View Issue Details

IDProjectCategoryView StatusLast Update
0005079Kali LinuxKali Package Bugpublic2018-11-12 11:08
Reporterpkreuzt Assigned Torhertzog  
PrioritynormalSeverityminorReproducibilityhave not tried
Status closedResolutionno change required 
Product Version2018.4 
Summary0005079: grub-efi-amd64 fails to reinstall bootloader after update and leaves system unbootable
Description

efibootmgr gets an I/O error claiming there is no space left on device (which is false) and fails to register the boot entry. This happens only in one of my machines, the other updates correctly.

Attached Files
grub-update-log.txt (1,245 bytes)   
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 2336802 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../grub-efi-amd64_2.02+dfsg1-8kali1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking grub-efi-amd64 (2.02+dfsg1-8kali1) over (2.02+dfsg1-8kali1) ...
Setting up grub-efi-amd64 (2.02+dfsg1-8kali1) ...
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
Could not prepare Boot variable: No space left on device
grub-install: error: efibootmgr failed to register the boot entry: Input/output error.
Failed: grub-install --target=x86_64-efi  
WARNING: Bootloader is not properly installed, system may not be bootable
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found background image: .background_cache.png
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.18.0-kali2-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.18.0-kali2-amd64
done
Scanning processes...                                                           
Scanning processor microcode...                                                 
Scanning linux images...                                                        

Running kernel seems to be up-to-date.

The processor microcode seems to be up-to-date.

No services need to be restarted.

No containers need to be restarted.

No user sessions are running outdated binaries.
grub-update-log.txt (1,245 bytes)   

Activities

rhertzog

rhertzog

2018-11-07 07:59

administrator   ~0009910

This is not really a bug on our side. The size for EFI variables is limited, have a look into /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/ and try to drop variables wich are taking too much space and seem to have no useful purpose... usually there are some "dump-*" variables which I believe are some sort of backup that can be dropped.

You use "ls -l" to see the space used by each variable and you can drop them with a simple rm IIRC.

pkreuzt

pkreuzt

2018-11-07 13:52

reporter   ~0009911

Correct, seems the computer where the update failed had a lot of such "dump-*" vars while the other had none. Erasing those vars, rebooting (with external rEFInd boot loader, if anyone needs to know) and then reinstalling Grub doesn't solve the issue, it keeps failing with the same error. It seems there are no more trivial vars that I can delete.

pkreuzt

pkreuzt

2018-11-10 19:31

reporter   ~0009940

This report can be closed. Apparently the problem has gone after a couple reboots, I don't know why.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
2018-11-06 23:51 pkreuzt New Issue
2018-11-06 23:51 pkreuzt File Added: grub-update-log.txt
2018-11-07 07:59 rhertzog Note Added: 0009910
2018-11-07 13:52 pkreuzt Note Added: 0009911
2018-11-10 19:31 pkreuzt Note Added: 0009940
2018-11-12 11:08 rhertzog Assigned To => rhertzog
2018-11-12 11:08 rhertzog Status new => closed
2018-11-12 11:08 rhertzog Resolution open => no change required