[SOLVED]Boot menu gone

monsm · Guru Joined: 26 Sep 2007 Posts: 467 Location: London, UK

Hi,
This isn't a new installation, it has been working fine. I have just updated my system and somehow messed it up a bit.

I have Grub and my menu.lst file has 4 options in it with the default being 2.6.25-r7 kernel booting into Gnome.
My menu.lst specify a 7 second delay in booting so I can have time to consider any of the other options. However lately I no longer get the chance to see the menu and pressing ESC have no effect. My NewTux splash screen comes up and the boot goes straight into the default option. The boot messages also goes on top of the splash screen. If that's not enough, it also no longer switches to the Gnome login screen. I have to press CTRL+ALT+F7 myself to get to it.

All seem to work ok, its just a bit annoying having it this way. What can I do? Re-Install Grub? If so, how to re-install Grub (a while since I messed with that part).

I have a separate issue with my Python installation at the moment, but I think that is a separate issue. Grub and the boot sequence doesn't use Python I guess?

thanks,
Mons

massimo · Veteran Joined: 22 Jun 2003 Posts: 1226

The location of the splash image has been changed with the latest stable grub package..., hence either comment out the splash line within the grub.conf or change it to the correct location.
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monsm · Guru Joined: 26 Sep 2007 Posts: 467 Location: London, UK

Thanks for the reply, taken me a while to get time to start looking into this again.

Commented out the splash in the grub.conf file. I can see the menu again now.

How about the second problem of the booting to the Gnome login screen (and not having to press CTRL+ALT+F7)? Could that be caused by the new grub version too?

Mons

NathanZachary · Moderator Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 2605

You may want to try re-merging gdm. It may be related to the grub issue, but I wouldn't think so.
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d2_racing · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 11:55 am Post subject:

I know that there a bug with Grub, because on certain event, you lose your splashscreen for no apparent reason.

So, reinstall grub and double check your /boot/grub/grub.conf

b1f30 · Apprentice Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 262 Location: USA

My GRUB just plain no longer appears. I get a black screen, at which, I can hit <ENTER>, and it boots the recent kernel as it should, but I get no selection menu. Not using bootsplash/framebuffer. I've tried re-installing GRUB manually, still no go.

EDIT: I can't spell. It's too early.
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d2_racing · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 3:54 pm Post subject:

Plz double check if you have this file :

monsm · Guru Joined: 26 Sep 2007 Posts: 467 Location: London, UK

I had to run Grub and re-install the MBR after installing a new grub version. Also installed grub-splashes, so got a nice new splash there now.

The problem of having to press CTRL+ALT+F7 in order to get to the login screen after the boot remains. I'll try to rebuild the kernel later after updating fbsplashutils and installing a new theme.

Mons

d2_racing · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 12:54 pm Post subject:

If you find the problem, just post the solution, because I saw that problem too last month, but the thread is dead.

monsm · Guru Joined: 26 Sep 2007 Posts: 467 Location: London, UK

Been struggling a bit over the weekend with the second problem.
Found my new 2.6.25 kernel wasn't configured correctly
This wiki article:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/Fbsplash#Configure_the_Kernel

It mention "Framebuffer console decorations" and that wasn't enabled in my kernel. Tried to specify a gensplash theme rather than setting it as default. Didn't work though.

I did notice that if I, in grub.conf, remove theme and set splash=verbose the boot continue correctly and goes to the gnome login screen when completed. So my prime suspect is still the splash screen. I'll try again.
At the moment (far as I know) I am using the old vesa stuff. How about the uvesfb, is that the new one, and should I try that instead?

d2_racing · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 4:22 pm Post subject:

If you don't need extra feature, VESAFB is ok. But if you want to use all the new stuff, then use UVESAFB.

agent_jdh · Veteran Joined: 08 Aug 2002 Posts: 1783 Location: Scotland

The problem with the grub ebuild not copying the splash image into /boot/grub has been fixed (without a version bump, but that's another of my issues with Gentoo). Re-emerging grub now with emerge --oneshot grub fixed it here for me last night. Don't know when it was fixed. All is well now. On my server as well, so it doesn't get rebooted very often - text during kernel loading was completely screwed up until it set the font during boot ... pretty annoying, I thought I had a hardware problem.
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d2_racing · Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 1:00 am Post subject:

In fact, I tought that I have erased my /boot partition

monsm · Guru Joined: 26 Sep 2007 Posts: 467 Location: London, UK

So many problems recently.

Was trying to change from the old vesafb to uvesafb, hoping that would solve the splash problem. But have hit another problem instead:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-5183134.html#5183134

Mons

d2_racing · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:44 am Post subject:

Hi, you should run this on your box :

monsm · Guru Joined: 26 Sep 2007 Posts: 467 Location: London, UK

Solved problem with Portage. Turned out to be a DNS lookup thing with my ISP.

Also installed uvesafb. Makes no difference though. I get the splash but it still get overwritten and I still have to press ctrl+alt+f7 to get the gnome login. Doesn't look like quiet/silent works any more. This is my Grub kernel line:

monsm · Guru Joined: 26 Sep 2007 Posts: 467 Location: London, UK

Finally my NewTux quiet/silent splash theme is up and running again and no ctrl+alt+f7 is needed any more.
I managed to make it work using uvesafb, like this: