GRUB2 : countdown disappeared

[YannUbuntu]

Binary package hint: grub2

While it was working normaly before, the countdown of GRUB disappeared some days ago (I reboot everyday).
So now I have to press ENTER key to select the default GRUB entry, instead of just waiting it is automatically selected after 10 seconds.

on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic 32bits, grub-pc 1.97~beta4-1ubuntu4.1
my /etc/default/grub file in attached file

[Niels Croese (nelis)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this problem and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems to me that the configuration in the file you attached is fine (if you want a 3 second timeout). It is however possible that this is not the configuration used by grub. The file you attached is actually used to create the grub configuration file when the command "update-grub" is executed. Please try if executing this command fixes your issue (change the configuration before executing if needed): "sudo update-grub".

If the above does not fix your issue please attach the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file to your bugreport so we can have a closer look at the issue.

[YannUbuntu (yannubuntu)]

I did "sudo update-grub" and it changed nothing. FYI, I have the same bug on Xubuntu9.10 on another PC.
Please find the /boot/grub/grub.cfg in attached file.

[Niels Croese (nelis)]

This appears to be a bug in grub. Look here for a possible workaround: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1364220

[YannUbuntu (yannubuntu)]

Thank you Niels.
As described on the forum, I tried the "set timeout=10" workaround:
- on my Xubuntu9.10 it solved the problem
- on my Ubuntu9.10 it didn't solve the problem (neither with "set timeout=2")

Please find in attached files the logs of both my Xubuntu and Ubuntu.

[malangaman (cahevia)]

I have this same issue in Kubuntu 9.10. Occasionally after an update the countdown of grub disappeared and I must manually press enter to boot to the default. The "set timeout=10" workaround has fixed the problem until some other update messes things up again.

[YannUbuntu (yannubuntu)]

Dear all,
as said above, I still have this bug on my Ubuntu 9.10. Surprisingly, the coutdown sometimes re-appears (once every 10~20 boots), so it looks mysterious.
I think I am going to re-install GRUB 1...

[beefstu (stucurtis15)]

I also had this problem, and found a workaround which is a little hard and dirty!

I edited to grub.cfg file (had to change it from read only and edit as root) after backing it up and commented the lines in a small 'if' code so that they didn't run.

The code originally read:

if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=3
fi

which I changed to

#if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
# set timeout=-1
#else
set timeout=3
#fi

I have no idea what recordfail is and I'm sure someone will tell me this was a bad idea but its just how i solved it. All i know is that setting the timeout to -1 stops the countdown and removing those lines stops grub from changing to that. I take no responsibility for broken systems as you aren't supposed to edit the file directly.

I attach my grub.cfg to see the whole file if anyone is interested

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

The recordfail logic is as follows:

  If the previous boot failed, then don't time out when displaying the
  menu next time round, since the user probably wants to do something
  different.

I would suggest investigating why recordfail isn't getting unset,
instead. /etc/init.d/grub-common is (currently) the script that's
supposed to do that.

[YannUbuntu (yannubuntu)]

The workaround given by beefstu works also for me !

Indeed, I had :

if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=3
fi

And I simply changed it by the following to get a 5s timeout:

if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=5
else
  set timeout=3
fi

More information: see my current grub.cfg in attached file. As you can see, it has 2 similar sections:
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
and ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header_old ###
but only the "old" one is taken into account. Is this normal to have those 2 sections? (maybe it comes by the fact that I used Ubuntu Tweak a long time ago?)

[cmcginty (casey-mcginty)]

[SOLVED] If you are having this bug, try running the command in the console to unset the "recordfail" value:

grub-editenv /boot/grub/grubenv unset recordfail

[YannUbuntu (yannubuntu)]

What does this command do? How to revert it if I have a problem with it ? (I already found a workaround, see above, so I don't want to take risks)

[Alecz20 (alexguzu)]

This is still an issue in Ubuntu 12.10

@ cmcginty (casey-mcginty) :

running:

grub-editenv /boot/grub/grubenv unset recordfail

does not help.

Also none of the workarounds worked for me in GRUB 2.00 on Ubuntu 12.10

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for grub2 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]