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

[dann frazier]

** Description changed:

- After downloading a 17.04 ubuntu-server image for ARM64:
+ [Impact]
+ On some arm64/efi platforms, the firmware will not be able to boot from an ISO dd'd to a USB stick.
  
- http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/17.04/release/ubuntu-17.04-server-
- arm64.iso
+ [Test Case]
+ My test is to attach the ISO as an "HD/USB Image" to a Cavium CRB1S w/ AMI UEFI firmware using the BMC's Virtual Media. Note that the BMC requires that the file be renamed with a ".img" suffix.
  
- 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
- $
+ [Regression Risk]
+ For d-i, this is aligning the xorriso boot options with the same ones now used to build the server ISO.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1692876

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:
  Fix Committed

Bug description:
  [Impact]
  On some arm64/efi platforms, the firmware will not be able to boot from an ISO dd'd to a USB stick.

  [Test Case]
  My test is to attach the ISO as an "HD/USB Image" to a Cavium CRB1S w/ AMI UEFI firmware using the BMC's Virtual Media. Note that the BMC requires that the file be renamed with a ".img" suffix.

  [Regression Risk]
  For d-i, this is aligning the xorriso boot options with the same ones now used to build the server ISO.

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