Question

apt update breaks grub on Ubuntu 20.04

I created an Ubuntu 20.04 droplet and followed the How To Install and Configure Laravel with Nginx on Ubuntu 20.04 and when I logged in I saw:

96 updates can be installed immediately.
34 of these updates are security updates.

So first thing I did was run

apt-get update 
apt-get upgrade

I get a package configuration for Configuring grub-pc,

GRUB failed to install to the following devices:                                     

/dev/sda                                                                             

Do you want to continue anyway? If you do, your computer may not start up properly. 

Writing GRUB to boot device failed - continue?

If I choose yes, complete the upgrade, then reboot it doesn’t come back. When I look in the console from the droplet menu I have a grub error.

error: symbol 'grub_calloc' not found.
Entering Rescue mode...
grub rescue>

How am I supposed to update my droplet from a base image without triggering this landmine?

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Bobby Iliev • August 1, 2020

Hi there @tysonvanover,

I just created a brand new Ubuntu 20.04 Droplet and ran apt update and apt upgrade and it all went through as normal:

Processing triggers for linux-image-5.4.0-42-generic (5.4.0-42.46) ...
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools:
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-42-generic
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub:
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/50-cloudimg-settings.cfg'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/init-select.cfg'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-42-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-42-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-29-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-29-generic
done

Did you have any other packages that you installed before running the upgrades?

On another note, I could suggest trying out this Laravel image from the marketplace:

https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/laravel

It comes with LEMP and Laravel installed and preconfigured.

Regards, Bobby

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