[Bug 1692876] Re: ubuntu-server ARM64 ISOs lack partition table with EFI System Partition

[dann frazier]

** Also affects: debian-installer (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Changed in: debian-installer (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => In Progress

** Changed in: debian-installer (Ubuntu)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => dann frazier (dannf)

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Title:
  ubuntu-server ARM64 ISOs lack partition table with EFI System
  Partition

Status in Ubuntu CD Images:
  In Progress
Status in debian-installer package in Ubuntu:
  In Progress

Bug description:
  After downloading a 17.04 ubuntu-server image for ARM64:

  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/17.04/release/ubuntu-17.04-server-
  arm64.iso

  and using it to create a USB drive with /usr/bin/usb-creator-gtk, I
  can't boot the installer on my EFI-powered ARM64 machine, because the
  image is not EFI compliant.

  See here:

  $ fdisk -l ubuntu-17.04-server-arm64.iso 
  Disk ubuntu-17.04-server-arm64.iso: 618.1 MiB, 648083456 bytes, 1265788 sectors
  Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
  Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
  I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
  $ file ubuntu-17.04-server-arm64.iso 
  ubuntu-17.04-server-arm64.iso: ISO 9660 CD-ROM filesystem data 'Ubuntu-Server 17.04 arm64' (bootable)

  As you can see it's just a "flat" ISO 9660 image. In result my EFI
  firmware doesn't even try using it as it expects a FAT32-formatted EFI
  partition. Even after transferring the files over, I can't boot it,
  because it doesn't come with EFI build of Grub (grubaa64.efi). Then,
  after providing it manually I've managed to install the system, but
  with problems again - the installer didn't find the media
  automatically (was probably looking for partitions like /dev/sda1
  while the media is only available as /dev/sda).

  In comparison, the AMD64 version looks like this:

  $ fdisk -l ubuntu-17.04-server-amd64.iso 
  Disk ubuntu-17.04-server-amd64.iso: 685 MiB, 718274560 bytes, 1402880 sectors
  Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
  Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
  I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
  Disklabel type: dos
  Disk identifier: 0x5aac927d

  Device                         Boot  Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
  ubuntu-17.04-server-amd64.iso1 *         0 1402879 1402880  685M  0 Empty
  ubuntu-17.04-server-amd64.iso2      286608  291215    4608  2.3M ef EFI (FAT-12/
  $ file ubuntu-17.04-server-amd64.iso 
  ubuntu-17.04-server-amd64.iso: DOS/MBR boot sector ISO 9660 CD-ROM filesystem data (DOS/MBR boot sector) 'Ubuntu-Server 17.04 amd64' (bootable); partition 2 : ID=0xef, start-CHS (0x3ff,254,63), end-CHS (0x3ff,254,63), startsector 286608, 4608 sectors

  Also, Debian testing images work fine, being built the EFI way:

  $ fdisk -l debian-testing-arm64-netinst.iso 
  Disk debian-testing-arm64-netinst.iso: 200 MiB, 209715200 bytes, 409600 sectors
  Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
  Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
  I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
  Disklabel type: dos
  Disk identifier: 0x00000000

  Device                            Boot  Start    End Sectors  Size Id Type
  debian-testing-arm64-netinst.iso1           0 407551  407552  199M 83 Linux
  debian-testing-arm64-netinst.iso2      407552 409599    2048    1M ef EFI (FAT-1
  $

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