grub2 is unresponsive, i.e. no input, no output

[Lupe Christoph]

Binary package hint: grub2

When I boot from a disk with the GRUB2 bootblock (I have four, two still have the MBT install-mbr provides), I get a "GRUB loading", the the screen clears. During what is probably the GRUB timeout I get nothing but a blinking cursor. No reaction to ESC, SHIFT, enter, etc. The after (probably) the timeout period I get a white Ubuntu logo on black and the machine boots the default kernel.

This is quite useless if there is any problem that requires interaction with GRUB. :-(

Some information that may be relevant to this problem (or not...)

- USB keyboard and mouse behind a KVM switch
- ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO with dual screens (one is on an IP KVM Switch with PS/2 keyboiard/mouse emulation)
- no output on the secondary screen
- upgrade from GRUB 1 not completed, I blindly let GRUB2 install it's bootblock when apt-get prompted me. When it looked like GRUB2 was hanging, I booted from a GRML CD and removed grub-pc and reinstalled grub. Then I did an apt-get install grub2 again. This time I let it install its boot block on only half the disks.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Nov 7 19:38:54 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: grub-pc 1.97~beta4-1ubuntu4
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: grub2
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:4846): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:5186): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:5168): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (gnome-panel:5065): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_widget_size_allocate(): attempt to allocate widget with width -12 and height 24
 (gnome-panel:5065): Gdk-WARNING **: /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.18.3/gdk/x11/gdkdrawable-x11.c:952 drawable is not a pixmap or window

[Lupe Christoph (lupe)]

Correction:

I get the menu with the shift key now. No idea what changed.

But I still think it's a bad idea to present an empty screen for 10 seconds. Any unexplained inactivity makes me nervous after about three seconds and I start pressing buttons. Due to the changed default (Escape -> Shift) that is not explained in the upgrade from GRUB to GRUB 2 many people will miss trying Shift. I just happen to have used other Linux distributions that used Shift. IIRC they *did* tell you you could use that key...

So something like
    echo "Booting default kernel in 10 Seconds. Press shift key for other options"
might be a good idea. (Dunno how you print something in that fancy GRUB2 language, it's probably not echo.)

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

I'm afraid this is beyond my control. The design team have instructed me to make GRUB as silent as possible (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopExperienceTeam/KarmicBootExperienceDesignSpec#Bootloader). The Shift thing was the best I could manage.

[Lupe Christoph (lupe)]

On Monday, 2009-11-09 at 13:36:35 -0000, Colin Watson wrote:
> I'm afraid this is beyond my control. The design team have instructed me
> to make GRUB as silent as possible
> (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopExperienceTeam/KarmicBootExperienceDesignSpec#Bootloader).
> The Shift thing was the best I could manage.

B.A.D. Broken as designed. See my .signature.

But I wonder what happened to the other parts of that design, namely:

"The Boot Experience Will...

...guide the user through a fast, simple startup which feels welcoming
and reassuring. The user will feel in control of his computer throughout."

Giving absolutely no feedback means that the user is left without
control. The user does not feel welcome but left in a very Microsoftish
dark. "We don't tell you what's going on - you're too stupid to
understand, anyway. Just don't touch any buttons, so that you don't break
anything."

Last time I looked Ubuntu did not follow that philosophy.

Note, I'm not blaming you. I'm just venting my frustration over a design
done by people who talk about "user experience" rather than giving the
user control over the environment. The notion "user experience" so far
has always told me "we will do this our way, you will watch this in fear
and awe".

"User experience" is not "usage quality" or "user friendliness". It's
pure marketing bullshit.

Lupe Christoph
Frustrated because of the turn Ubuntu is taking. Helter skelter downhill
trying to catch up after Gnome.
--
| There is no substitute for bad design except worse design. |
| /me |

[Daniel Richard G. (skunk)]

Please be more judicious in your use of the term "autistic."

I'm not so fond of the "silent" GRUB at startup either, but as Colin said, the design team pulls rank on this one.

That only affects the default install, however. What you can do is edit /etc/default/grub, change the settings for GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT (set to e.g. "5"), GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET (set to "false"), and maybe GRUB_TIMEOUT. If you're like me, you might also want to uncomment the "GRUB_TERMINAL=console" line, so that GRUB doesn't go into graphics mode. Make sure you run update-grub(8) afterwards, of course.

I'm closing this bug, because there really isn't much else that can be done here.