[Bug 1289977] Re: Ubuntu 14.04 Update breaks grub, resulting in "error: symbol 'grub_term_highlight_color' not found"

Fri May 2 06:50:01 UTC 2014

I hit the problem as well upgrading from 13.10 to 14.04.  Quite a shock.

-0- After several tries, I finally got it to do an initial boot using
"boot from EFI file" (see details below), but then made two changes,
after which it kept rebooting OK without intervention, so not sure which
of the two changes was critical.  The two changes were:

-1- sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-efi-amd64 
as suggested by olly_b in #130 (thanks, Olly)

-2- in my /boot/efi, moved all subdirectories to /boot/efi/old 
sudo mkdir /boot/efi/old
sudo mv Boot EFI Microsoft ubuntu /boot/efi/old/.
    and then did
sudo mkdir /boot/efi/EFI
sudo cp -r /boot/efi/old/EFI/ubuntu /boot/efi/EFI/.

More details:

My configuration:

On a 2012 HP Envy 6 notebook.

It's a dual boot setup: Windows 8.1 Update, using 500GB and 32GB
internal drives and Ubuntu set up on a 31.6GB external USB flash drive
as an encrypted physical volume /dev/sdc3 with the root file system and
swap being on logical volumes.

It boots from EFI with /dev/sdc2 being mounted at /boot and /dev/sdc1 at
/boot/efi.

---
$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA Hitachi HTS54505 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End    Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  210MB  209MB   primary  ntfs         boot
 2      210MB   479GB  479GB   primary  ntfs
 3      479GB   500GB  21.0GB  primary  ntfs
 4      500GB   500GB  113MB   primary  fat32        lba

Model: ATA SAMSUNG MZMPC032 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 32.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  8589MB  8588MB  primary

Model: USB Flash Drive (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 31.6GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  512MB   511MB   fat32              boot
 2      512MB   768MB   256MB   ext2
 3      768MB   31.6GB  30.9GB

Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root: 22.4GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop

Number  Start  End     Size    File system  Flags
 1      0.00B  22.4GB  22.4GB  ext4

Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-swap_1: 8485MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop

Number  Start  End     Size    File system     Flags
 1      0.00B  8485MB  8485MB  linux-swap(v1)

Error: /dev/mapper/sdc3_crypt: unrecognised disk label                    
---

Having an EFI boot setup, I should have run "sudo debconf-show grub-efi-
amd64" but didn't before I fixed the problem.  Anyway, this is how it
looks now:

---
$ sudo  debconf-show grub-pc
  grub2/kfreebsd_cmdline_default: quiet splash
  grub-pc/postrm_purge_boot_grub: false
  grub-pc/install_devices_disks_changed:
  grub2/device_map_regenerated:
  grub-pc/hidden_timeout: true
  grub-pc/install_devices:
  grub-pc/mixed_legacy_and_grub2: true
  grub-pc/install_devices_failed_upgrade: true
  grub-pc/disk_description:
* grub2/linux_cmdline_default: quiet splash
  grub-pc/timeout: 10
  grub-pc/chainload_from_menu.lst: true
* grub2/linux_cmdline:
  grub-pc/kopt_extracted: false
  grub-pc/install_devices_empty: false
  grub-pc/partition_description:
  grub-pc/install_devices_failed: false
  grub2/kfreebsd_cmdline:

$ sudo  debconf-show grub-efi

$ sudo  debconf-show grub-efi-amd64
* grub2/linux_cmdline_default: quiet splash
  grub2/kfreebsd_cmdline:
  grub2/kfreebsd_cmdline_default: quiet splash
* grub2/linux_cmdline:
  grub2/device_map_regenerated:

---

And again, I should have run "sudo efibootmgr -v" before but didn't and
here is how it looks now:

---

$ sudo efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 3003,2001,2002,2003
Boot0000* Notebook Hard Drive	BIOS(2,0,18).......................................................................
Boot0001* USB Hard Drive - USB     Flash Drive	BIOS(7,500,53).......................................................................
Boot0003* ubuntu	HD(1,800,f3800,3907ec83-43d5-47ee-99bd-5c58abb58abc)File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi)
Boot2001* USB Drive (UEFI)	RC
Boot3003* Internal Hard Disk or Solid State Disk	RC

---

-0- Getting it to boot initially

after power on, at prompt "Press ESC key for startup menu", press <esc> to interrupt boot
F9 to select "boot device options"
selected "boot from EFI file"
selected first device: ...Usb(0,0)/Usb(1,0)/HD(Part1...
roamed around /boot/efi until I found the subdirectory EFI/ubuntu with grubx64.efi and shimx64.efi, then selected the grubx64.efi to boot from.

