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Unattended upgrade of grub failed

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  Unattended upgrade of grub failed Jesper Dybdal <jd-debian-user@dybdal.dk> - 2023-10-08 11:20 +0200
    Re: Unattended upgrade of grub failed "Marco M." <mm@dorfdsl.de> - 2023-10-08 11:30 +0200
      Re: Unattended upgrade of grub failed Jesper Dybdal <jd-debian-user@dybdal.dk> - 2023-10-08 12:10 +0200
        Re: Unattended upgrade of grub failed Jesper Dybdal <jd-debian-user@dybdal.dk> - 2023-10-08 13:40 +0200
          Re: Unattended upgrade of grub failed "Marco M." <mm@dorfdsl.de> - 2023-10-08 14:30 +0200
          Re: Unattended upgrade of grub failed Jeffrey Walton <noloader@gmail.com> - 2023-10-08 19:20 +0200
      Re: Unattended upgrade of grub failed Jesper Dybdal <jd-debian-user@dybdal.dk> - 2023-10-08 17:20 +0200
        Re: Unattended upgrade of grub failed Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2023-10-09 02:40 +0200
    Re: Unattended upgrade of grub failed "Marco M." <mm@dorfdsl.de> - 2023-10-08 11:40 +0200
      Re: Unattended upgrade of grub failed "Marco M." <mm@dorfdsl.de> - 2023-10-08 14:40 +0200

#262236 — Unattended upgrade of grub failed

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I run Bullseye on an UEFI boot machine.  The system originally ran on 
BIOS boot hardware, but this summer I moved it to an UEFI machine by 
installing the EFI version of grub.

This has worked fine since then, with unattended-upgrades succeeding in 
keeping it up-to-date, including kernel upgrades and reboots.

But this morning, unattended-upgrades failed:
> Packages that attempted to upgrade:
>   grub-common grub-efi-amd64-bin grub-efi-amd64-signed grub-pc
>   grub-pc-bin grub2 grub2-common
>
> Packages with upgradable origin but kept back:
>   Debian oldstable-security:
>    grub2-common grub-common grub-pc-bin grub-efi-amd64-signed grub2
>    grub-pc grub-efi-amd64-bin
(The entire mail from unattended-upgrades is quoted below.)

It seems to have a problem with "grub-pc".  But I thought that grub-pc 
was only for BIOS boot, and that by installing the UEFI version grub-pc 
would disappear or at least be disabled.

Do I need to do an uninstall of grub-pc? and will that not be dangerous 
for the EFI version?

I am now somewhat worried - can my system boot at all?  And I expect 
that the point release will be installed tonight - will that mess things 
up further?  Can I simply disable unattended-upgrades with systemctl in 
order to temporarily stop unattended upgrades?

This machine is also my router/firewall/server, so if it fails, 
everything becomes difficult.

Thanks for any help you can offer,
Jesper

The entire mail from unattended-upgrades:

