bug#40496: cannot install bootloader

bug#40496: cannot install bootloader

[Arne Babenhauserheide]

When using

     LANG=C guix system reconfigure -k /etc/config.scm

I receive an error.

I am currently booting off the guix install USB stick, rewiring the disk
in grub, because my bios does not find my system disk.

The error I receive:

building /gnu/store/fyn1cmq9p38ipp5mlbx1z4gs84qd5jg4-install-bootloader.scm.drv...
Backtrace:
           1 (primitive-load "/root/.config/guix/current/bin/guix")
In guix/ui.scm:
  1936:12  0 (run-guix-command _ . _)

guix/ui.scm:1936:12: In procedure run-guix-command:
ERROR:
  1. &message: "'/gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install --boot-directory //boot --bootloader-id=Guix --efi-directory //boot/efi' exited with status 1; output follows:\n\n  /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install: error: /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.\n"

Best wishes,
Arne
-- 
Unpolitisch sein
heißt politisch sein
ohne es zu merken

bug#40496: cannot install bootloader

[Marius Bakke]

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Arne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de> writes:

> The error I receive:
>
> building /gnu/store/fyn1cmq9p38ipp5mlbx1z4gs84qd5jg4-install-bootloader.scm.drv...
> Backtrace:
>            1 (primitive-load "/root/.config/guix/current/bin/guix")
> In guix/ui.scm:
>   1936:12  0 (run-guix-command _ . _)
>
> guix/ui.scm:1936:12: In procedure run-guix-command:
> ERROR:
>   1. &message: "'/gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install --boot-directory //boot --bootloader-id=Guix --efi-directory //boot/efi' exited with status 1; output follows:\n\n  /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install: error: /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.\n"

This error suggests that you are attempting to use EFI GRUB on a non-EFI
system.

More specifically, you are using 'grub-efi-bootloader', but 'grub-efi'
failed to detect a UEFI system and attempts to install the 'i386-pc'
(BIOS) target instead, which does not exist in 'grub-efi'.

Does that ring a bell?

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bug#40496: cannot install bootloader

[Arne Babenhauserheide]

Marius Bakke <mbakke@fastmail.com> writes:

> Arne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de> writes:
>
>> The error I receive:
>>
>> building /gnu/store/fyn1cmq9p38ipp5mlbx1z4gs84qd5jg4-install-bootloader.scm.drv...
>> Backtrace:
>>            1 (primitive-load "/root/.config/guix/current/bin/guix")
>> In guix/ui.scm:
>>   1936:12  0 (run-guix-command _ . _)
>>
>> guix/ui.scm:1936:12: In procedure run-guix-command:
>> ERROR:
>>   1. &message: "'/gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install --boot-directory //boot --bootloader-id=Guix --efi-directory //boot/efi' exited with status 1; output follows:\n\n  /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install: error: /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.\n"
>
> This error suggests that you are attempting to use EFI GRUB on a non-EFI
> system.
>
> More specifically, you are using 'grub-efi-bootloader', but 'grub-efi'
> failed to detect a UEFI system and attempts to install the 'i386-pc'
> (BIOS) target instead, which does not exist in 'grub-efi'.
>
> Does that ring a bell?

Yes: I’m now booting from the live-USB Stick of Guix, so grub might not
detect that this is a UEFI system.

I don’t know why it stopped booting. After a pull + system reconfigure
on 30th of March, the bios did not see my system disk as bootable
anymore — but this could also be due to problems in the disk, so I’m not
sure that it’s due to Guix.

Best wishes,
Arne
-- 
Unpolitisch sein
heißt politisch sein
ohne es zu merken

bug#40496: cannot install bootloader

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

Arne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de> skribis:

> building /gnu/store/fyn1cmq9p38ipp5mlbx1z4gs84qd5jg4-install-bootloader.scm.drv...
> Backtrace:
>            1 (primitive-load "/root/.config/guix/current/bin/guix")
> In guix/ui.scm:
>   1936:12  0 (run-guix-command _ . _)
>
> guix/ui.scm:1936:12: In procedure run-guix-command:
> ERROR:
>   1. &message: "'/gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install --boot-directory //boot --bootloader-id=Guix --efi-directory //boot/efi' exited with status 1; output follows:\n\n  /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install: error: /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.\n"

Terrible backtrace, fixed in 93add9bf7d73b6a6ed2d0cf85778b26aa38fd194!

