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Using Lucid, in the form of Turnkey Core. I'm setting up Grub to boot into Windows by default, with an option to boot into Ubuntu as a recovery mode, with a script to restore a default image to the Windows partition.

The idea is to have a splash screen which tells the user to hold Shift for recovery options, otherwise it'll just boot to Windows.

Unfortunately, while I can get my splash screen to work, it doesn't show up until I press a key -- doesn't seem to matter which key, as arrow keys, letters, and numbers all seem to work. At that point, the splash screen shows up and displays at the top left corner -- this appears to be the GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT, and the number updates every time I press a key; otherwise, it remains static until the actual countdown has finished. (I guess this indicates that it is also not showing the countdown, which it should be doing, as GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET is set to false.) Everything functions normally from this point: If I hold Shift, the menu is displayed, otherwise it boots into Windows.

Got the menu to be hidden in multi-OS mode by using #11 here.

Any ideas?

Clarification: My issue is that the splash screen does not appear until I press a key. I need the splash screen to show up on its own.

Contents of /etc/default/grub and /boot/grub/grub.cfg available here

Tom Brossman
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jdw
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  • 1. Why turnkey? Is there a virtual appliance for windows image recovery? 2. I didn't understand what is the exact question. I don't think you can set a specific key (e.g. only Shift) to which grub opens up. There's GRUB_DEFAULT_BUTTON ( http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#Simple-configuration ) but I think that is for power-on buttons pre-defined by the computer vendor ( http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#Vendor-power_002don-keys ). 3. Did you fix what you asked for or are you still facing problems? – Savvas Radevic Dec 29 '11 at 17:20
  • No, I want the menu to come up when I hold "Shift." That's fine. The trouble is that the splash screen *doesn't* show up until I press some key -- any key. Without the splash screen, there's no way to prompt the user to open the Grub menu. As for Turnkey, no, there's not an appliance for recovery -- Turnkey Core is just the most minimal preconfigured distro I could find with the necessary tools. I'm pretty sure it's not causing the problem, but I can use something else if it turns out to be the issue. – jdw Dec 29 '11 at 17:35
  • Huh? Grub doesn't support a splash screen. – psusi Dec 29 '11 at 19:13
  • https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Hidden -- the documentation here appears to suggest it does, and should show up even if the menu is hidden. – jdw Dec 29 '11 at 20:08
  • try adding more than one boot options. Can you add the content of files `/boot/grub/grub.cfg` and `/etc/default/grub` to your question? It will probably shed more light. – Savvas Radevic Dec 29 '11 at 22:42
  • Added a link into the original post for those. GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT is set to quiet right now, but the behavior is the same if it's left blank, set to splash, or set to quiet splash. Also tested with a single OS in a VM -- same behavior. I'm downloading 11.10 right now to see if it's just something funky with Turnkey. – jdw Dec 29 '11 at 22:48

1 Answers1

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Posted as the answer on behalf of OP:

After receiving a suggestion to ignore the splash screen entirely, and just use nested Grub menus, I decided to give that a shot. In the process, I found out that I can create a Grub menu which has a timeout of 0 and automatically loads another Grub via configfile, and, in so doing, actually triggers the splash screen on the second menu. So, grub.cfg now contains this, with default set to 1 and the timer set to 0:

menuentry "Other menu" { configfile (hd0,1)/boot/grub/othergrub.cfg }

When it loads the second Grub, the splash screen from the second Grub loads up just fine, too -- no keypresses required.

Weird workaround, but it does the trick.

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Tom Brossman
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