The officially official Devuan Forum!

viverna

Member

Registered: 2017-07-02

Posts: 31  

Strange behaviour with last version of grub

Yesterday I updated one of my computers with apt-get upgrade. This packages are upgraded:

• grub-common

• grub-pc

• grub-pc-bin

• grub2-common

dpkg install from version 2.02+dfsg1-20+deb10u3 to version 2.02+dfsg1-20+deb10u4

2.02+dfsg1-20+deb10u4 seems came from to:
http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-security/main

2.02+dfsg1-20+deb10u3 is in:
http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf/main

Upgrading system does not produce or show any problems and then I halt the system.

I use Devuan Beowulf for all my pc. In this computer there is only 1 hd, partition type gpt, 3 partitions:

• /dev/sda1  EFI System

• /dev/sda2  Linux filesystem

• /dev/sda3  Linux swap

I switched on the pc later and grub rescue appears. WTF?

I solved (temporarily) the problems with:

set prefix=(hd0,gpt2)/boot/grub
set root=(hd0,gpt2)
insmod normal
normal

and grub menù appears.

Login with root, and then update-grub... grub-install... and so on...

Restart the system. Grub rescue. Then login with root. New tests. Grub rescue again. [N times?]

At the end I downgrade from 2.02+dfsg1-20+deb10u4 to 2.02+dfsg1-20+deb10u3 the upgraded package.

update-grub and grub-install. Reboot. Grub works!

I am currently reluctant to upgrade again.

And now the question. Has anyone reported the error in Devuan? Has anyone haved this problem?

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2019-03-24

Posts: 3,125  

Website

Re: Strange behaviour with last version of grub

The grub-pc package is for non-UEFI systems but your EFI system partition suggests that is not appropriate.

Check for /sys/firmware/efi, that will only exist if you are booted in UEFI mode.

If you see the rescue prompt then that means GRUB cannot find it's modules. Use the set command to find where it is looking.

Login with root, and then update-grub... grub-install... and so on...

That's far too vague — what were the *exact* commands that you used?

I would recommend dpkg-reconfigure instead of grub-install & update-grub but the target package would depend on whether you have a UEFI system or not.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2021-03-04 19:54:09)

---

Brianna Ghey — Rest In Power

viverna

Member

Registered: 2017-07-02

Posts: 31  

Re: Strange behaviour with last version of grub

I tried with various pc without errors, but this behavior was generated in a pc booted in UEFI mode.
In fact the pc booted in UEFI mode and grub-pc are installed. I removed grub-pc and I installed grub-efi.
I reapplied the procedure again and I have not received any errors.
I am surprised though precedent grub version works.
For me it's solved.
Thank you.

matze72

Member

Registered: 2020-06-02

Posts: 8  

Re: Strange behaviour with last version of grub

I  had the same problem that viverna had. But in my case grub-efi was already installed, beside grub-pc.
Deleting grub-pc and reinstalling grub-efi (I reinstalled grub-efi common and grub-efi 2 common) did not solved the problem.

Later I found ot that it is the prefix that causes grub to enter the shell/rescue mode.

It is set to .../efi/debian.

As soon I change it in the rescue mode to .../efi/devuan I can enter normal mode and the system starts normally.
This fits to the directories  found in /boot/efi/EFI/.

I  could not find a method to change the prefix presetting. The only solution I found was to force grub to install itself under .../efi/debian with

grub-install --bootloader-id=debian

Could it be that in one of the last updates the change of the prefix from debian to devuan has been forgotten?
Or that the directory name has been changed without changing the prefix?

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,486  

Re: Strange behaviour with last version of grub

The prefix is hard-coded in grub-efi-amd64-signed. I'm not sure what changed in this last update. I first ran into this problem a year ago. If you remove the signed package and just keep grub-efi-amd64 it should fix the problem. Usually. And not if you need to use secure boot.

matze72

Member

Registered: 2020-06-02

Posts: 8  

Re: Strange behaviour with last version of grub

@fsmtihred:
Thanks for the hint, indeed by removing grub-efi-amd64-signed, the problem disappered. The prefix is now set to another value where also the grub configuration files are saved after another:

grub-install