Bug#989229: grub-install: warning: Cannot read EFI Boot* variables.

[Colin Watson]

Control: reassign -1 linux
Control: affects -1 grub2-common

On Sat, May 29, 2021 at 12:00:17PM -0400, Joseph Maher wrote:
> grub seems unhappy on my laptop (testing=bullseye, acer spin 1), currently
> grub-install doesn't work, and so the various grub packages aren't
> installable / upgradable
> 
> Not sure what the severity should be, or which package I should file a bug
> against, but I've appended some typical output below that may or may not be
> useful:
> 
> Yours
> 
> Joseph
> 
> 
> # grub-install --target=x86_64-efi
> Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
> grub-install: warning: Cannot read EFI Boot* variables.
> grub-install: warning: efivarfs_get_variable: read failed: Interrupted system call.
> grub-install: warning: efi_get_variable: ops->get_variable failed: Interrupted system call.
> grub-install: error: failed to register the EFI boot entry: Interrupted system call.
> 
> 
> # grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --debug
> 
> This output is very verbose, but I've left a copy here:
> 
> https://www.maher.org.uk/~joseph/20210529-grub-install.log
> 
> 
> 
> # efibootmgr Skipping unreadable variable "Boot0000": Interrupted system
> call
> Skipping unreadable variable "Boot0001": Interrupted system call
> Skipping unreadable variable "Boot0002": Interrupted system call
> Skipping unreadable variable "Boot0003": Interrupted system call
> Skipping unreadable variable "Boot0005": Interrupted system call
> Skipping unreadable variable "Boot0008": Interrupted system call
> Skipping unreadable variable "Boot000B": Interrupted system call
> Skipping unreadable variable "Boot000E": Interrupted system call
> Skipping unreadable variable "Boot0011": Interrupted system call
> Skipping unreadable variable "Boot0014": Interrupted system call
> Skipping unreadable variable "Boot0017": Interrupted system call
> Skipping unreadable variable "Boot2001": Interrupted system call
> Skipping unreadable variable "Boot2002": Interrupted system call
> Skipping unreadable variable "Boot2003": Interrupted system call
> show_order(): Interrupted system call

The fact that both grub-install and efibootmgr are getting EINTR here
(albeit with different subsequent effects) suggests to me that the
problem is at a lower level.  This looks like it's probably a kernel
bug, or maybe (though less likely IMO) a bug in the efivar userspace
library.  Reassigning to the kernel for now.

I suspect "strace -f -s 1024 grub-install --target=x86_64-efi" and
"strace -f -s 1024 efibootmgr" might be helpful, along with checking
dmesg to see if the kernel is logging any errors there.

-- 
Colin Watson (he/him)                              [cjwatson at debian.org]