[Bug 872244] Re: grub2 recordfail logic prevents headless system from rebooting after power outage

[memartin]

FYI: The Ubuntu community proposes the use of a grub2 error script to
deactivate the recordfail logic, preventing from problems in
RAID/LVM/btrfs environments. I find that a somewhat "cleaner" approach
than to edit 00_header directly, whose changes might be overwritten by
upgrades. The error script replaces the according functions by hollow
routines.

Here's the link to the workaround/solution from the german ubuntuusers wiki:
http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/GRUB_2/Skripte#Fehlerskript-LVM-RAID

Put this as an executable script under /etc/grub.d/02_kill-save_env, do
an update-grub, and you should be set up. At least in my case it seems
to have worked (can't say exactly, because I used the fix on a headless
system and cannot debug completely _why_ it works now :-)

Cheerz, Martin

PS: I strictly vote for a server version/mode of grub2 in Ubuntu. We (I)
don't need recordfail, recovery, os-prober or pretty gui there, and it's
cumbersome to strip down the grub2 functionality monster to a sweet
server-compliant puppy. I really like the monster on desktops, but IMO
it bears too much potential to break servers "by default".

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/872244

Title:
  grub2 recordfail logic prevents headless system from rebooting after
  power outage

Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  With the move to grub2 I recently discovered that my headless Natty
  server running as a NAS device will not reboot following a power
  failure.  I was able to track this down to the behavior of the
  'recordfail' logic in grub2.  This logic prevents grub from booting
  following an event such as a power failure.  The system boots to the
  grub2 menu and waits with no timeout (-1).

  While this feature may be completely appropriate for an attended
  desktop system, there should be an optional override for this behavior
  in the '/etc/default/grub' defaults file so that systems (such as
  headless ones) that need to boot following such a failure can boot
  without intervention.  I was able to work around the problem by
  commenting the following lines in /etc/grub.d/00_header

  #if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
   # set timeout=-1
  #else
    set timeout=10
  #fi

  An optional grub2 default parameter that emulates this logic in the
  defaults would be a nice addition so people who want the "always boot"
  behavior don't have to hack the grub scripts by hand.

  Additional info:
  jheck at twilightzone:/etc/grub.d$ lsb_release -rd
  Description:    Ubuntu 11.04
  Release:        11.04

  jheck at twilightzone:/etc/grub.d$ apt-cache policy grub2
  grub2:
    Installed: (none)
    Candidate: 1.99~rc1-13ubuntu3
    Version table:
       1.99~rc1-13ubuntu3 0
          500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty/universe amd64 Packages

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