#765740 grub-efi-amd64: Update-grub ignores multiple EFI boot partitions - stops boot after loss of first EFI disk

Package:
grub-efi-amd64
Source:
grub2
Description:
GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (EFI-AMD64 version)
Submitter:
Barry Pearce
Date:
2021-08-11 15:21:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#765740#5
Date:
2014-10-17 17:53:17 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

update-grub installs only onto the first EFI boot partition it finds. Other partitions are ignored.

My system has 4 drives configured with 3 RAID sets. The first two drives are a single RAID set under Intel RST used for Win 7.1 Pro. The drives are configured:

Drive 1 & 2 under Intel RST RAID 1 (/dev/md126p):

100MB EFI Boot
128MB MS Reserved
Rest of drive partitioned for windows drives.

Disk 3 /dev/sdc
sdc1 - 250M - EFI Boot
sdc2 - 750M - RAID 1 (/dev/md0) for /boot on ext4
sdc3 - rest of drive - RAID 1 (/dev/md1) for LVM

Disk 4 /dev/sdd
sdd1 - 250M - EFI Boot
sdd2 - 750M - RAID 1 (/dev/md0) for /boot on ext4
sdd3 - rest of drive - RAID 1 (/dev/md1) for LVM

The installer only configures the EFI boot on the raid set made up of disks 1 or 2. So if disk 1 fails or is removed the system will continue to boot. However, loss or removal of both disks 1 & 2 should leave the system operable as a multi-os boot system has meant the Debian systems are (and should be) completely unaffected by the removal/failure of disks 1 & 2. However, the current situation renders the system unbootable.

For reliable raid the installer should ALSO populate the EFI Boot partitions on disks 3 & 4. Thus ensuring that the o/s is visible to the BIOS and will actually boot.

There is a manual work around for this which I shall add to this report for those that are interested.
#765740#10
Date:
2021-06-21 21:46:51 UTC
From:
To:
It looks like Ubuntu added multi ESP support here
https://git.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/commit/?id=05a57249548c247c14231ef15348a4ee27217607

It may be something that could be brought to Debian fairly easily.
#765740#15
Date:
2021-08-11 14:38:45 UTC
From:
To:
I ran into this yesterday while installing Bullseye on a UEFI system
with multiple drives and ESPs. Here are a couple of links describing how
Ubuntu's multi-ESP works:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/621942/mirroring-efi-system-partition-esp-on-ubuntu

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub-installer/+bug/1466150

I tried running
dpkg-reconfigure grub-efi-amd64
on my multi-ESP Bullseye system in the hope that the Ubuntu support may
have been upstreamed, but alas it has not yet happened. I'll ask on
Ubuntu list as well whether someone is working on upstreaming.