'grub2' does not carry over correct 'timeout' time from 'grub'

Bug #386789 reported by Brett Alton
46
This bug affects 6 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
grub2 (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
High
Colin Watson
Karmic
Fix Released
High
Colin Watson

Bug Description

Binary package hint: grub2

Using Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04, I followed the instructions[1] for testing grub2 on my Dell XPS Gen 5. Everything went smoothly and I submitted my machine to the wiki.

However, although this doesn't bother me, I noticed my 'timeout' was set to 10 seconds with 'grub' and 5 seconds with 'grub2'.

I figure 5 seconds is a good default, but some might have it set at '0' or '60' seconds, depending on their preferences and I figured this number should be carried over when running 'upgrade-from-grub-legacy'

I'll post the old 'grub' configuration and the new 'grub2' configuration.

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/Grub2Testing

Related branches

Revision history for this message
Brett Alton (brett-alton-deactivatedaccount) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Brett Alton (brett-alton-deactivatedaccount) wrote :
Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

This also applies to the new GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT parameter. We need to clear this up for Karmic.

Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → High
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu Karmic):
assignee: nobody → Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu Karmic):
milestone: none → karmic-alpha-6
Revision history for this message
peter b (b1pete) wrote :

scenario -

- intrepid and jaunty installed in good working order (w grub legacy)

the other day karmic alpha install attempted on diff partitions ; result, the two distros above experienced great problems at boot time (due to karmic boot upgrade - grub2 the default)

Just for users info

- will karmic and presumably the releases that follow offer the user a choice at install time (boot upgrade/update) to leave the already installed and working grub legacy untouched and just create grub.conf for the new (to be installed) release ?

It is my opinion that it should be user's choice to upgrade to grub2 the releases that use grub legacy.

any input appreciated, tu.

peter b

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote : Re: [Bug 386789] Re: 'grub2' does not carry over correct 'timeout' time from 'grub'

On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 02:26:21AM -0000, peter b wrote:
> the other day karmic alpha install attempted on diff partitions ;
> result, the two distros above experienced great problems at boot time
> (due to karmic boot upgrade - grub2 the default)

I hope you've filed separate bugs about these? We need to maintain
backward compatibility.

> - will karmic and presumably the releases that follow offer the user a
> choice at install time (boot upgrade/update) to leave the already
> installed and working grub legacy untouched and just create grub.conf
> for the new (to be installed) release ?

We won't be upgrading anyone automatically to GRUB 2 in Karmic; it'll
only be for fresh installs. We have yet to decide what to do for
subsequent releases.

I would appreciate it if every bug on grub2 didn't turn into a
philosophical discussion. :-) This bug is about a single technical
fault, not general upgrade matters.

Revision history for this message
peter b (b1pete) wrote :

@ Colin Watson,

- yes, it should have been a new thread/topic re general matters on upcoming karmic with grub2 default. sorry, for that. I just wanted to make known my experience with karmic alpha vis-a-vis past releases with grub legacy.

- it was my first contact with karmic and fully cognizant that it is in alpha stages (I never upgrade past releases, always fresh installs).

- pls understand the situation after the install completed - no problems whatsoever during install and total boot failure at the first boot with karmic - panic as usual, scouring for bkups etc. only a floppy bkup saved my hide; restoring part images did not work. I remember that after trying to restore the images with no success I entered BIOS and restored its defaults and only then I managed to restore/boot grub off floppy and boot into intrepid, then do away with karmic partitions and copy off floppy files into intrepid and edit jaunty grub files.

- anyhow, the situation is under control - the system is fully recovered and in good stable state as was before. just for your info what I noticed - it appears that grub2 is v intrusive, apparently it does something to the pc BIOS (not sure exactly what yet); secondly, I probably should start using dd to get part images created and rstored instead of using terabyte's BING that I used for years and never let me down. thirdly, I hope that w grub2 there'll be a chance to get grub fitted on a floppy (the old but elegant and inexpensive way of creating bkup boot media).

- 'We need to maintain backward compatibility.' and 'We won't be upgrading anyone automatically to GRUB 2 in Karmic' - great news and thanks for this.

- if I may, probably chainloading grub into grub2 by default would be the easiest and the only interference with existing working grub legacy.

- is there pls an ubuntu web page with all grub2 commands yet?

tu and cheerios,
peter b

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Thanks for your comments. Please feel free to take these to private
e-mail if you want to ask me questions about how we're handling grub2 -
my address is public. I'd rather not continue this discussion on this
bug, as it's quite a digression.

Revision history for this message
peter b (b1pete) wrote :

'I'd rather not continue this discussion on this
bug, as it's quite a digression.'

- yes, totally agree - it should have been on a diff thread/topic. I know v well what you're going through; I'd rather not disturb your line of thought - the fact that this issue had your ears and eyes is more than satisfactory to me. I'm quite busy, I'll do the next karmic install when fully released but keeping an eye open on grub2.

all the best,
peter b

Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu Karmic):
status: Triaged → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package grub2 - 1.97~beta2-2ubuntu2

---------------
grub2 (1.97~beta2-2ubuntu2) karmic; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/951_quick_boot.diff: Only do the hidden-timeout checks if
    timeout is not already set to -1 (i.e. show menu, no timeout).
  * debian/patches/954_normal_quiet.diff: Don't clear the screen just before
    booting if we never drew the menu in the first place.
  * debian/patches/955_really_quiet.diff: Remove "Booting" message; it turns
    out to be hard to suppress any other way.
  * debian/patches/956_linux_quiet.diff: Don't try to suppress "Booting"
    based on the value of "quiet", as the menu entry commands aren't run
    until after this message.
  * debian/patches/958_ntfs_64bit.diff: Handle 64-bit file sizes in NTFS.
  * debian/patches/959_loopback_root.diff: Keep the loopback file open so
    that subsequent changes to the "root" environment variable don't affect
    it.
  * debian/config.in, debian/postinst.in, debian/grub-pc.templates.in:
    Migrate timeout settings from menu.lst (LP: #386789).
  * debian/grub-pc.templates.in: Add grub-pc/kopt_extracted template.

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:40:38 +0100

Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu Karmic):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
theogago (theogago)
Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Released → New
Revision history for this message
Michael Rooney (mrooney) wrote :

Please don't change statuses without explanations, thanks!

Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu):
status: New → Fix Released
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