On Tue, Mar 16, 2021 at 10:05 AM Ryan Harper <1918...@bugs.launchpad.net> wrote: > > Hi Dan, > > Could you summarize the problem with flash-kernel and this system?
Sure. flash-kernel recognizes Mustang boards and will generate uImage and uInitrd files for it, which are required for booting with u-boot firmware. However, these boards can also run in UEFI mode, which Date's board does. In UEFI mode, flash-kernel still knows it is on a Mustang and generates uImage/uInitrd files - which won't be used for anything in that case, they are just wasting space, but does not cause it to fail. This does cause problems in a curtin install though. Curtin has logic to divert away tools that get executed during initramfs hooks, to avoid failures in packaging scripts before an initramfs is generated. flash-kernel in particular will fail if an initramfs is not found on this system. Curtin tries to be smart here and only divert flash-kernel 1) if it is installed and 2) on systems that are*not* in UEFI mode, and both of these scenarios have escapes: 1) flash-kernel could get installed post-divert. In that case, flash-kernel's own postinst will cause it to run and then fail. This happens today if you start with a cloud image w/o flash-kernel pre-baked because Ubuntu's kernel recommends flash-kernel, causing it to be installed along with the kernel. Official cloud images happen to have flash-kernel pre-baked which avoids this issue. I think curtin should work whether or not the kernel recommends flash-kernel and whether or not curtin is pre-baked (in fact, I'd like for us to stop pre-baking it - the vast majoriy of ARM servers do not need it). 2) If flash-kernel is installed, and curtin finds we're in UEFI mode, it chooses not to divert flash-kernel. flash-kernel will therefore run and fail on UEFI Mustangs. The way I've personally framed this issue is that Ubuntu should not be trying to install flash-kernel on ARM systems that don't require it, which is the reason I've added the various tasks here. - cloud images shouldn't prebake it - the kernel should allow non-flash-kernel bootloaders to satisfy its recommends - curtin shouldn't install flash-kernel on efi-based arm64 servers. It does this today, but - in what seems like a bug, only in the ephemeral and not the target. A separate issue is that flash-kernel should know to just exit if it's running on an EFI system and not bother creating the unused uImage/uInitrd - Date recently got a patched merged into Debian's f-k to do that. That would seemingly also avoid the curtin issues here, but only if we continue to install flash-kernel all the time. -dann -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1918427 Title: curtin: install flash-kernel in arm64 UEFI unexpected To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-images/+bug/1918427/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs