Description

This article describes the following failure that is seen when upgrading from JSA 7.4.3 (unreleased to public) and JSA 7.5.0 to JSA 7.5.0 UP1 code. The error may also be seen when upgrading from other earlier versions of code, but generally the following error is seen:

[FAILURE]
File /etc/default/grub has an unexpected value for the field
'GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND'. This field is expected to have the following
keys: '--unit=', '--speed=', '--word=', '--parity=', '--stop='
[REMEDIATION]

The steps to resolve the issue is also detailed here. 

Symptoms

The issue is caused by duplicated GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND entries in the /etc/default/grub file. There are two scenarios that give the same error but have slightly different resolutions.

Run the following to see what is in your file. You will see output that is similar:

# grep -r GRUB_SERIAL /etc/default/grub                                                                                                                                             
GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial"
GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial --unit=0 --speed=9600 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1"
System setup failed.  Please logout/login on the console terminal to reconfigure system.
  1. The JSA 7.4.3 (and possibly earlier versions) > 7.5.0 UP1 patch contains extra entries like this that contain no values associated, similar to the actual error:
GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial"
GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial --unit= --speed= --word= --parity= --stop="
GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial --unit=0 --speed=9600 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1"

  1. The 7.5.0 ->7.5.0 UP1 patch contains an extra entry but does have values associated with it:

GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial"
GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial --unit=0 --speed=9600 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1"

Solution

To resolve this, do the following:

  1. vi /etc/default/grub

  2. Remove the appropriate duplicated entry:

    • In case 1 outlined above, remove the line showing: GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial --unit= --speed= --word= --  parity= --stop=" (leaving two GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND entries in the file).

    • In case 2 outlined above, remove the line showing: GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial" (leaving one GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND entry in the file).

  3. Save the changes (:wq).

  4. Re-run the patch installer.
If this still results in patch failure, open a JTAC ticket, provide the logs, and reference this article.

Modification History

v1