Debian Bug report logs - #958218
update-grub fails to process more than one argument to initrd

Package: os-prober; Maintainer for os-prober is Debian Install System Team <[email protected]>; Source for os-prober is src:os-prober (PTS, buildd, popcon).

Reported by: Tony Hunter <[email protected]>

Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2020 19:57:01 UTC

Severity: normal

Reply or subscribe to this bug.

View this report as an mbox folder, status mbox, maintainer mbox


Report forwarded to [email protected], GRUB Maintainers <[email protected]>:
Bug#958218; Package grub-common. (Sun, 19 Apr 2020 19:57:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Tony Hunter <[email protected]>:
New Bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to GRUB Maintainers <[email protected]>. (Sun, 19 Apr 2020 19:57:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #5 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Tony Hunter <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: update-grub fails to process more than one argument to initrd
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2020 16:54:19 -0300
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Package: grub-common
Version: 2.04-5

When update-grub is run from the Debian bullseye/sid system, 30_os-prober
detects another OS (in this case Arch Linux) on a second drive. However,
that Arch Linux system uses early loading of microcode updates - see:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Microcode

The grub.cfg generated on the Arch Linux disk provides two arguments to
initrd:
initrd  /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux.img

The grub.cfg generated by the Debian system produces an initrd for the Arch
Linux boot selection that contains only:
initrd  /boot/intel-ucode.img

As one might expect, attempting to boot Arch Linux from the grub boot
menu selection generated by the Debian system results in:
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown
block(0,0)

The fix would seem to be to make sure update-grub (or whatever it calls)
reads
all arguments to initrd.

Manually editing grub.cfg on the Debian system adding the second argument to
initrd solves the problem and the second OS boots as expected.
[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Bug reassigned from package 'grub-common' to 'os-prober'. Request was from Colin Watson <[email protected]> to [email protected]. (Sun, 19 Apr 2020 22:39:02 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


No longer marked as found in versions grub2/2.04-5. Request was from Colin Watson <[email protected]> to [email protected]. (Sun, 19 Apr 2020 22:39:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Information forwarded to [email protected], Debian Install System Team <[email protected]>:
Bug#958218; Package os-prober. (Mon, 01 May 2023 12:45:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Krzmbrzl <[email protected]>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Debian Install System Team <[email protected]>. (Mon, 01 May 2023 12:45:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #14 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Krzmbrzl <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: update-grub fails to process more than one argument to initrd
Date: Mon, 1 May 2023 14:42:41 +0200
Hi everyone,

In this report, there seems to be an indication that this issue was 
fixed with grub2/2.04-5. At least that's how I interpret the 
auto-generated line "No longer marked as found in versions grub2/2.04-5" 
that was somehow triggered by Colin Watson (though when checking the 
respective mail, it seems like that is only about reassignment and not 
about a resolution).

In either case, I want to report that this issue still exists when 
having grub2-common/2.06 installed (on Ubuntu 22.04), which comes with 
os-prober/1.79.

Furthermore, I can explain exactly where this issue occurs. I have 
written up a question on the Unix&Linux StackExchange about this, that 
contains the explanation: https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/744624/203826

The gist of it is that the script that parses the grub.cfg on the 
separate Arch (in my case Manjaro) partition, the initrd statement is 
parsed as expected, but the code only handles the first argument to the 
initrd command, which in Arch's case is the microcode stuff, while 
completely ignoring any subsequent arguments.

Where can I hand in a patch to fix this issue?




Information forwarded to [email protected], Debian Install System Team <[email protected]>:
Bug#958218; Package os-prober. (Tue, 02 May 2023 11:30:02 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Steve McIntyre <[email protected]>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Debian Install System Team <[email protected]>. (Tue, 02 May 2023 11:30:02 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #19 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Steve McIntyre <[email protected]>
To: Krzmbrzl <[email protected]>, [email protected]
Subject: Re: Bug#958218: update-grub fails to process more than one argument to initrd
Date: Tue, 2 May 2023 12:26:30 +0100
Hi Krzmbrzl,

On Mon, May 01, 2023 at 02:42:41PM +0200, Krzmbrzl wrote:
>Hi everyone,
>
>In this report, there seems to be an indication that this issue was fixed
>with grub2/2.04-5. At least that's how I interpret the auto-generated line
>"No longer marked as found in versions grub2/2.04-5" that was somehow
>triggered by Colin Watson (though when checking the respective mail, it seems
>like that is only about reassignment and not about a resolution).
>
>In either case, I want to report that this issue still exists when having
>grub2-common/2.06 installed (on Ubuntu 22.04), which comes with
>os-prober/1.79.

If you're seeing this in Ubuntu, then you'll need to talk to the
Ubuntu developers. There are two parts to this, one in os-prober
itself and one in GRUB. The os-prober part was fixed in version 1.80
in Debian. The fix in GRUB will be included shortly in Debian - see

  https://salsa.debian.org/grub-team/grub/-/commit/358e8faa1329e9ed3467f6f9cacaa781fc34a7b8 

I'd suggest you ask the Ubuntu folks to pick that up.

>Furthermore, I can explain exactly where this issue occurs. I have written up
>a question on the Unix&Linux StackExchange about this, that contains the
>explanation: https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/744624/203826

ACK.

-- 
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK.                                [email protected]
  Mature Sporty Personal
  More Innovation More Adult
  A Man in Dandism
  Powered Midship Specialty




Send a report that this bug log contains spam.


Debian bug tracking system administrator <[email protected]>. Last modified: Sun Jul 27 03:19:43 2025; Machine Name: berlioz

Debian Bug tracking system

Debbugs is free software and licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2. The current version can be obtained from https://bugs.debian.org/debbugs-source/.

Copyright © 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson, 2005-2017 Don Armstrong, and many other contributors.