Bug 1456353 - leavebootorder option doesn't make sense on UEFI systems
Summary: leavebootorder option doesn't make sense on UEFI systems
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED EOL
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: anaconda
Version: 28
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Anaconda Maintenance Team
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2017-05-29 08:09 UTC by Pavel Holica
Modified: 2021-03-11 09:15 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
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Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2019-05-28 20:03:16 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


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Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Bugzilla 1456404 0 unspecified CLOSED anaconda removes all Fedora boot entries 2021-11-30 19:09:33 UTC

Internal Links: 1456404

Description Pavel Holica 2017-05-29 08:09:40 UTC
Description of problem:
bug 827116 introduced bootloader --leavebootorder option on UEFI systems, but the implementation was never tested and doesn't work as expected.

The code is:
    def install(self, args=None):
        if not flags.leavebootorder:
            self.remove_efi_boot_target()
        self.add_efi_boot_target()

This means, that when leavebootorder is used, the only thing that happens is that other Fedora (or RHEL) boot entries are not removed. The new entry is added anyway appearing first in the bootorder.

The only thing when current implementation of --leavebootorder is usable is to prevent removing other Fedora (or RHEL) boot entries (which btw. is also broken, because it doesn't care if it's bootable or not, it's just removed - I'll file separate bug on this).

The other issue of this option on UEFI systems is, that when used on system that is frequently reinstalled, the NVRAM that holds boot entries is quickly filled by not usable entries => breaking following installations.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
Fedora-25

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install Fedora on UEFI system
2. Change boot order, so that efi shell or network is first
3. Install Fedora on UEFI system again with bootloader --leavebootorder in kickstar

Actual results:
New Fedora boot entry is first in the order
Old Fedora boot entry is still available

Expected results:
New Fedora boot entry is in the order in place where old Fedora boot entry was
Old Fedora boot entry is not available

Additional info:
The expected result is not easy to achieve, because it's hard to determine what was the old Fedora entry (e.g. in case of multiple Fedora installations).

Also, the --leavebootorder cannot work in case of new installation on UEFI system because the new boot entry just needs to be somewhere in the bootorder. Making it last entry unfortunately doesn't solve the situation either, because, there can be e.g. EFI shell in the bootorder.

The question is, do we want to have this option available with current implementation? If so, it should be documented that repeated usage of this option may make system unusable (and even brick systems with buggy firmware - but this shouldn't happen with kernel storage paranoia).

Comment 1 Pavel Holica 2017-05-29 08:33:07 UTC
Also, be aware that testing this in libvirt managed system won't be relevant, since the UEFI firmware that's used with libvirt has it's own management of bootorder and doesn't care what's set in system and keeps it's own bootorder.

Comment 2 Pavel Holica 2017-05-29 10:34:53 UTC
The mentioned boot entry removal bug is here: bug 1456404

Comment 3 Fedora End Of Life 2018-05-03 08:20:08 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora 26 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 4 (four) weeks from now Fedora will stop maintaining
and issuing updates for Fedora 26. It is Fedora's policy to close all
bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time
this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a Fedora  'version'
of '26'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version'
to a later Fedora version.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not
able to fix it before Fedora 26 is end of life. If you would still like
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version
of Fedora, you are encouraged  change the 'version' to a later Fedora
version prior this bug is closed as described in the policy above.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's
lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a
more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes
bugs or makes them obsolete.

Comment 4 Ben Cotton 2019-05-02 21:52:31 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora 28 is nearing its end of life.
On 2019-May-28 Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for
Fedora 28. It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases
that are no longer maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as
EOL if it remains open with a Fedora 'version' of '28'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora version.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not 
able to fix it before Fedora 28 is end of life. If you would still like 
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version 
of Fedora, you are encouraged  change the 'version' to a later Fedora 
version prior this bug is closed as described in the policy above.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's 
lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a 
more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes 
bugs or makes them obsolete.

Comment 5 Ben Cotton 2019-05-28 20:03:16 UTC
Fedora 28 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2019-05-28. Fedora 28 is
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. If you
are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against the
current release. If you experience problems, please add a comment to this
bug.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.


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