grub-pc error on VPS: cannot rename file in /etc/default

Mundi

5/8/24, 10:52 AM

I have an ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS installation. Every time I do any sudo apt-get upgrade (and other install, configure, update and upgrade actions), I have an error with grub-pc. This also happens with e.g. dpkg --configure -a.

I have been ignoring this error, but now it prevents me from upgrading to Ubuntu 22 LTS.

The error is always triggered by an unsuccessful command in the post install script for grub-pc. The grub-pc process seems to triggered by the installation / configuration attempt for grub-efi-amd64-signed. Here is the underlying error:

sed: cannot rename /etc/default/sedzFNXvt: Operation not permitted

where the file name is apparently a random temp file name created by the script. This is followed by

dpkg: error processing package grub-pc (--configure):
   installed grub-pc package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 4

and then

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of grub-efi-amd64-signed:
  grub-efi-amd64-signed depends on grub-efi-amd64 | grub-pc; however:
    Package grub-efi-amd64 is not installed.
    Package grub-pc is not configured yet.

I have tried all kinds of things, including forced reinstall, manually removing packages etc. It always results in this same script error.

Any ideas?

EDIT

The concrete problem is that I cannot upgrade to Ubuntu 22.04.2. After do-release-upgrade I get

Checking for a new Ubuntu release
Please install all available updates for your release before upgrading.

But sudo apt-get upgrade leads to the above error.

1 + 2

upgrade

apt

grub2

vps

20.04

Mundi

5/8/24, 9:40 PM

If you downvote a question, you should state what you take issue with. I am happy to provide more or different information.

Will

5/8/24, 10:23 PM

Personally, I agree with your view on commenting if you downvote, though the downvoter probably won’t see your message! As to your question - it’s so quick to do a fresh install, that’s probably what I’d do pragmatically - unless you’ve done a lot of customisation, it’ll probably be much faster (and some people think it’s better anyway) just to perform a fresh 22.04LTS install.

Score:0

Ubuntu

Mundi

5/8/24, 11:26 PM

Resolved by editing /var/lib/dpkg/info/grub-pc.postinst.

However, the error came back with the next update. It seems grub-pc is just broken. In another thread, people simply delete the postinst file

+ 1

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: grub-pc error on VPS: cannot rename file in /etc/default

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