update-grub does not update /boot/grub/menu.lst

It looks like the problem is happening during ucf_update_kernels(). The content in "buffer" is ok, but when
ucf --debconf-ok \
  --debconf-template grub/update_grub_changeprompt_threeway \
  --three-way "$buffer" $ucf_menu_file
is called, the $ucf_menu_file is not updated.

I attach a new typescript with ucf debug output.

It looks like for some reason it believes that the md5sum of the existing file /v/r/grub/menu.list and the newly constructed file $buffer match and therefore does not take action and uses the file /v/r/grub/menu.list

Michael,

Which debconf frontend is this test done with? Was the menu.lst customized before the upgrade?

The debconf frontend during the upgrade test was set to noninteractive, the menu.lst was not customized on the dapper system. When I logged into the upgraded system, I set the debian frontend to dialog, but got no debconf question during update-grub. I can attach the full upgrade log if that helps.

I can confirm this behavior here. On upgrade from dapper to hardy (and gutsy to hardy as well, reported in a follow-up to bug #21412), the menu.lst is detected as being "locally modified" because the ucf code doesn't know to handle changes to the output of lsb-release. Since you ran with DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive, the ucf prompt was defaulted to keeping the locally-modified file.

I'll work on a fix to compensate for the title differences.

This bug was fixed in the package grub - 0.97-29ubuntu14

---------------
grub (0.97-29ubuntu14) hardy; urgency=low

  * debian/update-grub:
    - on initial ucf registration, handle the case that the old title string
      doesn't match the current one.
    - also handle the differences caused by the UUID conversion on upgrades
      from Ubuntu 6.06 LTS.
    - LP: #187362.

 -- Steve Langasek <email address hidden> Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:24:20 -0800

Thanks for the quick fix, unfortunately the 0.97-29ubuntu14 does not fix the issue for me. I will attach the output of ucf -v -d when update-grub is run.

ok, ubuntu14 should fix the gutsy->hardy upgrade, but dapper->hardy has an additional issue in that the old version of update-grub wrote out 'savedefault' and 'boot' lines and the current version does not. Will work on this for hardy alpha5.

hello I'm in the same situation (running hardy from alpha 5 cd install). my menu.lst is not updated (and does not have any uncommented entries!)
during the first dist-upgrade there was a debconf question that asked me to overwrite menu.lst with a new one (I chose no because mine was configured by me), but in the end the file was overwritten with this new (I also loss my configuration)
my grub version is 0.97-29ubuntu14

Hi Nicolò,

> hello I'm in the same situation (running hardy from alpha 5 cd install).

I guess this should be alpha 4, since alpha 5 is not out yet. :)

> my menu.lst is not updated (and does not have any uncommented entries!)
> during the first dist-upgrade there was a debconf question that asked me to
> overwrite menu.lst with a new one (I chose no because mine was configured
> by me), but in the end the file was overwritten with this new (I also loss
> my configuration)
> my grub version is 0.97-29ubuntu14

This is very strange. That is of course not a complete menu.lst file so
that's quite a serious bug for the config to be overwritten this way, but
I've not seen anything like this in my tests and it's not the same problem
reported by Michael. Is there any chance that you have a copy of your
original menu.lst from before the dist-upgrade? You were dist-upgrading
from dapper when this happened, correct?

No, I had a clean install from hardy alpha 4, and I don't have the
original menu.lst anymore. I thought that the problem was the same,
but I was wrong. I will open another bug, sorry!

ok - yes, please do open another bug, including information about how you did the alpha 4 install (which CD, any relevant install choices, etc). No one else has reported this problem on new installs of alpha 4.

This bug was fixed in the package grub - 0.97-29ubuntu17

---------------
grub (0.97-29ubuntu17) hardy; urgency=low

  * debian/update-grub: use db_x_loadtemplatefile instead of
    debconf-loadtemplate, so that we can call update-grub from maintainer
    scripts of packages that do their own debconf prompting (LP: #189005).
  * debian/control: depend on debconf (>= 1.5.19) | cdebconf instead of
    debconf-utils, for the above change.
  * if there are any "boot" lines in the existing menu during initial ucf
    registration, we have a config generated by an old version of
    update-grub; emulate the old behavior during the ucf registration to
    ensure smooth upgrades. LP: #187362.

 -- Steve Langasek <email address hidden> Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:59:35 -0800