Latest two versions of grub-common do not honor shift key.

[Don Manyette]

Binary package hint: grub

Intel core2 duo, intel EMT64 Karmic. Proposed update to kernel subversion 20 when loaded found that shift key will not enter grub menu.. Problem isolated to the grub-common file. Had to revert to the 1ubuntu3 version of grub-common to make grub 1,97 beta honor the shift key at boot time. The later 2 versions of grub-common do not honor the shift key.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Feb 8 20:35:09 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
Package: grub 0.97-29ubuntu59
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-20.57-generic
SourcePackage: grub
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-20-generic x86_64
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2119): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2171): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:2154): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (firefox:2588): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Could you be a bit more specific about versions, please? There have been several versions of the grub2 package across various releases that ended with "1ubuntu3". If you quote the full version number, then neither of us will get confused ...

[Don Manyette (manyette-cox)]

Specifics are as follows:
Karmic with all latest updates, and repo's set to all the "proposed" updates as well. This loaded the kernel subversion "20". Found that the shift key no longer entered the grub menu at boot time. Narrowed problem to grub-common, which at this time had 3 versions available in synaptic. They were:
1.97-beta4-1ubuntu5 (karmic-proposed)
1.97-beta4-1ubuntu4.1 (karmic-updates)
1.97-beta4-1ubuntu3 (karmic)
Of these three possible files, the top two would not honor the shift key. When I forced the bottom version of those three, the shift key was honored properly, and all else now works well.

I'm very much a newbie, so I hope I've furnished the info you require. If not, please ask. E-Mail in profile if it helps.

[Don Manyette (manyette-cox)]

The update which appeared today for the "20" kernel (PROPOSED)

[Don Manyette (manyette-cox)]

The update which appeared today for the "20" kernel (PROPOSED) appear to have fixed this problem. I have unlocked the earlier version of grub-common and allowed the update to the latest version, and the shift key now works as it should to enter the grub menu.

[Don Manyette (manyette-cox)]

Re: Above comment - I should have said that the update to grub-common which came out yesterday made the fix!