Bug#1059580: grub-efi: Grub installation failed

[Jeffrey Walton]

On Thu, 28 Dec 2023 17:14:26 +0100 Ludovic Kiefer <bugs at lkiefer.org> 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).
>
> Feel free to ask me more information. As I need this PC for the work, I will
> reinstall Linux Mint if I didn't find a solution until the 2 of january (After
> that date I will be unable to perform more tests and risk to lose my system)
>
> PS: I write this report on another PC, the system information section is
> written by Reportbug and is wrong
>
>
> -- System Information:
> Debian Release: bookworm/sid
>   APT prefers jammy-updates
>   APT policy: (500, 'jammy-updates'), (500, 'jammy-security'), (500, 'jammy'), (100, 'jammy-backports')
> Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
> Foreign Architectures: i386
>
> Kernel: Linux 5.15.0-91-generic (SMP w/8 CPU threads)
> Kernel taint flags: TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
> Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=fr_FR
> Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
> Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
> LSM: AppArmor: enabled
>
> Versions of packages grub-efi depends on:
> ii  grub-common     2.06-2ubuntu7.2
> pn  grub-efi-amd64  <none>
>
> grub-efi recommends no packages.
>
> grub-efi suggests no packages.

Also see <https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2024/06/msg00204.html>.
It looks like a thorny problem. Hat tip to Hans for figuring it out.

Jeff