> Unattended upgrade result: All upgrades installed
>
> Packages that attempted to upgrade:
>   grub-common grub-efi-amd64-bin grub-efi-amd64-signed grub-pc
>   grub-pc-bin grub2 grub2-common
>
> Packages with upgradable origin but kept back:
>   Debian oldstable-security:
>    grub2-common grub-common grub-pc-bin grub-efi-amd64-signed grub2
>    grub-pc grub-efi-amd64-bin
>
> Package installation log:
> Log started: 2023-10-08  06:47:58
> apt-listchanges: Reading changelogs...
> Preconfiguring packages ...
> apt-listchanges: Reading changelogs...
> Preconfiguring packages ...
> Preparing to unpack .../0-grub2_2.06-3~deb11u6_amd64.deb ...
> Unpacking grub2 (2.06-3~deb11u6) over (2.06-3~deb11u5) ...
> Preparing to unpack .../1-grub2-common_2.06-3~deb11u6_amd64.deb ...
> Unpacking grub2-common (2.06-3~deb11u6) over (2.06-3~deb11u5) ...
> Preparing to unpack .../2-grub-pc_2.06-3~deb11u6_amd64.deb ...
> Unpacking grub-pc (2.06-3~deb11u6) over (2.06-3~deb11u5) ...
> Preparing to unpack .../3-grub-pc-bin_2.06-3~deb11u6_amd64.deb ...
> Unpacking grub-pc-bin (2.06-3~deb11u6) over (2.06-3~deb11u5) ...
> Preparing to unpack .../4-grub-efi-amd64-bin_2.06-3~deb11u6_amd64.deb ...
> Unpacking grub-efi-amd64-bin (2.06-3~deb11u6) over (2.06-3~deb11u5) ...
> Preparing to unpack .../5-grub-common_2.06-3~deb11u6_amd64.deb ...
> Unpacking grub-common (2.06-3~deb11u6) over (2.06-3~deb11u5) ...
> Setting up grub-common (2.06-3~deb11u6) ...
> Setting up grub-efi-amd64-bin (2.06-3~deb11u6) ...
> Setting up grub2-common (2.06-3~deb11u6) ...
> Setting up grub-pc-bin (2.06-3~deb11u6) ...
> Setting up grub-pc (2.06-3~deb11u6) ...
> /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST2000DM001-1ER164_W4Z216NL does not exist, so cannot grub-install to it!
> You must correct your GRUB install devices before proceeding:
>
>    DEBIAN_FRONTEND=dialog dpkg --configure grub-pc
>    dpkg --configure -a
> dpkg: error processing package grub-pc (--configure):
>   installed grub-pc package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
> dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of grub2:
>   grub2 depends on grub-pc (= 2.06-3~deb11u6); however:
>    Package grub-pc is not configured yet.
>
> dpkg: error processing package grub2 (--configure):
>   dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
> Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.4-2) ...
> Processing triggers for install-info (6.7.0.dfsg.2-6) ...
> Errors were encountered while processing:
>   grub-pc
>   grub2
> needrestart is being skipped since dpkg has failed
>
> Running kernel seems to be up-to-date.
>
> The processor microcode seems to be up-to-date.
>
> Restarting services...
>   systemctl restart amavisd-milter.service
>
> Service restarts being deferred:
>   /etc/needrestart/restart.d/dbus.service
>   systemctl restartgetty@tty1.service
>   systemctl restart systemd-logind.service
>   systemctl restart unattended-upgrades.service
>
> No containers need to be restarted.
>
> No user sessions are running outdated binaries.
> E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
> Log ended: 2023-10-08  06:48:20
>
>
>
> Unattended-upgrades log:
> Starting unattended upgrades script
> Allowed origins are: origin=Debian,codename=bullseye,label=Debian, origin=Debian,codename=bullseye,label=Debian-Security, origin=Debian,codename=bullseye-security,label=Debian-Security
> Initial blacklist:
> Initial whitelist (not strict):
> Packages that will be upgraded: grub-common grub-efi-amd64-bin grub-efi-amd64-signed grub-pc grub-pc-bin grub2 grub2-common
> Writing dpkg log to /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades-dpkg.log
> Installing the upgrades failed!
> error message: installArchives() failed
> dpkg returned a error! See /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades-dpkg.log for details
> Package grub-common is kept back because a related package is kept back or due to local apt_preferences(5).
> Package grub-efi-amd64-bin is kept back because a related package is kept back or due to local apt_preferences(5).
> Package grub-efi-amd64-signed is kept back because a related package is kept back or due to local apt_preferences(5).
> Package grub-pc is kept back because a related package is kept back or due to local apt_preferences(5).
> Package grub-pc-bin is kept back because a related package is kept back or due to local apt_preferences(5).
> Package grub2 is kept back because a related package is kept back or due to local apt_preferences(5).
> Package grub2-common is kept back because a related package is kept back or due to local apt_preferences(5).
>
-- 
Jesper Dybdal
https://www.dybdal.dk

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#262238

Am 08.10.2023 um 11:09:53 Uhr schrieb Jesper Dybdal:

> It seems to have a problem with "grub-pc".  But I thought that
> grub-pc was only for BIOS boot, and that by installing the UEFI
> version grub-pc would disappear or at least be disabled.