Current Contents of /boot/efi

$ ls -lR /boot/efi
/boot/efi:
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 May  2 09:08 EFI
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 May  2 09:07 old
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 12 12:22 System Volume Information

/boot/efi/EFI:
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May  2 09:08 ubuntu

/boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu:
total 1448
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     120 Nov  1 02:57 grub.cfg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  119296 May  2 09:04 grubx64.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1355656 Nov  1 02:57 shimx64.efi

/boot/efi/old:
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov  1 16:05 Boot
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Nov  1 16:05 EFI
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Nov  1 16:05 Microsoft
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov  1 16:05 ubuntu

/boot/efi/old/Boot:
total 128
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 127488 Nov  1 16:05 bootx64.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      0 Nov  1 16:05 bootx64.efi.grb

/boot/efi/old/EFI:
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov  1 16:05 Boot
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Nov  1 16:05 Microsoft
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov  1 02:57 ubuntu

/boot/efi/old/EFI/Boot:
total 128
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 127488 Nov  1 16:05 bootx64.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      0 Nov  1 16:05 bootx64.efi.grb

/boot/efi/old/EFI/Microsoft:
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov  1 16:05 Boot

/boot/efi/old/EFI/Microsoft/Boot:
total 256
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 127488 Nov  1 16:05 bootmgfw.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      0 Nov  1 16:05 bootmgfw.efi.grb
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 127488 Nov  1 16:05 bootx64.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      0 Nov  1 16:05 bootx64.efi.grb

/boot/efi/old/EFI/ubuntu:
total 1448
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     120 Nov  1 02:57 grub.cfg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  119296 May  2 09:04 grubx64.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1355656 Nov  1 02:57 shimx64.efi

/boot/efi/old/Microsoft:
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov  1 16:05 Boot

/boot/efi/old/Microsoft/Boot:
total 256
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 127488 Nov  1 16:05 bootmgfw.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      0 Nov  1 16:05 bootmgfw.efi.grb
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 127488 Nov  1 16:05 bootx64.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      0 Nov  1 16:05 bootx64.efi.grb

/boot/efi/old/ubuntu:
total 128
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 127488 Nov  1 16:05 grubx64.efi

/boot/efi/System Volume Information:
total 4
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 76 Mar 12 12:22 IndexerVolumeGuid

You can see there were lots of *.efi files dated Nov  1 [2013] 16:05
with file size 127488 bytes.  "cmp" confirmed these were all the same
file.  However, in the /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu directory the .efi file was
(initially) dated Apr 30 [2014] (the date I did the 13.10 to 14.04
upgrade) and had a different size, 119296 bytes. After I did the "sudo
dpkg-reconfigure grub-efi-amd64" this changed date to May 2 [2014]
(today's date), and still 119296 bytes in size.  So the idea of renaming
all the /boot/efi directories into /boot/efi/old, was to get them out of
the way so nothing would try to boot them and then moving the EFI/ubuntu
directory back to /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu so there would be only one efi
file to pick up and boot from.  [I assume at some stage in the past I've
done a "boot repair" and it duplicated all the EFI files.]

As I say, I'm not sure whether the "sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-efi-
amd64" or the renaming of the /boot/efi subdirectories fixed the
problem, but I'm rebooting OK now without any manual intervention.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to grub2 in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1289977

Title:
  Ubuntu 14.04 Update breaks grub, resulting in "error: symbol
  'grub_term_highlight_color' not found"

Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  The update from 13.10 to 14.04 via update-manager broke grub for me,
  which resulted in the grub error:

  "symbol 'grub_term_highlight_color' not found"

  on startup.

  To fix the problem I had to boot to my persisting Ubuntu installation
  (e.g. using Super Grub Disk) and had to reinstall grub on my boot
  partition: "sudo grub-install --recheck /dev/sdx"

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
  Package: grub2-common 2.02~beta2-6
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-16.36-generic 3.13.5
  Uname: Linux 3.13.0-16-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.13.3-0ubuntu1
  Architecture: amd64
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  Date: Sun Mar  9 10:36:45 2014
  EcryptfsInUse: Yes
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-12-10 (88 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Release amd64 (20131016.1)
  ProcEnviron:
   LANGUAGE=de_DE
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
   LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: grub2
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-03-07 (2 days ago)

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