Can't get Grub menu to appear, nor the boot sequence text
Sort of going on from investigating my boot times I've just realised I seem to be unable to see/start the grub menu on my system. All I see is the BIOS boot sequence, finishing with the SATA drives being detected, then there is a blank screen (though the monitor indicates it is being driven) for several seconds followed finally by the login screen. I have just changed /etc/default/grub to:- GRUB_DEFAULT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian` GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" ... and I still see absolutely nothing between BIOS and login screen. Any ideas as to what I can do to see the grub screen? Apart from anything else if I have some sort of catastrophe it's going to be a bit difficult to get into single user/command line mode. -- Chris Green
Hi Chris, How many OSs do you have installed / boot options available in grub? If this is a fresh install for example, you might not see the grub screen because there are less than 2 or 3 I think it is, possible options, so its not shown. Edit your grub.cfg or menu.cfg (I forget what its called) and check out the menu options you should be seeing. -- James. http://www.jamesbensley.co.cc/
On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 08:52:04PM +0000, James Bensley wrote:
Hi Chris,
How many OSs do you have installed / boot options available in grub? If this is a fresh install for example, you might not see the grub screen because there are less than 2 or 3 I think it is, possible options, so its not shown.
Edit your grub.cfg or menu.cfg (I forget what its called) and check out the menu options you should be seeing.
There's quite a lot in there, eight including Memory Test etc. -- Chris Green
On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 08:58:12PM +0000, Chris Green wrote:
On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 08:52:04PM +0000, James Bensley wrote:
Hi Chris,
How many OSs do you have installed / boot options available in grub? If this is a fresh install for example, you might not see the grub screen because there are less than 2 or 3 I think it is, possible options, so its not shown.
Edit your grub.cfg or menu.cfg (I forget what its called) and check out the menu options you should be seeing.
There's quite a lot in there, eight including Memory Test etc.
I'm still stuck on this, no boot menu actually appears and neither does the text mode boot sequence show up. All I get is a long blank pause between the BIOS sequence disappearing and the GUI login screen appearing. To see if I have done anything awfully wrong with the Grub configuration I installed startupmanager, a GUI to do it for me. Still no joy, I have tried various different resolutions etc. in the Display options of startupmanager and none of them ever displays anything. I can't find anything much of use using Google either. -- Chris Green
On 16/12/11 18:41, Chris Green wrote:
I'm still stuck on this, no boot menu actually appears and neither does the text mode boot sequence show up. All I get is a long blank pause between the BIOS sequence disappearing and the GUI login screen appearing.
To see if I have done anything awfully wrong with the Grub configuration I installed startupmanager, a GUI to do it for me. Still no joy, I have tried various different resolutions etc. in the Display options of startupmanager and none of them ever displays anything.
I can't find anything much of use using Google either.
Presumably you're using Grub2? Are you running update-grub after you've changed the file? See http://linuxers.org/howto/how-configure-grub2-ubuntu-910 In any case, AFAIK, pressing Esc should reveal the menu if it's hidden. HTH. Steve
On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 12:47:27AM +0000, steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk wrote:
On 16/12/11 18:41, Chris Green wrote:
I'm still stuck on this, no boot menu actually appears and neither does the text mode boot sequence show up. All I get is a long blank pause between the BIOS sequence disappearing and the GUI login screen appearing.
To see if I have done anything awfully wrong with the Grub configuration I installed startupmanager, a GUI to do it for me. Still no joy, I have tried various different resolutions etc. in the Display options of startupmanager and none of them ever displays anything.
I can't find anything much of use using Google either.
Presumably you're using Grub2?
Yes
Are you running update-grub after you've changed the file? See http://linuxers.org/howto/how-configure-grub2-ubuntu-910
Yes
In any case, AFAIK, pressing Esc should reveal the menu if it's hidden.
No, this is the whole problem! Nothing I do makes anything appear between the BIOS display and the initial GUI login display. I now seem to have a similar issue on another system. I decided to do a completely clean install of xubuntu 11.10 on a spare system. It all went pretty smoothly and it's installed OK. However I somehow screwed up the password for the default/main account and I can't log into it except as 'guest'. So, easy I think, go into single user/recovery mode and fix the password - no chance - it has the *same* stupid problem, I can't get to the Grub menu, just blackness. In addition the xubuntu 11.10 CD doesn't have a recovery mode on it so I can't get in that way either. I'm doomed! -- Chris Green
Chris, are you sure that the master boot record on the relevant disc points to the grub installation in question? If not, you may need to run grub-install. (Usual caveats about backing up/making sure you have some other means of booting before altering master boot record apply.) (Sorry if this has already been discussed - I've come to the thread late.) -- HTH, Dan
On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 11:23:18AM +0000, Dan wrote:
Chris, are you sure that the master boot record on the relevant disc points to the grub installation in question? If not, you may need to run grub-install. (Usual caveats about backing up/making sure you have some other means of booting before altering master boot record apply.)
Now there's a possible issue. How can I check this out? My main desktop system (the one running xubuntu 11.04 where this all started) has three hard disks so it could well be that the MBR has got itself somehow awry.
(Sorry if this has already been discussed - I've come to the thread late.)
No it hasn't, and at the moment I'm desperate for any help! :-) -- Chris Green
On 14/12/11 20:15, Chris Green wrote:
Sort of going on from investigating my boot times I've just realised I seem to be unable to see/start the grub menu on my system.
All I see is the BIOS boot sequence, finishing with the SATA drives being detected, then there is a blank screen (though the monitor indicates it is being driven) for several seconds followed finally by the login screen.
I have just changed /etc/default/grub to:-
GRUB_DEFAULT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian` GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
... and I still see absolutely nothing between BIOS and login screen.
Any ideas as to what I can do to see the grub screen? Apart from anything else if I have some sort of catastrophe it's going to be a bit difficult to get into single user/command line mode.
You need to comment out the line GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 then run sudo update-grub hth Nev
participants (5)
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Chris Green -
Dan -
James Bensley -
nev young -
steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk