur when using GRUB to launch the kernel. (GRUB does not rely on the EFI stub loader.)

I have NOT encountered the problem with Xenial and its 4.4.0-series kernels (last tested: 4.4.0-53-generic) or Yakkety and its 4.8.0-series kernels (last tested: 4.8.0-30-generic). I have not yet tested Trusty with kernels from series beyond 3.13.0.