grub distorts default selection during kernel upgrade

[Martin Olsson]

1. install ubuntu and setup your grub config so the grub main menu shows:

A) Ubuntu major.minor
B) Ubuntu major.minor (recovery)
C) Boot other OS

2. Then configured the cursor to be on alternative C) on default so that pressing ENTER or waiting for the timeout will actually boot the other OS.
3. Use Ubuntu for a while until a new kernel comes along (dist upgrade etc)

Expected results:
Grub should add the new kernel version plus a recovery boot option for it at the top but the default selection should still be the same as originally configured (alternative C in this case).

Actual results:
When the new Ubuntu kernel is added to the grub menu it makes my old ubuntu kernel the default booting option because grub uses a hardcoded index to say which item is the current default item.

Note: grub offers the ability to to configure "default saved" and mark one particular item with "savedefault" but this facility does not seem to be used by default in ubuntu. When we upgraded our mothers machine her default was distorted and there is no way she could have fixed this problem herself.

[Thomas Hotz (thotz-deactivatedaccount)]

Starting with Ubuntu 9.10 GRUB was replaced with GRUB 2. Currently I only use Linux (Ubuntu), so I can't test this.

Could you tell me please if you still experience this problem? Thank you very much!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for grub (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]