Uninstall grub-pc if you are on an UEFI system.
You can still have the .deb in /var/cache/apt, so you can reinstall it
in a chroot environment of you fear.

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#262240

On 2023-10-08 11:25, Marco M. wrote:
> Am 08.10.2023 um 11:09:53 Uhr schrieb Jesper Dybdal:
>
>> It seems to have a problem with "grub-pc".  But I thought that
>> grub-pc was only for BIOS boot, and that by installing the UEFI
>> version grub-pc would disappear or at least be disabled.
> Uninstall grub-pc if you are on an UEFI system.
> You can still have the .deb in /var/cache/apt, so you can reinstall it
> in a chroot environment of you fear.
>

Can I simply do an apt-get remove grub-pc and expect that the grub-efi 
installation is still intact and working?

Would it make sense to do a grub-install after removing grub-pc, just to 
ensure that it will work?

And many thanks to you and DdB for your responses.

-- 
Jesper Dybdal
https://www.dybdal.dk

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#262243

On 2023-10-08 12:07, Jesper Dybdal wrote:
> On 2023-10-08 11:25, Marco M. wrote:
>> Am 08.10.2023 um 11:09:53 Uhr schrieb Jesper Dybdal:
>>
>>> It seems to have a problem with "grub-pc".  But I thought that
>>> grub-pc was only for BIOS boot, and that by installing the UEFI
>>> version grub-pc would disappear or at least be disabled.
>> Uninstall grub-pc if you are on an UEFI system.
>> You can still have the .deb in /var/cache/apt, so you can reinstall it
>> in a chroot environment of you fear.
>>
>
> Can I simply do an apt-get remove grub-pc and expect that the grub-efi 
> installation is still intact and working?
>
> Would it make sense to do a grub-install after removing grub-pc, just 
> to ensure that it will work?
I tried to simulate it with a "apt-get -s remove grub-pc".  It then said:

The following packages will be REMOVED:
   grub-pc grub2

Is removing grub2 not a problem?  If I do an "aptitude why grub2", it says:

Manually installed, current version 2.06-3~deb11u6, priority optional
No dependencies require to install grub2

-- 
Jesper Dybdal
https://www.dybdal.dk

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#262246

Am 08.10.2023 um 13:37:45 Uhr schrieb Jesper Dybdal:

> I tried to simulate it with a "apt-get -s remove grub-pc".  It then
> said:
> 
> The following packages will be REMOVED:
>    grub-pc grub2
> 
> Is removing grub2 not a problem?  If I do an "aptitude why grub2", it
> says:

That is my EFI system, no package "grub2" installed.

m@ryz:~$ dpkg -l |grep grub
ii  grub-common
2.12~rc1-11                          amd64        GRand Unified
Bootloader (common files) ii  grub-efi-amd64
                  2.12~rc1-11                          amd64
GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (EFI-AMD64 version) ii
grub-efi-amd64-bin                                          2.12~rc1-11
                         amd64        GRand Unified Bootloader, version
2 (EFI-AMD64 modules) ii  grub-efi-amd64-signed
              1+2.12~rc1+11                        amd64        GRand
Unified Bootloader, version 2 (amd64 UEFI signed by Debian) ii
grub2-common                                                2.12~rc1-11
                         amd64        GRand Unified Bootloader (common
files for version 2) m@ryz:~$ 

The package description is also clear:
|Description: GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (dummy package)
|This is a dummy transitional package to handle GRUB 2 upgrades.  It
|can be safely removed.

So you can remove it.

