curious about quirk in kernel updates

[il-luzhin]

For the the third consecutive time now the kernel updates have rewritten my GRUB menu so that the recovery kernel is the default.

Just wondering if this is unique to myself or if others are finding this. If it is there by design, is there a philosophy behind it?

[FuturePilot]

That's odd. It's never happened to me. There might be something messed up with your menu.lst. If you're fixing it by editing the bottom it will get rearranged when update-grub is run. You probably need to edit the top part. You might want to post your menu.lst

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

[k2t0f12d]

I run the lastest stable from kernel.org. That being the case, dpkg never gets a chance to muck with my menu.lst. I rewrite the file myself when manually installing kernel images I have built from source.

[il-luzhin]

Your right, that is how i edit it. I didn't realize it made a difference but I've never spent any time setting up my GRUB conf.

It has since been set to my preferential order.



# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 3

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=bc8ee413-eb48-4441-b322-7dd3e317aa37 ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,2)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=bc8ee413-eb48-4441-b322-7dd3e317aa37 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=bc8ee413-eb48-4441-b322-7dd3e317aa37 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-rt
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-rt root=UUID=bc8ee413-eb48-4441-b322-7dd3e317aa37 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-rt
quiet

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-rt (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-rt root=UUID=bc8ee413-eb48-4441-b322-7dd3e317aa37 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-rt

title Ubuntu 7.10, memtest86+
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

[Sunflower1970]

For the the third consecutive time now the kernel updates have rewritten my GRUB menu so that the recovery kernel is the default.

Just wondering if this is unique to myself or if others are finding this. If it is there by design, is there a philosophy behind it?

This last kernel upgrade completely screwed up my GRUB menu. I have 7 different OS's on my testing system to play around with. XFCE + Ubuntu is on the first partition (hd0,0) (and set up on hd0,1 and when GRUB updated, it said XFCE + Ubuntu was was on hd0,7 where my Debian partition is....Fixed grub and all is okay...but it was...weird...