[Bug 978994] Re: GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT is badly documented

[Jarno Suni]

It is explained at 'GRUB_DEFAULT' what is the default. At least in
Xenial and later the documentation states:

'GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT'
     Wait this many seconds before displaying the menu.  If <ESC> is
     pressed during that time, display the menu and wait for input
     according to 'GRUB_TIMEOUT'.  If a hotkey associated with a menu
     entry is pressed, boot the associated menu entry immediately.  If
     the timeout expires before either of these happens, display the
     menu for the number of seconds specified in 'GRUB_TIMEOUT' before
     booting the default entry.

     If you set 'GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT', you should also set
     'GRUB_TIMEOUT=0' so that the menu is not displayed at all unless
     <ESC> is pressed.

     This option is unset by default, and is deprecated in favour of the
     less confusing 'GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=countdown' or
     'GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden'.


** Changed in: grub2 (Ubuntu)
       Status: Confirmed => