grub2 taking configuration from somewhere else

[Shirish Agarwal]

Binary package hint: grub2

grub2 is taking configuration from somewhere else and hence its not booting the way it boots from menu.lst

Would be giving both the menu.lst as well as grub.cfg so people can take a shot at this.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Package: grub2 1.96+20080724-12ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=/home/username/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_IN
SourcePackage: grub2
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-7-generic i686

[Shirish Agarwal (shirishag75)]

The differences as I see are here :-

menu.lst shows :-

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=some UUID ro
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
set root=(hd0,1)
search --fs-uuid --set some different UUID
menuentry "Ubuntu, linux 2.6.27-7-generic" {
 linux /vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=same UUID as given in menu.lst ro quiet splash
 initrd /initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic
}

Now the issue is

a. Why does it set root at (hd0,1) and not (hd0,0)
b. What is this

search --fs-uuid --set some different UUID

Why there is some different UUID here

Obviously in both the files just from a security concern I have not put up the UUID's which are given therein.

Output of df -h

$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2 19G 4.0G 14G 23% /
tmpfs 501M 0 501M 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 501M 128K 501M 1% /var/run
varlock 501M 4.0K 501M 1% /var/lock
udev 501M 2.8M 498M 1% /dev
tmpfs 501M 748K 500M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 501M 2.0M 499M 1% /lib/modules/2.6.27-7-generic/volatile
/dev/sda1 1.9G 48M 1.8G 3% /boot
/dev/sda3 53G 21G 30G 42% /home
/dev/sdb1 466G 71G 395G 16% /media/FreeAgent Drive

Obviously, the device where all the action should be is at :-

/dev/sda1 1.9G 48M 1.8G 3% /boot

I know I have kept much much more than ever its going to be needed but that's another thing altogether.

If anybody needs some more info. feel free to ask the same here.

[Shirish Agarwal (shirishag75)]

Another issue is from somewhere grub2 is taking Kubuntu usplashimage while in the default there is either ubuntu usplashimage or can be seen I have stopped the splashimage (so I know if something goes wrong)

Looking forward to hear and know from the same.

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

What do you mean by "not booting the way it boots from menu.lst"? What exactly is different? In particular, does grub-pc *work* - as in: does it successfully load Ubuntu?

Grub2 doesn't use menu.lst; it does have its own configuration.

As to your other questions:
*) It sets root=(hd0,1) because grub2 starts partition numbering at 1, not 0
*) The "search --fs-uuid --set" line is searching for your /boot partition by UUID, and setting it to the root if it finds it.

The only influence the bootloader has on the usplash theme is (a) whether it's on or not, and (b) the root partition that you're booting from. Since you've set menu.lst to not show the splash, it obviously won't be shown under grub legacy. You haven't disabled the splash under grub2, so the usplash will be shown.

Finally; I don't think the UUIDs of your drives are a particular concern, but the UUID of your root drive is still in the menu.lst you posted. And the UUID of your / partition is in grub.cfg.

[Shirish Agarwal (shirishag75)]

Reply in-line :-

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 04:08, Chris Halse Rogers
<email address hidden> wrote:
> What do you mean by "not booting the way it boots from menu.lst"? What
> exactly is different? In particular, does grub-pc *work* - as in: does
> it successfully load Ubuntu?

Hi Chris,
      Thank you for getting back to me as quickly as you did. Now to
answer your questions.
grub-pc works and it successfully loads Ubuntu.

> Grub2 doesn't use menu.lst; it does have its own configuration.

Ok cool.

> As to your other questions:
> *) It sets root=(hd0,1) because grub2 starts partition numbering at 1, not 0
> *) The "search --fs-uuid --set" line is searching for your /boot partition by UUID, and setting it to the root if it finds it.

Ah so that why I have a separate /boot partition as well as a seperate
/ partition.
Now I get it.

> The only influence the bootloader has on the usplash theme is (a)
> whether it's on or not, and (b) the root partition that you're booting
> from. Since you've set menu.lst to not show the splash, it obviously
> won't be shown under grub legacy. You haven't disabled the splash under
> grub2, so the usplash will be shown.

Now

a. How do I disable the splash
b. Which is much more mysterious and worrying for me from where its
getting the splash screen
of Kubuntu rather than Ubuntu.

> Finally; I don't think the UUIDs of your drives are a particular
> concern, but the UUID of your root drive is still in the menu.lst you
> posted. And the UUID of your / partition is in grub.cfg.

True
--
          Regards,
          Shirish Agarwal
  This email is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
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[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

> a. How do I disable the splash

Edit the configuration in /etc/default/grub. In particular, you want
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT to not contain the "splash" command. This is
where the default options are set. (GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX options apply to
all linux entries, _DEFAULT only applies to non-single-user-mode
entries).

> b. Which is much more mysterious and worrying for me from where its
> getting the splash screen
> of Kubuntu rather than Ubuntu.

It isn't getting the Kubuntu splash at all; the only control grub has
over usplash is whether it shows at all, by passing the "splash"
argument to the kernel or not.

I'd be amazed if passing the "splash" option to the kernel under grub
rather than grub2 didn't also show the Kubuntu splash.

[Shirish Agarwal (shirishag75)]

ok cool, marking the same invalid but let's continue the discussion on the same.