Ludo’.

bug#40496: cannot install bootloader

[Arne Babenhauserheide]

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:
> Arne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de> skribis:
>> building /gnu/store/fyn1cmq9p38ipp5mlbx1z4gs84qd5jg4-install-bootloader.scm.drv...
>> Backtrace:
>>            1 (primitive-load "/root/.config/guix/current/bin/guix")
>> In guix/ui.scm:
>>   1936:12  0 (run-guix-command _ . _)
>>
>> guix/ui.scm:1936:12: In procedure run-guix-command:
>> ERROR:
>>   1. &message: "'/gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install --boot-directory //boot --bootloader-id=Guix --efi-directory //boot/efi' exited with status 1; output follows:\n\n  /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install: error: /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.\n"
>
> Terrible backtrace, fixed in 93add9bf7d73b6a6ed2d0cf85778b26aa38fd194!

Thank you! :-)

Best wishes,
Arne
-- 
Unpolitisch sein
heißt politisch sein
ohne es zu merken

bug#40496: cannot install bootloader

[Marius Bakke]

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Arne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de> writes:

> Marius Bakke <mbakke@fastmail.com> writes:
>
>> Arne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de> writes:
>>
>>> The error I receive:
>>>
>>> building /gnu/store/fyn1cmq9p38ipp5mlbx1z4gs84qd5jg4-install-bootloader.scm.drv...
>>> Backtrace:
>>>            1 (primitive-load "/root/.config/guix/current/bin/guix")
>>> In guix/ui.scm:
>>>   1936:12  0 (run-guix-command _ . _)
>>>
>>> guix/ui.scm:1936:12: In procedure run-guix-command:
>>> ERROR:
>>>   1. &message: "'/gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install --boot-directory //boot --bootloader-id=Guix --efi-directory //boot/efi' exited with status 1; output follows:\n\n  /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install: error: /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.\n"
>>
>> This error suggests that you are attempting to use EFI GRUB on a non-EFI
>> system.
>>
>> More specifically, you are using 'grub-efi-bootloader', but 'grub-efi'
>> failed to detect a UEFI system and attempts to install the 'i386-pc'
>> (BIOS) target instead, which does not exist in 'grub-efi'.
>>
>> Does that ring a bell?
>
> Yes: I’m now booting from the live-USB Stick of Guix, so grub might not
> detect that this is a UEFI system.

Disabling "legacy BIOS compatibility" in your firmware configuration
should work around this.  Some firmwares tend to try "legacy" boot
before a native UEFI boot on external media.

The GRUB EFI detection code just checks whether /sys/firmware/efi
exists, which is only the case when you are already booted in "UEFI
mode".

> I don’t know why it stopped booting. After a pull + system reconfigure
> on 30th of March, the bios did not see my system disk as bootable
> anymore — but this could also be due to problems in the disk, so I’m not
> sure that it’s due to Guix.

That's terrible.  I hope you are able to recover your system.  If the
problem is "just" that the boot entry is missing, you should be able to
create a new one with "efibootmgr --create" manually.  Here is a typical
entry with the EFI System Partition as the first partition of a disk:

# efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0002
Boot0000* Guix  HD(1,GPT,32944052-6012-4cda-b270-fe653d430c84,0x800,0x4800)/File(\EFI\Guix\grubx64.efi)

1 is the partition number, and the UUID is the same as 'lsblk -o
PARTUUID /dev/sda1' assuming your disk is /dev/sda.  I don't remember
what 0x800 and 0x4800 means, but don't think they are required.

HTH!

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bug#40496: cannot install bootloader

[Arne Babenhauserheide]

Marius Bakke <mbakke@fastmail.com> writes:

> Arne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de> writes:
>
>> Marius Bakke <mbakke@fastmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> Arne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de> writes:
>>>>   1. &message: "'/gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install --boot-directory //boot --bootloader-id=Guix --efi-directory //boot/efi' exited with status 1; output follows:\n\n  /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/sbin/grub-install: error: /gnu/store/xlcbi7dc89n4wvyz4jk6j0g4590ymi6q-grub-efi-2.04/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.\n"
>>>
>>> This error suggests that you are attempting to use EFI GRUB on a non-EFI
>>> system.
>>>
>>> More specifically, you are using 'grub-efi-bootloader', but 'grub-efi'
>>> failed to detect a UEFI system and attempts to install the 'i386-pc'
>>> (BIOS) target instead, which does not exist in 'grub-efi'.
>>>
>>> Does that ring a bell?
>>
>> Yes: I’m now booting from the live-USB Stick of Guix, so grub might not
>> detect that this is a UEFI system.
>
> Disabling "legacy BIOS compatibility" in your firmware configuration
> should work around this.  Some firmwares tend to try "legacy" boot
> before a native UEFI boot on external media.

I’ll try that, thank you!

