timeout in grub2 not working

[Markus Schulz]

Binary package hint: grub2

In 10.04 I didn't had to press enter to boot, since I upgraded to 10.10 I have to. And I didn't find a way in /etc/default/grub to change this.

I found the issue in this area in /etc/grub.d/00_header:
if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=10
fi

If I change the -1 to a positive integer the time out works again... i guess this is just a workaround, the real issue must be with recordfail? But I don't know how to fix this.

Description: Ubuntu 10.10
Release: 10.10

grub2:
  Installed: 1.98+20100804-5ubuntu3
  Candidate: 1.98+20100804-5ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 1.98+20100804-5ubuntu3 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Markus Schulz (schulz-alpharesearch)]

There is one more stage thing, I also have stuff from ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header.orig ### in my grub.cfg... I think this should not be here... I guess this could be a different bug? I will move this orig file for now!

[Markus Schulz (schulz-alpharesearch)]

I can confirm that this .orig file was the real reason for the problem ... after I deleted the file I change the other file back to original and run a update-grub2... the grub.cfg file was good now... and timeout was back at the boot!!!
Looks like there needs to find a different rename for this file... maybe the 00 in the beginning needs to go?? But I didn't test this.
I may changed this file in the past so I have a higher resolution for my console... so i don't this this is very wide spread.

[Antonio Cortes-Rodriguez (antonio-cortes)]

I had exactly the same problem, just after upgrading from 10.04 to 10.10, and the workaround described in the initial report works for me, that is modifying file /etc/grub.d/00_header by replacing the if fi block by the line set timeout=10.

Interestingly enough, the same code was in the original file "/etc/grub.d/00_header" in version 10.04, but it looks that the upgrade affected something that makes "recordfail" variable to be empty when these lines of code are reached.

[Chris Reynolds (c-reynolds)]

Ok, this is a pain now. I have a large number of 10.10 servers, and seemingly at random, the timeout stops working after reboot. This means I have to take a lift down to the server room, and access a console to get them to boot. I can confirm the workaround solves the problem, but this could really do with being fixed for a server distro.

[Nick (soapduk)]

I have this problem in 11.04. I've edited the header file and it has worked this time but I haven't since tried rebooting again.

[cristian.tarsoaga (cristian-tarsoaga)]

problem still present in 13.04, one solution is to add this to /etc/default/grub

GRUB_RECORDFAIL_TIMEOUT=2

Grub seems to be using two separate timeouts, one for clean reboot and one for 'recordfail'.
The default for recordfail case is -1 (infinite) it totally unappropriate for a (headless!?) server.

see also bug 462888

[partyzan543 (partyzan543)]

Return simply and clear GRUB-0.97!

[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.]