Devuan bug report logs - #784
devuan-installer: GRUB fails on raid drives or no space on EFI

Package: devuan-installer; Reported by: Jerzy Sobczyk <[email protected]>; dated Fri, 1 Sep 2023 14:54:01 UTC; Maintainer for devuan-installer is (unknown).

Message received at [email protected]:

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Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2023 01:42:28 +1000
From: Ralph Ronnquist <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: devuan-installer: GRUB fails on raid drives or no space on EFI
Message-ID: <ZPIGZGnAyLxjN3Xr@localhost>
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 <CALUj2P4EjH-11B7A3UDpeG4rZTknk_5SqnyQrPX9yhPkh_YS=A@mail.gmail.com>
 <CALUj2P4FeBiwMuLfHyM4eKmJwvE1m8NpH+YpjmVaUrQLvr4ynQ@mail.gmail.com>
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Thanks,

there are a couple of issues here and I've inlined a couple of notes
below.

On Fri, 1 Sep 2023 16:51:05 +0200 Jerzy Sobczyk <[email protected]> wrote:
> Package: devuan-installer
> Version: current
> 
> Severity  normal
> Dear Maintainer,
> Instalation of Dedalus on the machine with EFI and software RAID drives
> created earlier.
> 
>  Installation of GRUB has failed with a message like:
>                 grub-install dummy has failed
>  which gives no clue for actual reason of the failure.

An EFI installation will require an EFI partition "outside" of any
software RAID, because the kernel and the RAID software needs to boot
up for implementing that. That EFI partition needs to be mounted at
/boot/efi of the target filesystem when you run grub-install.

I'm guessing something of that was not set up fully correct during
your installation; though I can't guess why.

> I have accepted the failure, finished installation without GRUB and booted
> from old system from another partition. Then I added manually newly
> installed system to the GRUB menu and booted from it. After booting I had
> to solve two problems before I could install GRUB again from the new system:
> 
>  1. There was no /sbin and /usr/sbin i the PATH for root  which results
> with messages like: "disk 'md11' not found" even if the drive exists and is
> OK. After googling awhile I found that grub-install is looking for mdadm
> and needs it in the PATH.

Your comment most likely comes as a result of using "su" rather than
"su -" to gain root access. See https://wiki.debian.org/NewInBuster

    "The su command in buster is provided by the util-linux source
    package, instead of the shadow source package, and no longer
    alters the PATH variable by default."

> 
> 2. /sys/firmware/efi/efivars was full of dump-* files. After removing this
> files I have managed to install GRUB from the new system.
> 
> So I guess that failure of GRUB during system installation was probably
> caused by one of this reasons.

Yes if efivars is full then the boot record cannot be added. I'm not
sure when and why it gets full though, but I don't think it happened
at this installation.

> 
> I think that the PATH passed to grub-install by devuan-installer shoud be
> checked to ensure that it contains /sbin directory.
> And a popup shoud be shown allowing to clean EFI dumps if necessary.

Yes that sounds like a handy feature; though that would be a grub
enhancement. The installer merely installs the grub package.

> 
> -- System Information:
> Distributor ID: Devuan
> Description:    Devuan GNU/Linux 5 (daedalus)
> Release:        5
> Codename:       daedalus
> Architecture: x86_64
> 
> Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-10-amd64 (SMP w/12 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
> Kernel taint flags: TAINT_USER
> Locale: LANG=pl_PL.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=pl_PL.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE
> not set
> Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
> Init: OpenRC (via /run/openrc), PID 1: init
> LSM: AppArmor: enabled
> 
> 

regards,

Ralph.

In-Reply-To: <CALUj2P4FeBiwMuLfHyM4eKmJwvE1m8NpH+YpjmVaUrQLvr4ynQ@mail.gmail.com>

Acknowledgement sent to Ralph Ronnquist <[email protected]>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Ralph Ronnquist <[email protected]>. Full text available.

Information forwarded to [email protected], Ralph Ronnquist <[email protected]>:
bug#784; Package devuan-installer. Full text available.

Message received at [email protected]:

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 <CALUj2P4EjH-11B7A3UDpeG4rZTknk_5SqnyQrPX9yhPkh_YS=A@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CALUj2P4EjH-11B7A3UDpeG4rZTknk_5SqnyQrPX9yhPkh_YS=A@mail.gmail.com>
From: Jerzy Sobczyk <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2023 16:51:05 +0200
Message-ID: <CALUj2P4FeBiwMuLfHyM4eKmJwvE1m8NpH+YpjmVaUrQLvr4ynQ@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: devuan-installer: GRUB fails on raid drives or no space on EFI
To: [email protected]
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--000000000000f0e70706044d4ae5
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Package: devuan-installer
Version: current

Severity  normal
Dear Maintainer,
Instalation of Dedalus on the machine with EFI and software RAID drives
created earlier.