> The GRUB EFI detection code just checks whether /sys/firmware/efi
> exists, which is only the case when you are already booted in "UEFI
> mode".
>
>> I don’t know why it stopped booting. After a pull + system reconfigure
>> on 30th of March, the bios did not see my system disk as bootable
>> anymore — but this could also be due to problems in the disk, so I’m not
>> sure that it’s due to Guix.
>
> That's terrible.

Yes, wednesday and thursday last week were hard days. This is my
homeoffice computer and I only got everything I require for work back
into fully working state yesterday. Though on the bright side: Friday to
tuesday I actually worked more or less productively with Emacs lsp-java
plus workarounds.

> I hope you are able to recover your system. If the problem is "just"
> that the boot entry is missing,

Do you mean in grub?

> you should be able to create a new one
> with "efibootmgr --create" manually. Here is a typical entry with the
> EFI System Partition as the first partition of a disk:
>
> # efibootmgr -v
> BootCurrent: 0000
> Timeout: 1 seconds
> BootOrder: 0000,0002
> Boot0000* Guix  HD(1,GPT,32944052-6012-4cda-b270-fe653d430c84,0x800,0x4800)/File(\EFI\Guix\grubx64.efi)

When I run efibootmgr -v, I get an error:
$ efibootmgr -v
EFI variables are not supported on this system.

> 1 is the partition number, and the UUID is the same as 'lsblk -o
> PARTUUID /dev/sda1' assuming your disk is /dev/sda.  I don't remember
> what 0x800 and 0x4800 means, but don't think they are required.

I get somewhat too little information from that:

$ lsblk -O /dev/nvme1n1p1
NAME KNAME PATH MAJ:MIN FSAVAIL FSSIZE FSTYPE FSUSED FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT LABEL UUID PTUUID PTTYPE PARTTYPE PARTLABEL PARTUUID PARTFLAGS  RA RO RM HOTPLUG MODEL SERIAL  SIZE STATE OWNER GROUP MODE       ALIGNMENT MIN-IO OPT-IO PHY-SEC LOG-SEC ROTA SCHED RQ-SIZE TYPE DISC-ALN DISC-GRAN DISC-MAX DISC-ZERO WSAME WWN RAND PKNAME HCTL TRAN   SUBSYSTEMS REV VENDOR ZONED
nvme1n1p1
     nvme1n1p1
           /dev/nvme1n1p1
                259:2     15,4G 884,9G        824,5G    93% /home                                                                     128  0  0       0               900G       root  disk  brw-rw----         0    512      0     512     512    0 none     1023 part        0      512B       2T         0    0B        0             nvme   block:nvme:pci

Best wishes,
Arne
--
Unpolitisch sein
heißt politisch sein
ohne es zu merken

bug#40496: cannot install bootloader

[Marius Bakke]

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Arne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de> writes:

> Marius Bakke <mbakke@fastmail.com> writes:
>
>> I hope you are able to recover your system. If the problem is "just"
>> that the boot entry is missing,
>
> Do you mean in grub?

I mean in the firmware boot menu.  The way UEFI works is that
bootloaders update the firmware directly with a name, EFI System
Partition, and executable (most likely "/EFI/Guix/grubx64.efi").

>> you should be able to create a new one
>> with "efibootmgr --create" manually. Here is a typical entry with the
>> EFI System Partition as the first partition of a disk:
>>
>> # efibootmgr -v
>> BootCurrent: 0000
>> Timeout: 1 seconds
>> BootOrder: 0000,0002
>> Boot0000* Guix  HD(1,GPT,32944052-6012-4cda-b270-fe653d430c84,0x800,0x4800)/File(\EFI\Guix\grubx64.efi)
>
> When I run efibootmgr -v, I get an error:
> $ efibootmgr -v
> EFI variables are not supported on this system.

This also requires booting in "EFI mode" so that /sys/firmware/efi is
present.  The live USB image supports EFI, but you may need to disable
"legacy boot" to make it boot in EFI mode.

>> 1 is the partition number, and the UUID is the same as 'lsblk -o
>> PARTUUID /dev/sda1' assuming your disk is /dev/sda.  I don't remember
>> what 0x800 and 0x4800 means, but don't think they are required.
>
> I get somewhat too little information from that:
>
> $ lsblk -O /dev/nvme1n1p1
> NAME KNAME PATH MAJ:MIN FSAVAIL FSSIZE FSTYPE FSUSED FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT LABEL UUID PTUUID PTTYPE PARTTYPE PARTLABEL PARTUUID PARTFLAGS  RA RO RM HOTPLUG MODEL SERIAL  SIZE STATE OWNER GROUP MODE       ALIGNMENT MIN-IO OPT-IO PHY-SEC LOG-SEC ROTA SCHED RQ-SIZE TYPE DISC-ALN DISC-GRAN DISC-MAX DISC-ZERO WSAME WWN RAND PKNAME HCTL TRAN   SUBSYSTEMS REV VENDOR ZONED
> nvme1n1p1
>      nvme1n1p1
>            /dev/nvme1n1p1
>                 259:2     15,4G 884,9G        824,5G    93% /home                                                                     128  0  0       0               900G       root  disk  brw-rw----         0    512      0     512     512    0 none     1023 part        0      512B       2T         0    0B        0             nvme   block:nvme:pci

You probably need to use "sudo" to read the PARTUUID.

