Bug#1059580: grub-efi: Grub installation failed

[Steve McIntyre]

Control: severity -1 normal

Hi Ludovic,

On Thu, Dec 28, 2023 at 05:14:26PM +0100, Ludovic Kiefer wrote:
>Package: grub-efi
>Severity: grave
>Tags: d-i
>Justification: renders package unusable
>X-Debbugs-Cc: bugs at lkiefer.org
>
>Dear Maintainer,
>
>At the end of the Debian installation, the installation of the Grub package
>fails.
>
>I first found this bug with the Debian 12.0 installer in september, but it is
>still present in 12.4. My goal is to install a Debian with full disk
>encryption, I just let the Debian Installer configure everything to use my
>whole disk and create needed partitions. The installation performs well, but at
>the end Grub is not installed. I got the message "Unable to install GRUB into
>dummy". You can see in this capture the whole error messages:
>https://pic.infini.fr/gallery#0aTFatc6/ALzRXAY9.png
>
>I tried an installation without encryption and get the same error. I got this
>error with Linux Mint too, but I managed to repair Grub after the installation
>(only /home encryption). I did not manage to repair GRUB manually with Debian
>and full disk encryption, and I didn't try without the encryption.
>
>The PC is an Asus Expertbook B9400C. The BIOS is up to date (2023-12-12) and it
>can only boot on EFI. The SSD is in GPT mode and all partitions were made using
>the "automatic" mode. I used a USB drive made by the Linux Mint tool (which is
>basically a GUI for dd).

OK, thanks for sharing the picture of your syslog. The information
there (lines 3 and 4) says what the problem is - the EFI variable
space on your system is full. See 

  https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI#Firmware_has_run_out_of_space_to_write_boot_variables

for more information about this. Does this machine have a lot of files
in /sys/fs/pstore, by any chance?

-- 
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK.                                steve at einval.com
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that
 English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on
 occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them
 unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."  -- James D. Nicoll