Displaying Grub Menu

I have an Acer AOA 110 with 16GB SSD

There is a small 'backup' partition with Linpus installed on the remaining 12.5GB

I intend to partition the HD for a dual boot system but am struggling getting to grips with the grub.conf file being used to the menu.lst file used by Debian.

I was under the impression that the grub.conf and menu.lst were the same but if I # the hiddenmenu item and alter timeout to 10 on reboot I get no screen menu, the machine appears to hang until I press escape (perhaps other keys also free it) at which point it boots correctly.

Is there something else I am missing.

Geffers

 

On my systems, menu.lst is a symlink to grub.conf; both names refer to the same file. Here's the top of my grub.conf file (30 sec timeout; defaults to booting the Fedora Rawhide entry shown)

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,1)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda14
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=30
### splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
### hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
color cyan/blue white/green

title   Rawhide 2.6.29.4-167 on sda11
root    (hd0,10)
kernel  /vmlinuz54 ro root=LABEL=Rawhide selinux=0
initrd  /initrd54

 

Mine is as follows;

Code:

default=0
timeout=0
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu

title Linpus Linux Lite
        rootnoverify (hd0,1)
	kernel /boot/bzImage ro root=LABEL=linpus vga=0x311 splash=silent loglevel=1 console=tty1 quiet resume=swap:/dev/sda3 nolapic_timer
  	initrd /boot/initrd-splash-smallnew.img

title Linpus Linux Lite(rescue)
        rootnoverify (hd0,1)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz rw root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=128000 vga=0x315 init=/linuxrc quiet root_lp=/dev/sda2 d2d_lp=/dev/sda1 swap_lp=/dev/sda3 
  	initrd /boot/initrd.bin

Timeout I alter to 10 and hiddenmenu I prefix with # but still no menu on reboot and despite the 10 second timeout the computer appears to hung until I press escape.

Geffers

 

I've long since forgotten why the ### prefix for the hidden menu line, but you might try it; I definitely see the menu. Is there anything above the lines you showed? I know Ubuntu puts a bunch of crap there.

 

I suspect Linpus or Acer has modified grub, since commenting out hiddenmenu and adding a delay doesn't work.
I finally just installed grub from a RIP-Linux recovery cd to get it to work properly.
BTW, finally dumped Linpus in favor of my standard Slackware 12.1 install, which is on my other machines.

 

I'm quite warming to Linpus, it is very quick to load.

Didn't solve my GRUB menu using Linpus, divided up my SSD and installed ubuntu, it now uses the Ubuntu grub menu which displays fine so I can easily choose Linpus.

Geffers

 

You don't have to care about Linpus' grub menu. When you install a dual boot, say with Ubuntu, choose custom install and the SSD's root level as mountpoint for the new system. From then on, your AA1 will refer to the new system's grub menu on boot. So you can do all your grub menu editing on the newly installed OS. It works like this on mine since a couple of month.

 

Thanks, much easier but strange why the Linpus system didn't work though.

Geffers

 

Geffers

I just had the same problem. It appears that the cursor /could/ be displayed, but no text in the menu appears. It looks like the bios level video isn't initialized properly (or, rather, appears to not be set into mode3). Which could end up speeding up bringing up the X server, but definitely causes problems with selecting a boot OS.

Sorry, I don't actually have an answer, short of installing another GRUB loader.

 

Might go along those lines but as I haven't done it for a while I have forgotten how to install a dedicated GRUB partition.

I will read up on the links.

Geffers

 

They should be the same. Don't ask me why I did it, the reason is long-lost to antiquity, but in my grub.con file on my desktop PC, I have ### hiddenmenu and the menu appears.

 

Geffers

Ok, if you VERY gutsy, just do:

sudo yum ugrade grub

The installed grub is 0.97-19, and this will put in 0.97-33.1.

I HAVEN'T done it, because I want a full backup before I try. Since the default boot is /boot (normal for fedora), the only thing you may want to do is:

cd /boot/grub
sudo ln -s grub.conf menu.lst

*before* doing the upgrade (because this is the only "non-standard" thing I can see).

Hopefully, that will give you a boot menu. I have been editing the grub.conf file, and changing the "default" line to select kernels (eg. I built a kernel for use with powertop). If the kernel doesn't boot, I use a USB boot to Fedora 10 to fix the grub.conf. Which works, but is a bit kludgy. I would much rather have a kernel selection menu, but haven't done a complete backup in a month or two.

 

oddly you need to set 'colors' (SIC) so that you can see it
e.g.
color cyan/blue white/blue

 

As Linpus is very easy to reload I decided to follow your recommendation, still no menu :cry:

Never mind, reading the excellent GRUB link at http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p15.html#root I have a GRUB boot USB key so can do it that way so can ignore the Fedora type one that doesn't appear to work and use the debian version that does.

Geffers

 

I gave up with whatever acer installed.
I got a USB systemrescueCD and installed a new grub from scratch ... work just like grub everywhere else
so I guess the acer one is a modified version

(http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page)

... from memory (so take care)

1: boot USB
2: mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/custom
3: grub-install /dev/sda --root-directory=/mnt/custom
4: grub (to start grub shell)
5: root (hd0,0)
6: setup (hd0)
7: exit & reboot