[bitfolk] Re: Ubuntu 24.04 grub package update issue

Hi Phil, Oh dear. I may as well just post it here then, just in case I've missed anyone else. Here you go. Hi, You're receiving this email because a customer running several Ubuntu 24.04 VPSes contacted us today to report a problem upgrading their grub-pc package. Having looked into it, I think it is likely to affect all Ubuntu 24.04 VPSes at BitFolk (probably not any others elsewhere though), so I'm contacting you all about it. If you are currently running Ubuntu 24.04 on your BitFolk VPS I would urge you to run: $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt full-upgrade and see if you have any errors when it goes to apply a grub-pc upgrade from the last two weeks or so. (If you have any problems with other packages that is probably a You Problem. 😀) ## The Problem The error message you will see looks something like this: Setting up grub-pc (2.12-1ubuntu7.1) ... Installing for i386-pc platform. grub-install: warning: this GPT partition label contains no BIOS Boot Partition; embedding won't be possible. grub-install: warning: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged.. grub-install: error: will not proceed with blocklists. 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 grub-efi-amd64-signed: grub-efi-amd64-signed depends on grub-efi-amd64 | grub-pc; however: Package grub-efi-amd64 is not installed. Package grub-pc is not configured yet. If that happens — and I can't see how it won't, for all of you — then there's no need to panic as the only part of grub that we use to boot your VPS is the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file, which is still there and will still work. Not being able to do any more package updates is not acceptable though. The problem here is that we gave you a GPT disk but just left a bit of free space at the start (4MiB) for the bootloader, like you would with legacy MBR disks. This worked fine at the time of the 24.04 release but evidently a recent update has ended up with a grub that is more picky and demands a specific bios_boot partition on a GPT disk. ## The Fix Here are step by step instructions on how to fix this. They involve using parted on your actual running VPS disk, so if you make a typo maybe you destroy everything. If this worries you then maybe you want to email support(a)bitfolk.com and ask for a snapshot first, or even ask for me to do this for you, which I will do at no charge (I'll need an account with root access). Here goes: $ sudo parted /dev/xvda (parted) p Model: Xen Virtual Block Device (xvd) Disk /dev/xvda: 10.7GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: gpt Disk Flags: Number Start End Size File system Name Flags 1 4194kB 10.7GB 10.7GB ext4 (parted) unit s (parted) mkpart grub 34s 8191s Warning: The resulting partition is not properly aligned for best performance: 34s % 2048s != 0s Ignore/Cancel? Ignore (parted) set 2 bios_grub on (parted) p Model: Xen Virtual Block Device (xvd) Disk /dev/xvda: 20971520s Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: gpt Disk Flags: Number Start End Size File system Name Flags 2 34s 8191s 8158s grub bios_grub 1 8192s 20971486s 20963295s ext4 (parted) exit $ sudo partprobe /dev/xvda $ sudo apt full-upgrade Should now complete successfully. ### What the above does - Creates a new partition starting at the 34th sector and extending to sector 8191 (total 8158 sectors = 4176896 bytes = 4079KiB) This won't be block aligned, but it's read once per boot so not an issue. Just ignore that. - Sets the type of that partition to bios_grub. - Re-read partition table That's enough space for grub to embed itself when the package is upgraded. ## Permanent Fix We've already adjusted the installation images for Ubuntu 24.04 to have a bios_grub partition, but you really don't need to reinstall. After doing this you may still be left with grub-efi-amd64 and its dependencies which also won't upgrade because there is no EFI System Partition. It is safe to just remove these packages, though you do have to convince apt to let you do so. The command is: $ sudo apt --allow-remove-essential purge \ grub-efi-amd64-signed \ shim-signed \ efibootmgr \ grub-efi-amd64-bin Thanks, Andy On Sat, Feb 01, 2025 at 05:48:41PM +0000, Phil Driscoll via BitFolk Users wrote: > Hi Andy > > I'm in the same boat - I have two Bitfolk VM's on Ubuntu 24.04, but the > panel said 22.04. Could you send me the email please. > > Thanks > > Phil > > > On 01/02/2025 15:29, Andy Smith via BitFolk Users wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I've now done that. > > > > We are not able to easily tell which Linux distribution you are running > > so rely on self-reporting which is listed on the summary page of > > <https://panel.bitfolk.com/> - I've only contacted people who have > > listed Ubuntu 24.04 there. > > > > Thanks, > > Andy