 Installation of GRUB has failed with a message like:
                grub-install dummy has failed
 which gives no clue for actual reason of the failure.

I have accepted the failure, finished installation without GRUB and booted
from old system from another partition. Then I added manually newly
installed system to the GRUB menu and booted from it. After booting I had
to solve two problems before I could install GRUB again from the new system:

 1. There was no /sbin and /usr/sbin i the PATH for root  which results
with messages like: "disk 'md11' not found" even if the drive exists and is
OK. After googling awhile I found that grub-install is looking for mdadm
and needs it in the PATH.

2. /sys/firmware/efi/efivars was full of dump-* files. After removing this
files I have managed to install GRUB from the new system.

So I guess that failure of GRUB during system installation was probably
caused by one of this reasons.

I think that the PATH passed to grub-install by devuan-installer shoud be
checked to ensure that it contains /sbin directory.
And a popup shoud be shown allowing to clean EFI dumps if necessary.

-- System Information:
Distributor ID: Devuan
Description:    Devuan GNU/Linux 5 (daedalus)
Release:        5
Codename:       daedalus
Architecture: x86_64

Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-10-amd64 (SMP w/12 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_USER
Locale: LANG=pl_PL.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=pl_PL.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE
not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: OpenRC (via /run/openrc), PID 1: init
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

>

--000000000000f0e70706044d4ae5
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<div dir=3D"ltr">Package: devuan-installer<div class=3D"gmail_quote"><div d=
ir=3D"ltr"><div>Version: current<br></div><div dir=3D"ltr"><br></div><div d=
ir=3D"ltr">Severity=C2=A0 normal<br>Dear Maintainer,<br>Instalation of Deda=
lus on the machine with EFI and software RAID drives created earlier.<br><b=
r>=C2=A0Installation of GRUB has failed with a message like:<br><div>=C2=A0=
 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 grub-install dummy has fa=
iled</div><div>=C2=A0which gives no clue for actual reason of the failure.<=
br></div>=C2=A0</div><div dir=3D"ltr">I have accepted the failure, finished=
 installation without GRUB and booted from old system from another partitio=
n. Then I added manually newly installed system to the GRUB menu and booted=
 from it. After booting I had to solve two problems before I could install =
GRUB again from the new system:<br>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0 <br></div><di=
v dir=3D"ltr">=C2=A01. There was no /sbin and /usr/sbin i the PATH for root=
=C2=A0 which results with messages like: &quot;disk &#39;md11&#39; not foun=
d&quot; even if the drive exists and is OK. After googling awhile I found t=
hat grub-install is looking for mdadm and needs it in the PATH.</div><div d=
ir=3D"ltr"><br></div><div dir=3D"ltr">2. /sys/firmware/efi/efivars was full=
 of dump-* files. After removing this files I have managed to install GRUB =
from the new system.<br><br>So I guess that failure of GRUB during system i=
nstallation was probably caused by one of this reasons.<br></div><div dir=
=3D"ltr"><br></div><div dir=3D"ltr">I think that the PATH passed to grub-in=
stall by devuan-installer shoud be checked to ensure that it contains /sbin=
 directory.<br>And a popup shoud be shown allowing to clean EFI dumps if ne=
cessary.<br><br><br>-- System Information:<br>Distributor ID: Devuan<br>Des=
cription: =C2=A0 =C2=A0Devuan GNU/Linux 5 (daedalus)<br>Release: =C2=A0 =C2=
=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A05<br><div>Codename: =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 daedalus</div><di=
v>Architecture: x86_64<br><br>Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-10-amd64 (SMP w/12 CPU th=
reads; PREEMPT)<br>Kernel taint flags: TAINT_USER<br>Locale: LANG=3Dpl_PL.U=
TF-8, LC_CTYPE=3Dpl_PL.UTF-8 (charmap=3DUTF-8), LANGUAGE not set<br>Shell: =
/bin/sh linked to /bin/dash<br>Init: OpenRC (via /run/openrc), PID 1: init<=
br>LSM: AppArmor: enabled<br></div></div><div class=3D"gmail_quote"><blockq=
uote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1p=
x solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
</blockquote></div></div>
</div></div>

--000000000000f0e70706044d4ae5--

Acknowledgement sent to Jerzy Sobczyk <[email protected]>:
New bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to Ralph Ronnquist <[email protected]>. Full text available.

Report forwarded to [email protected], Ralph Ronnquist <[email protected]>:
bug#784; Package devuan-installer. Full text available.

Devuan bug report logs - #784 devuan-installer: GRUB fails on raid drives or no space on EFI

Message received at [email protected]:

Message received at [email protected]:

Devuan bug report logs - #784
devuan-installer: GRUB fails on raid drives or no space on EFI