Grub 2 Basics

[drs305]

Yea! I finally was able to get a 1280x800 grub menu **and** a 1280x800 VT!

Thanks Keith. I will play around with those settings. I was hoping that there would be nothing more than /etc/default/grub which needed tweaking but perhaps that is too much to expect at this point.

[oyo]

I have an Ubuntu server 9.10 64bit running as a kvm virtual guest. The server should always boot to the
linux prompt and it usually does so but sometimes it stops at the grub menu.
There i have one single choice: Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic-pae, i have to press enter to proceed booting.
This is annoying because i usually only connect by ssh, so i have to start a graphical user interface on the vm host
connect to that and open the vm console to confirm the menu entry.
By simply restarting the virtual machine i was never able to reproduce this, but it looks like it is occurring
almost every time when i start the vm after a restart of the host. Any help is appreciated.

Here some additional infos:
GNU GRUB version 1.97~beta4

/etc/default/grub:
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT="3"
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
GRUB_TERMINAL=console
GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY="true"


/boot/grub/grub.cfg:
...
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic-pae" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2d64b7b2-3ec2-45e2-acca-a90d4f6c4e78
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic-pae root=UUID=2d64b7b2-3ec2-45e2-acca-a90d4f6c4e78 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic-pae
}
...

[drs305]

... but it looks like it is occurring
almost every time when i start the vm after a restart of the host. Any help is appreciated.

There is a good chance this is occurring because Grub2 is finding a "recordfail". What produces the recordfail varies, but you can try to reset the value with this command:

sudo grub-editenv unset recordfail

This may allow you to boot without the pause, however if a recordfail event subsequently occurs your system will pause again at the boot menu.

You can take a more agressive approach by disabling the recordfail check in /etc/grub.d/00_header. This isn't of course the optimum solution but if the problem causing the event can't be identified, this is a workaround.

In version 1.98, The lines to alter are below (approximately line 150 of /etc/grub.d/00_header). The changes are in red:

cat << EOF
#if [ \${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
# set timeout=-1
#else
set timeout=${GRUB_TIMEOUT}
#fi
EOF

Save the file and then run "sudo update-grub"

[mhenriday]

I've discussed my trials and tribulations with upgrading from 64-bit Karmic to Lucid on this thread. I thought they were over and marked the thread as «solved», until I discovered that while I can indeed run Lucid on my HP Pavilion dv9000 box, GRUB can no longer be used to boot it into Vista Business (for the sake of explicitness, the laptop concerned boasts a dual-core AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56 processor and two 120 GB HDD. One, /dev/sda is used for the Windows OS, the other, /dev/sdb for Ubuntu). As was the case prior to the upgrade usual, GRUB lists my Linux kernels (with 2.6.32-17 as the current default) mem-tests, and then Windows Vista (loader) on /dev/sda1 (before the GRUB menu appears, I see the following notice on my screen :

udevd-work [355] open /dev/null failed : No such file or directory

which may or may not be relevant here). Aside from minor problems with Nvidia, I have no trouble booting into Ubuntu ; if, however, I select the the Windows Vista loader, instead of booting into Vista, the machine restarts and the GRUB menu once more appears ! When I perform

/etc/grub.d/30_os-prober

as root, I get the following results :

Found Windows Vista (loader) on /dev/sda1
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda1)" {
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 72746dd9746da099
chainloader +1
}
Found Windows Vista (loader) on /dev/sda2
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" {
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2c88743c8874071c
chainloader +1

which corresponds pretty closely to the status quo ante, save for the fact that the string (hd0,1) was not surrounded by single quotation marks (' ') in Karmic (this seems to be one of the differences obtaining between Karmic and Lucid code - I experimented with removing them in GRUB, but they always reappeared).

I've checked with Gparted, and the /dev/sda1 NTFS partition is flagged as «boot».

Any suggestions as to how I could recover the ability to boot into the Vista partition ?...