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#262257

On Sun, Oct 8, 2023 at 1:04 PM Jesper Dybdal <jd-debian-user@dybdal.dk> wrote:
>
> On 2023-10-08 12:07, Jesper Dybdal wrote:
> > On 2023-10-08 11:25, Marco M. wrote:
> >> Am 08.10.2023 um 11:09:53 Uhr schrieb Jesper Dybdal:
> >>
> >>> It seems to have a problem with "grub-pc".  But I thought that
> >>> grub-pc was only for BIOS boot, and that by installing the UEFI
> >>> version grub-pc would disappear or at least be disabled.
> >> Uninstall grub-pc if you are on an UEFI system.
> >> You can still have the .deb in /var/cache/apt, so you can reinstall it
> >> in a chroot environment of you fear.
> >>
> >
> > Can I simply do an apt-get remove grub-pc and expect that the grub-efi
> > installation is still intact and working?
> >
> > Would it make sense to do a grub-install after removing grub-pc, just
> > to ensure that it will work?
> I tried to simulate it with a "apt-get -s remove grub-pc".  It then said:
>
> The following packages will be REMOVED:
>    grub-pc grub2
>
> Is removing grub2 not a problem?  If I do an "aptitude why grub2", it says:
>
> Manually installed, current version 2.06-3~deb11u6, priority optional
> No dependencies require to install grub2

Sometimes  packages need to be marked manual rather than auto to
ensure they are not auto-removed. For example, you need to perform
`apt-mark manual cryptsetup-initramfs` to ensure initramfs can mount
an encrypted root. See <https://wiki.debian.org/DebianUpgrade>.

I'm not saying that's happening here. I'm only saying that it happens
on occasion.

Jeff

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#262253

On 2023-10-08 11:25, Marco M. wrote:
> Am 08.10.2023 um 11:09:53 Uhr schrieb Jesper Dybdal:
>
>> It seems to have a problem with "grub-pc".  But I thought that
>> grub-pc was only for BIOS boot, and that by installing the UEFI
>> version grub-pc would disappear or at least be disabled.
> Uninstall grub-pc if you are on an UEFI system.
> You can still have the .deb in /var/cache/apt, so you can reinstall it
> in a chroot environment of you fear.
>
I did uninstall grub-pc (and grub2).  I then installed the new point 
release (11.8) before rebooting.

After the reboot, which went well, I noticed that the new kernel version 
was "held back".  An explicit install of the new kernel seemed to 
succeed, and everything seems to work ok now.

Thank you!!

-- 
Jesper Dybdal
https://www.dybdal.dk

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#262262

On Sun, Oct 08, 2023 at 05:14:52PM +0200, Jesper Dybdal wrote:
> After the reboot, which went well, I noticed that the new kernel version was
> "held back".  An explicit install of the new kernel seemed to succeed, and
> everything seems to work ok now.

Note the differences among "apt upgrade", "apt-get upgrade",
"apt-get upgrade --with-new-pkgs" and "apt-get dist-upgrade.

"apt-get upgrade" will not install new packages.

"apt upgrade" will.

"apt-get upgrade --with-new-pkgs" also will.

"apt-get dist-upgrade" will install new packages, and potentially
remove packages, if the situation requires it.  For a simple point
release, it should be vanishingly rare that a package would be
removed, so this is hardly ever needed.  But "dist-" is a lot easier to
type and to remember than "--with-new-pkgs", so people tend to use it
as a synonym.

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#262239

Am 08.10.2023 um 11:30:13 Uhr schrieb DdB:

> On issuing the update interactively, i could see, that grub was
> prompting for the place to write itself to, which needed interaction.
> After giving the info (like /dev/sda in my case), the upgrade
> succeded. Later, there came more updates, but this time, they could
> indeed install themselves automatically.

Specifying a block device for boot loader installation is only needed
for BIOS boot and not for UEFI boot, so in case of an UEFI system,
grub-pc isn't needed.

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#262251

Am 08.10.2023 um 12:46:06 Uhr schrieb DdB:

> My understanding is, that it might be dangerous to uninstall grub-pc
> and its dependencies without further precautions.

If a system was installed in UEFI mode, no grub-pc is installed.
If a system is being migrated from BIOS boot to UEFI boot, care must be
taken.

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