HTH,
Marius

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bug#40496: cannot install bootloader

[Arne Babenhauserheide]

Marius Bakke <mbakke@fastmail.com> writes:

> Arne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de> writes:
>
>> Marius Bakke <mbakke@fastmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> I hope you are able to recover your system. If the problem is "just"
>>> that the boot entry is missing,
>>
>> Do you mean in grub?
>
> I mean in the firmware boot menu.  The way UEFI works is that
> bootloaders update the firmware directly with a name, EFI System
> Partition, and executable (most likely "/EFI/Guix/grubx64.efi").

Ah, I did not know that. Thank you!

>>> you should be able to create a new one
>>> with "efibootmgr --create" manually. Here is a typical entry with the
>>> EFI System Partition as the first partition of a disk:
>>>
>>> # efibootmgr -v
>>> BootCurrent: 0000
>>> Timeout: 1 seconds
>>> BootOrder: 0000,0002
>>> Boot0000* Guix  HD(1,GPT,32944052-6012-4cda-b270-fe653d430c84,0x800,0x4800)/File(\EFI\Guix\grubx64.efi)
>>
>> When I run efibootmgr -v, I get an error:
>> $ efibootmgr -v
>> EFI variables are not supported on this system.
>
> This also requires booting in "EFI mode" so that /sys/firmware/efi is
> present.  The live USB image supports EFI, but you may need to disable
> "legacy boot" to make it boot in EFI mode.

I’ll try that.

>>> 1 is the partition number, and the UUID is the same as 'lsblk -o
>>> PARTUUID /dev/sda1' assuming your disk is /dev/sda.  I don't remember
>>> what 0x800 and 0x4800 means, but don't think they are required.
>>
>> I get somewhat too little information from that:
>>
>> $ lsblk -O /dev/nvme1n1p1
>> NAME KNAME PATH MAJ:MIN FSAVAIL FSSIZE FSTYPE FSUSED FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT LABEL UUID PTUUID PTTYPE PARTTYPE PARTLABEL PARTUUID PARTFLAGS  RA RO RM HOTPLUG MODEL SERIAL  SIZE STATE OWNER GROUP MODE       ALIGNMENT MIN-IO OPT-IO PHY-SEC LOG-SEC ROTA SCHED RQ-SIZE TYPE DISC-ALN DISC-GRAN DISC-MAX DISC-ZERO WSAME WWN RAND PKNAME HCTL TRAN   SUBSYSTEMS REV VENDOR ZONED
>> nvme1n1p1
>>      nvme1n1p1
>>            /dev/nvme1n1p1
>>                 259:2     15,4G 884,9G        824,5G    93% /home                                                                     128  0  0       0               900G       root  disk  brw-rw----         0    512      0     512     512    0 none     1023 part        0      512B       2T         0    0B        0             nvme   block:nvme:pci
>
> You probably need to use "sudo" to read the PARTUUID.

Ah, yes, that works! Thank you!

> HTH,
> Marius


-- 
Unpolitisch sein
heißt politisch sein
ohne es zu merken

bug#40496: cannot install bootloader

[Arne Babenhauserheide]

Arne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de> writes:

>> I mean in the firmware boot menu.  The way UEFI works is that
>> bootloaders update the firmware directly with a name, EFI System
>> Partition, and executable (most likely "/EFI/Guix/grubx64.efi").
>
> Ah, I did not know that. Thank you!
>
>> This also requires booting in "EFI mode" so that /sys/firmware/efi is
>> present.  The live USB image supports EFI, but you may need to disable
>> "legacy boot" to make it boot in EFI mode.
>
> I’ll try that.

It worked. I’m still a bit unbelieving. I booted with CSM (compatibility
mode) disabled, then ran guix system reconfigure /etc/config.scm and
after the next reboot I could boot without the boot f̶l̶o̶p̶p̶y̶ USB stick.

Thank you very, very much!

Now I’ll just have to figure out what I do with my new M2-spare :-)

Best wishes,
Arne
--
Unpolitisch sein
heißt politisch sein
ohne es zu merken