GRUB 1.99-21ubuntu3.7 removed countdown timer?

[Nutria]

Three issues seem to have happened at the same time.

One is that the GRUB countdown timer doesn't exist anymore. I had set to 30 seconds.

Second is that there's now a GUI GRUB screen instead of text.

Thirdly, USB ports seem to have stopped working. I've tried two KBs in multiple ports and I can't even get to the BIOS setup. Booting from a CD is similarly useless


The disappeared GRUB countdown means that it won't boot at all so I can't even ssh in.

Any thoughts?

[oldfred]

There really is not a gui grub screen. So what is it showing?

You can add backgrounds to grub, but it still is the same text.

USB not booting issue should be totally different and you should always be able to get into BIOS, or do you have a new UEFI?

[Nutria]

There really is not a gui grub screen. So what is it showing?

Call it "hi-res-graphic mode". It's definitely different than the low-res text-mode GRUB that I'd seen before.

And the GRUB timer disappeared. That's why it won't autoboot despite the USB issues.

USB not booting issue should be totally different

and you should always be able to get into BIOS

Correct. Not an Ubuntu issue.

I'm concerned that there's a h/w issue. I've tried two different keyboards, in all the USB ports, and when I press <Del> (that's the Gigabyte standard) at the BIOS splash screen nothing happens.

But I've never heard of just USB functionality failing. There's been no lightning and it sits behind a UPS.

One morning it just stopped working.

or do you have a new UEFI?

No, it's a good old-fashoned BIOS mobo on which I've been running Ubuntu for about 18 months.
.

[oldfred]

Did you install new graphic drivers or update them. Grub does try to use graphic mode and that will often change from 640x480 to whatever your default is. Then it looks a lot smaller.

Did you do a major grub update that rewrote /etc/default/grub or change a BIOS video setting?

info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

`GRUB_GFXMODE'
Set the resolution used on the `gfxterm' graphical terminal. Note
that you can only use modes which your graphics card supports via
VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE), so for example native LCD panel
resolutions may not be available. The default is `auto', which
tries to select a preferred resolution. *Note gfxmode::.

[Nutria]

Did you install new graphic drivers or update them. Grub does try to use graphic mode and that will often change from 640x480 to whatever your default is. Then it looks a lot smaller.

Did you do a major grub update that rewrote /etc/default/grub or change a BIOS video setting?

I run 12.04 LTS on that machine and try to keep it up-to-date.

Isn't the whole purpose of /etc/default to preserve local modifications?

[oldfred]

Yes, but a total reinstall of grub may overwrite it. Otherwise it really should not have changed.

[Nutria]

Yes, but a total reinstall of grub may overwrite it.

Didn't do that. "apt-get dist-upgrade" is my friend.

Otherwise it really should not have changed.

That's why I posted to the forum...

[oldfred]

Post your /etc/default/grub and I will compare to mine as it is the default I think.

[Nutria]

Post your /etc/default/grub and I will compare to mine as it is the default I think.

I guess I haven't made myself clear: THE MACHINE WON'T BOOT.

Because the GRUB timer disappeared, "it" sits at the GRUB menu indefinitely.

Because I'm having apparent h/w related USB issues, I can't use the keyboard to manually choose a kernel to boot with.

[oldfred]

Does keyboard work to get you into BIOS before grub starts loading?

I thought USB was related to reading flash drive or booting flash drive, not keyboard.
I used to have keyboard issues, years ago and that was a BIOS setting, but you should of had that from the beginning. Or did you flash BIOS? As that resets to defaults.