[SOLVED] Having some problems with Grub 2

[oxf]

Hi,

I'm having a few issues with Grub 2 in Karmic. Before I go into details two real basic questions:

If I re-install Grub 2 from the live CD should that reset all the personalisations such as as splash screen and colours in the Grub splash to default? In my case they are not resetting. I would expect them to revert to the default black/white you get when initially installing the OS

And.. anyone else experienced the Grub timeout to be a lot less than its supposed to be? e.g. the default timeout setting of 5 seconds is more like 2 or 3 in reality, and when I set my prefered value to 2 seconds it results in being about 1/4 sec or so!

Thanks

[oxf]

OK I've been looking at this and reading documentation etc. The personalisations are stored in:
/etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme
So I'm going to assume this wont be changed when when I reinstall Grub2 from the CD. Correct me if I'm wrong..

However, whats really driving me nuts is the issue with the countdown timer. I've checked in Startup Manager and have it set to 2 seconds but its only there for a fraction of a sec. Any ideas whats going on?

[glennzo]

I've never used the GUI to make changes to Grub2. The timeout can be altered in the file /etc/default/grub. There is a line that reads GRUB_TIMEOUT=xx where xx is the time in seconds. Change that to what you want, save and exit. Issue sudo update-grub from the command line. Reboot to see if the change takes effect.

[oxf]

I've never used the GUI to make changes to Grub2. The timeout can be altered in the file /etc/default/grub. There is a line that reads GRUB_TIMEOUT=xx where xx is the time in seconds. Change that to what you want, save and exit. Issue sudo update-grub from the command line. Reboot to see if the change takes effect.

Thanks! I'll check that again but I recall it was changed in there too. The changes do take effect but whats happening is whatever value I select for Timeout when I boot it turns out to be much less.
eg two seconds results in a fraction of a second. This all started yesterday after I made some changes to Splash colors, before it was fine, and cant understand why reinstalling Grub to won't fix it!

[MikeTbob]

I had this problem a few years back and I never did figure out what the problem was, I just assumed that grub was actually pausing for the allotted timeout but it probably started the timeout count sooner than I thought it did, which made it seem like the count was wrong. My solution was to increase the timeout to about 6.
I know it's an ugly work around but it should work.

[ptkobe]

This is a good page to check
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

[oxf]

I had this problem a few years back and I never did figure out what the problem was, I just assumed that grub was actually pausing for the allotted timeout but it probably started the timeout count sooner than I thought it did, which made it seem like the count was wrong. My solution was to increase the timeout to about 6.
I know it's an ugly work around but it should work.

Yes I set it to 4 secs now which gives me much less than 4 but about what I need around 2 secs.

Now after looking around on my system I don't believe it has anything to with the color problem and may have been there all along with the Timer set high. Strange thing is that it only occurs on one of my PC's

This is a good page to check
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

Yes I have that, quite useful but doesnt deal with my problem.

I will now post the real problem in a new thread...

[ptkobe]

oxf:
I have
GRUB_TIMEOUT="5"
and it waits for about 5 secs, indeed

Note: Don't know why its ="5" and not plain =5, it was that way. I didn't change it, that is.

I have a non-graphical boot, but I can imagine that graphics may be eating almost 2 secs of the countdown, so when you really see the menu it almost end.

If you wish, try to set GRUB_TIMEOUT to 15, and see if it shows for about 13 secs. That will tell us something.

Or try it with a non-graphical conf.

Regards
Luis

[ptkobe]

Strange thing is that it only occurs on one of my PC's

What are the differences?

[oxf]

What are the differences?

Well on the other one, my laptop, if I set the timeout = 5 the splash screen really is displayed for about 5 seconds. However, on this one, desktop, its much less! I guess it one of those strange things we never know the answer to. Anyway I've set timeout =4 which gives me about 2 seconds which is what I want.