Henri

[dino99]

run grub-mkconfig then update-grub

[mhenriday]

Thanks for your speedy reply, dino99 (cool penguin, by the way) ! Below what displayed in my terminal upon my performing

sudo grub-mkconfig

and

sudo update-grub

[sudo] password for mhenriday:
Generating grub.cfg ...
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
saved_entry=${chosen}
save_env saved_entry
fi
}

function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=sv
insmod gettext
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=5
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-17-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-17-generic
menuentry "Ubuntu, med Linux 2.6.32-17-generic" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-17-generic root=UUID=49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-17-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, med Linux 2.6.32-17-generic (återställningsläge)" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854
echo Läser in Linux 2.6.32-17-generic ...
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-17-generic root=UUID=49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854 ro single
echo Läser in initial ramdisk ...
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-17-generic
}
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-16-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-16-generic
menuentry "Ubuntu, med Linux 2.6.32-16-generic" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-16-generic root=UUID=49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-16-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, med Linux 2.6.32-16-generic (återställningsläge)" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854
echo Läser in Linux 2.6.32-16-generic ...
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-16-generic root=UUID=49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854 ro single
echo Läser in initial ramdisk ...
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-16-generic
}
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-20-generic
menuentry "Ubuntu, med Linux 2.6.31-20-generic" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic root=UUID=49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-20-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, med Linux 2.6.31-20-generic (återställningsläge)" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854
echo Läser in Linux 2.6.31-20-generic ...
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic root=UUID=49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854 ro single
echo Läser in initial ramdisk ...
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-20-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 49d4a93f-e82b-4e1b-b84b-6012ae4d9854
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
Found Windows Vista (loader) on /dev/sda1
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda1)" {
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 72746dd9746da099
chainloader +1
}
Found Windows Vista (loader) on /dev/sda2
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" {
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2c88743c8874071c
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
done
mhenriday@mhenriday-baerbar:~$ sudo update-grub
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-17-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-17-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-16-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-16-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-20-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Found Windows Vista (loader) on /dev/sda1
Found Windows Vista (loader) on /dev/sda2
done

Alas, no joy ; I still can't boot into Vista. Don't know if the fact that the line «recordfail» appears under the Linux kernels listed but not under the Vista loaders could be relevant here ; in any event, it does not appear under the memtests, which seem to be working fine....

Henri

[ranch hand]

Add your WinJerryLewis Pro entry in the /etc/grub.d/40_custom file.

There has to be an example of that in this list, I can't give you one as this house is not polluted by MS products. Sorry.

I will be surprised if that does not do it for you.

[kansasnoob]

Thanks for your speedy reply, dino99 (cool penguin, by the way) ! Below what displayed in my terminal upon my performing

sudo grub-mkconfig

and

sudo update-grub

Alas, no joy ; I still can't boot into Vista. Don't know if the fact that the line «recordfail» appears under the Linux kernels listed but not under the Vista loaders could be relevant here ; in any event, it does not appear under the memtests, which seem to be working fine....

Henri

Would you please post the full output from the Boot Info Script as described here:

http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/

Please either compress the RESULTS.txt and attach the tar.gz or use CODE tags by clicking on the # in the reply box.

The output of that script can be very helpful

Edit: Feel free to PM me once you post that info just to point me back here, but let's keep the bulk of our conversation here.

[kansasnoob]

I've been doing some comparisons between two separate Lucid installs on my machine and I have an anomaly. The following is from the /etc/default/grub of each:

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT="60"
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="splash quiet"

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT="10"
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

Both are nearly virgin installs, just a few days apart. What do you think might be up with that?

I'm wondering if I should file a bug report?

[drs305]

I've been doing some comparisons between two separate Lucid installs on my machine and I have an anomaly.

I'm wondering if I should file a bug report?

I just updated today and chose the maintainer's version. It matches your second entry, which has been the standard. I don't know how your first entry was created, but since the second (latest) is correct, unless you can duplicate the first one I wouldn't file a bug quite yet.