grub-mkconfig incorrectly run by imageBuiltFor?

I'm trying to create an image to boot a PC Engines' APU2, which uses coreboot. The debugging is particularly funny as I don't have a usb to serial converter to see what's going on -_-. I've used the following properties:

laptop :: Host
laptop = host "laptop" $ props
    & osDebian Unstable X86_64
    ...
    & imageBuiltFor router
        (RawDiskImage "/srv/router.img")
        (Chroot.Debootstrapped mempty)

router :: Host
router = host "router" $ props
    & hasPartitionTableType GPT
    & hasPartition
        ( partition EXT2
            `mountedAt` "/boot"
            `partLocation` Beginning
            `setSize` MegaBytes 150
        )
    & hasPartition
        ( partition EXT4
            `mountedAt` "/"
            `addFreeSpace` MegaBytes 500
        )
    & osDebian (Stable "stretch") X86_64
    & Apt.installed ["linux-image-amd64"]
    & serialGrub
    ...
  where
    serialGrub :: Property (HasInfo + DebianLike)
    serialGrub = "/etc/default/grub" `File.containsLines`
            [ "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=\"console=ttyS0,115200n8 biosdevname=0\""
            , "GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND=\"serial --speed=115200 --unit=0 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1\""
            , "GRUB_TERMINAL=serial"
            ]
            -- `onChange` Grub.mkConfig
            `requires` Grub.installed Grub.Coreboot
            `describe` "GRUB configured for PC Engines' APU2 serial console"

This returns:

$ propellor --spin laptop
...
router no services started ... ok
router has partition table type GPT ... ok
router has has /boot partition ... ok
router has has / partition ... ok
router has Operating System (Debian Linux (Stable "stretch")) X86_64 ... ok
...
router apt installed linux-image-amd64 ... ok
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
The following additional packages will be installed:
  gettext-base grub-common grub-coreboot-bin grub2-common libfreetype6
  libfuse2 libpng16-16 os-prober
Suggested packages:
  multiboot-doc grub-emu xorriso desktop-base console-setup fuse
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gettext-base grub-common grub-coreboot grub-coreboot-bin grub2-common
  libfreetype6 libfuse2 libpng16-16 os-prober
0 upgraded, 9 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4354 kB of archives.
After this operation, 20.9 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 libpng16-16 amd64 1.6.28-1 [280 kB]
Get:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 libfreetype6 amd64 2.6.3-3.2 [438 kB]
Get:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 libfuse2 amd64 2.9.7-1 [125 kB]
Get:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 gettext-base amd64 0.19.8.1-2 [121 kB]
Get:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 grub-common amd64 2.02~beta3-5 [2174 kB]
Get:6 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 grub2-common amd64 2.02~beta3-5 [526 kB]
Get:7 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 grub-coreboot-bin amd64 2.02~beta3-5 [587 kB]
Get:8 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 grub-coreboot amd64 2.02~beta3-5 [73.0 kB]
Get:9 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 os-prober amd64 1.76~deb9u1 [30.0 kB]
Preconfiguring packages ...
E: Can not write log (Is /dev/pts mounted?) - posix_openpt (19: No such device)
Fetched 4354 kB in 1s (2803 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package libpng16-16:amd64.
(Reading database ... 26264 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../0-libpng16-16_1.6.28-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libpng16-16:amd64 (1.6.28-1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package libfreetype6:amd64.
Preparing to unpack .../1-libfreetype6_2.6.3-3.2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libfreetype6:amd64 (2.6.3-3.2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package libfuse2:amd64.
Preparing to unpack .../2-libfuse2_2.9.7-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libfuse2:amd64 (2.9.7-1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package gettext-base.
Preparing to unpack .../3-gettext-base_0.19.8.1-2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking gettext-base (0.19.8.1-2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package grub-common.
Preparing to unpack .../4-grub-common_2.02~beta3-5_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking grub-common (2.02~beta3-5) ...
Selecting previously unselected package grub2-common.
Preparing to unpack .../5-grub2-common_2.02~beta3-5_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking grub2-common (2.02~beta3-5) ...
Selecting previously unselected package grub-coreboot-bin.
Preparing to unpack .../6-grub-coreboot-bin_2.02~beta3-5_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking grub-coreboot-bin (2.02~beta3-5) ...
Selecting previously unselected package grub-coreboot.
Preparing to unpack .../7-grub-coreboot_2.02~beta3-5_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking grub-coreboot (2.02~beta3-5) ...
Selecting previously unselected package os-prober.
Preparing to unpack .../8-os-prober_1.76~deb9u1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking os-prober (1.76~deb9u1) ...
Setting up libpng16-16:amd64 (1.6.28-1) ...
Setting up libfuse2:amd64 (2.9.7-1) ...
Setting up gettext-base (0.19.8.1-2) ...
Setting up libfreetype6:amd64 (2.6.3-3.2) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-11+deb9u1) ...
Setting up grub-common (2.02~beta3-5) ...
Setting up grub2-common (2.02~beta3-5) ...
Setting up os-prober (1.76~deb9u1) ...
Setting up grub-coreboot-bin (2.02~beta3-5) ...

