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View Full Version : [all variants] Can't Trigger Grub Menu on LiveCD



buzzingrobot
July 19th, 2012, 04:43 PM
I've had this problem since 12.04 was in beta: I can't trigger the display of the Grub menu when I boot off the LiveCD.

This is 64-bit 12.04 LiveCD, on a 64-bit machine in BIOS mode.

Holding down the Shift key dumps me to a "Boot:" prompt. Pressing Tab displays several options. One is "Help". That displays a list of function key options. They do not work.

Another option is "Mainmenu". Selecting that produces a complaint about a missing kernel.

Two other options are to boot the CD in Live or Live-Install mode. That is useless to me because the CD won't boot unless I can get to a Grub menu and add some kernel options.

I've been using the mini-iso, which has been problematic but at least not 100% useless.

What's going on here?

coffeecat
July 19th, 2012, 05:03 PM
What's going on here?

The live CD uses isolinux, not grub.

Start booting from the live CD and you will soon see a purple screen with two small icons near the bottom of the screen - a keyboard and a stick figure. Tap any key - I usually use the space bar - select your language and the text menu will appear. Kernel options can be added with F6 if I remember correctly, but the function key choices are displayed at the bottom of the menu screen.

buzzingrobot
July 19th, 2012, 05:33 PM
The live CD uses isolinux, not grub.

Start booting from the live CD and you will soon see a purple screen with two small icons near the bottom of the screen - a keyboard and a stick figure. Tap any key - I usually use the space bar - select your language and the text menu will appear. Kernel options can be added with F6 if I remember correctly, but the function key choices are displayed at the bottom of the menu screen.

Thanks. I always thought that was just a throwaway screen since it displays no text to explain why it's there.

In any case, that's the last screen I see unless I do add the kernel options.