Grub command line is too quiet.

[tgelter]

Binary package hint: grub

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.04
Release: 8.04

$ apt-cache policy grub
grub:
  Installed: 0.97-29ubuntu21
  Candidate: 0.97-29ubuntu21
  Version table:
 *** 0.97-29ubuntu21 0
            500 http://server1.example.com hardy/main Packages
            100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

The following IRC conversation explains the issue and a bit of conversation on #ubuntu-devel about it:
<hoban> I'm having trouble finding an existing bug report about this and maybe it's because it's by design. Maybe someone can shed some light? With any other Linux distro I've used, when you enter the GRUB command-line interface at boot, setting the root device (e.g. root=(hd0,0)), kernel (e.g. kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.22), or initrd (e.g. initrd /initrd-2.6.22) will cause the command line to indicate whether or not the action was successful. Ubuntu's
<hoban> grub does not. It just prints a blank line. This can make it hard to manually boot the system using GRUB if the menu.lst is incorrect or missing.
<cjwatson> hoban: I think that's accidental, perhaps a consequence of having 'quiet' in the menu?
<cjwatson> hoban: unless you mean in karmic in which case it could be a difference between grub and grub2 ...
<hoban> cjwatson, I'm actually referring to 8.04 LTS
<cjwatson> ok, so grub 1
<hoban> cjwatson, I'll take a look to see if it's related to the quiet option and return shortly
<hoban> cjwatson, I removed the quiet option and there is no difference in behaviour
<hoban> recall also that I'm referring to the grub command-line, so configuration in /boot/grub/menu.lst isn't being used at that time anyway. Perhaps there is a difference in the way grub is being compiled?
<cjwatson> hoban: ok, every distro has massive patches to grub legacy so that's entirely possible; afraid I can't hunt through it right now
<hoban> cjwatson, not a problem. Is this something I should create a bug report for or just ignore until grub2 is in use? (I'm fine with either)
<cjwatson> could be a consequence of the patch to quieten boot in general
<cjwatson> go ahead and file a bug of course, although I should warn that we aren't putting a whole lot of effort into grub any more
<cjwatson> but no harm in having it recorded
<hoban> will do. Thank you cjwatson!
<lool> hoban: If I recall correctly the default value for the quiet option might be one
<cjwatson> I don't think there's actually any way to set it to zero
<hoban> lool: which quiet option (grub's quiet option or the kernel quiet option) and where is that configurable?
<lool> hoban: The grub quiet command is supposed to set a quiet flag in grub
<lool> hoban: This is all added by a patch in the packaging
<lool> But the deafult value of the flag is 1 anyway (IIRC)
<hoban> lool: I see. thanks
<lool> hoban: See debian/patches/quiet.diff in http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/g/grub/grub_0.97-29ubuntu56.dsc
<lool> +/* Whether to quiet boot messages or not. */
<lool> +int quiet_boot = 1;

[dino99 (9d9)]

outdated report & no more maintained distro; please send a new one if that issue still exist (using ubuntu-bug)