Creating config file /etc/default/grub with new version
Setting up grub-coreboot (2.02~beta3-5) ...
router GRUB configured for PC Engines' APU2 serial console ... ok
loop deleted : /dev/loop0
     25,091,167 100%  194.29MB/s    0:00:00 (xfr#4, to-chk=0/5)
    769,633,861  99%   26.74MB/s    0:00:27 (xfr#26204, to-chk=0/33524)   
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-4-amd64
/usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig: 253: /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig: cannot create /boot/grub/grub.cfg.new: Directory nonexistent
loop deleted : /dev/loop0
laptop built disk image /srv/router.img ... failed
laptop overall ... failed

So, grub-mkconfig seems to be run without /boot/grub existing, which I can confirm by looking into /srv/router.img.chroot/boot/:

$ ls /srv/router.img.chroot/boot/
config-4.9.0-4-amd64      initrd.img-4.9.0-4-amd64  System.map-4.9.0-4-amd64  vmlinuz-4.9.0-4-amd64

RSS

comment 1

I tried to swap update-grub and grub-install in Grub.bootsMounted, I get:

...
     17,512,735  69%  185.22MB/s    0:00:00 (xfr#1, to-chk=0/5)
            129   0%    0.15kB/s    0:00:00 (xfr#3, to-chk=0/33524)   
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-4-amd64
grub-install: error: /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.
loop deleted : /dev/loop0
laptop built disk image /srv/router.img ... failed
laptop overall ... failed

Which is weird, as grub-install should try to use /usr/lib/grub/i386-coreboot/...

Comment by gueux — Tue Dec 19 21:45:08 2017

Remove comment

comment 2

manually adding "--target" and "i386-coreboot" to grub-install arguments seems to make the build successful:

     17,512,735  69%  155.80MB/s    0:00:00 (xfr#1, to-chk=0/5)
            129   0%    0.14kB/s    0:00:00 (xfr#3, to-chk=0/33524)   
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-4-amd64
Installing for i386-coreboot platform.
grub-install: warning: WARNING: no platform-specific install was performed.
Installation finished. No error reported.
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.9.0-4-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-4-amd64
done
loop deleted : /dev/loop0
laptop built disk image /srv/router.img ... done
laptop overall ... done

I've not tested the image yet, but I guess we need to a BIOS argument to bootsMounted, or put the BIOS property is Info.

/srv/router.img.chroot/boot/ still contains only, config-4.9.0-4-amd64, System.map-4.9.0-4-amd64, initrd.img-4.9.0-4-amd64, vmlinuz-4.9.0-4-amd64. There is no /srv/router.img.chroot/boot/grub/

Comment by gueux — Tue Dec 19 22:01:17 2017

Remove comment

comment 3

I think it makes sense to pass BIOS to Grub.bootsMounted (and also to Grub.boots). Of course the image building properties will also get an added parameter. This should be straightforward to do.

(Using info for it could work, but I don't know if it would avoid any duplication of configuration.)

Comment by joey — Wed Dec 20 16:40:36 2017

Remove comment

comment 4

Should update-grub and grub-install be swapped (as I did) in Grub.bootsMounted?

Comment by gueux — Wed Dec 20 18:01:33 2017

Remove comment

comment 5

Are you preparing a patch to pass BIOS to Grub.bootsMounted and Grub.boots or do you want me to do so?

Comment by gueux — Wed Dec 20 18:19:49 2017

Remove comment

comment 6

update-grub generates the grub config file, so AFAIK it needs to come before grub-install.

If you can do the patches for BIOS please do.

Comment by joey — Wed Dec 20 21:33:31 2017

Remove comment

comment 7

But that seems to fail without switching the two (see my original problem and my first comment), or is there another problem?

I can provide the patch for BIOS tomorrow.

Comment by gueux — Wed Dec 20 21:54:30 2017

Remove comment

comment 8

The debian grub-pc package creates /boot/grub in its postinst.

It seems that grub-coreboot does not. I don't know why. Seems like it could be considered a bug to me; installing the package and then running grub-mkconfig ought to just work. I'm going to file a bug report.

Anyway, I suppose propellor ought to work around the bug by making sure /boot/grub exists.

Comment by joey — Wed Dec 20 22:21:35 2017

Remove comment

comment 9

I forgot -- Grub.installed already sets Info to say what BIOS it was installed for. So, bootsMounted can just get that Info and pass the appropriate --target.