[Bug 1046429] Re: include patch to resolve bug where grub2 cannot boot Dell PowerEdge 12G systems in UEFI mode

[Kent Baxley]

Tested the proposed grub packages on 3 servers:

PowerEdge 11G Series, which always worked in EFI mode

PowerEdge 12G Series with the 'broken' BIOS - i.e. one where 12.04 would
not boot in EFI mode.

PowerEdge 12G Series with the 'fixed' BIOS that allowed 12.04 to boot in
EFI mode.

To test, I downloaded the proposed grub packages to a USB stick.  Once
Ubuntu had been installed, but before the system was rebooted, I did the
following:

1) Went to virtual terminal 2 and chrooted into the installed system (“chroot /target”).
2) Mounted the USB stick.
3) Installed the new grub packages from my USB stick.
4) Typed exit, then flipped back to the installer screen and hit Continue to reboot.

All 3 systems booted successfully.  The 12G system with the 'broken'
BIOS would not boot 12.04 in EFI mode in the past.  Now it does.

I also reinstalled all 3 systems in legacy BIOS mode and updated only
the applicable grub packages from proposed to make sure there were no
problems.   Everything checked out fine there as well.

I think we are in good shape.

** Tags removed: verification-needed
** Tags added: verification-done

** Changed in: dell-poweredge
       Status: In Progress => Fix Committed

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1046429

Title:
  include patch to resolve bug where grub2 cannot boot Dell PowerEdge
  12G systems in UEFI mode

Status in The Dell PowerEdge project:
  Fix Committed
Status in GRand Unified Bootloader:
  Unknown
Status in OEM Priority Project:
  Confirmed
Status in OEM Priority Project precise series:
  Confirmed
Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in “grub2” source package in Precise:
  Fix Committed
Status in “grub2” source package in Quantal:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  [Impact] GRUB fails to load Linux on UEFI machines with certain firmware behaviour related to getting the memory map.  The known case is Dell PowerEdge 12G systems.
  [Test Case] Try to boot on one of these systems and make sure it's possible.
  [Regression Potential] It's easy to verify that the change is confined to UEFI.  It would definitely be worth regression-testing on other UEFI systems to make sure they can still load Linux too, though, as this is a fairly substantial change to the loader.

  Original report follows:

  We (Dell) would like grub2 patched in Quantal so that it is able to
  boot using grub2 on Dell PowerEdge 12G systems that are in UEFI mode.

  In May, we reported this bug in Precise's version of grub2 (although
  our patch has not yet been included in an update of grub2 for
  Precise). See <https://bugs.launchpad.net/oem-priority/+bug/1001009>.
  We provided a patch that works against grub2_1.99-21ubuntu3 as well as
  one that applies against version 2.00. I've included the one for 1.99.
  It has not yet been included in the grub2 package for Quantal.

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