[Bug 1646576] [NEW] Upgrading from 14.04 to 16.04 fails when recovering from `apt-get purge upstart`

[Bruno Beltran]

Public bug reported:

The installer crashed after complaining that grub could not be
installed.

On the system I was trying to upgrade, a user had abused their "sudo for
apt-get only" privileges to run sudo apt-get purge upstart, so the
computer had no /sbin/init, and would kernel panic on boot.

Since this was a 14.04 machine, I decided to use this as an opportunity
to upgrade to 16.04. I tried to use the "upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04"
button in the installer, and got this error.

Normally, I wouldn't expect the installer to work in such exceptional
circumstances anyways, but after trying to rerun the installer to
perform a clean install, it reached the same step and failed again.

The exact message is:

The 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install into /target/.
Without the GRUB boot loader, the installed system will not boot.

In the terminal log attached to the installer window, a message
something like "INFO: apt-get install grub-[something] failed" is
present.

After clicking OK in the error window, the installer freezes up, then
presents me a window with title "Installer crashed" and the message:

We're sorry; the installer crashed. After you close this window, we'll
allow you to file a bug report using the integrated bug reporting tool.
This will gather information about your system and your installation
process. The details will be sent to our bug tracker and a developer
will attend to the problem as soon as possible.

I'll be rebooting now to see if the installer magically works after a
reboot and to verify the integrity of my installation media.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: ubiquity 2.21.63.2 [modified: lib/partman/automatically_partition/question]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-31.50-generic 4.4.13
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-31-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.376
Date: Thu Dec  1 10:34:32 2016
InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz.efi file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash ---
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160719)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: grub-installer
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

** Affects: grub-installer (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: amd64 apport-bug ubiquity-2.21.63.2 ubuntu xenial

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1646576

Title:
  Upgrading from 14.04 to 16.04 fails when recovering from `apt-get
  purge upstart`

Status in grub-installer package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  The installer crashed after complaining that grub could not be
  installed.

  On the system I was trying to upgrade, a user had abused their "sudo
  for apt-get only" privileges to run sudo apt-get purge upstart, so the
  computer had no /sbin/init, and would kernel panic on boot.

  Since this was a 14.04 machine, I decided to use this as an
  opportunity to upgrade to 16.04. I tried to use the "upgrade from
  14.04 to 16.04" button in the installer, and got this error.

  Normally, I wouldn't expect the installer to work in such exceptional
  circumstances anyways, but after trying to rerun the installer to
  perform a clean install, it reached the same step and failed again.

  The exact message is:

  The 'grub-efi-amd64-signed' package failed to install into /target/.
  Without the GRUB boot loader, the installed system will not boot.

  In the terminal log attached to the installer window, a message
  something like "INFO: apt-get install grub-[something] failed" is
  present.

  After clicking OK in the error window, the installer freezes up, then
  presents me a window with title "Installer crashed" and the message:

  We're sorry; the installer crashed. After you close this window, we'll
  allow you to file a bug report using the integrated bug reporting
  tool. This will gather information about your system and your
  installation process. The details will be sent to our bug tracker and
  a developer will attend to the problem as soon as possible.

  I'll be rebooting now to see if the installer magically works after a
  reboot and to verify the integrity of my installation media.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
  Package: ubiquity 2.21.63.2 [modified: lib/partman/automatically_partition/question]
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-31.50-generic 4.4.13
  Uname: Linux 4.4.0-31-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperVersion: 1.376
  Date: Thu Dec  1 10:34:32 2016
  InstallCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz.efi file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash ---
  LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160719)
  ProcEnviron:
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: grub-installer
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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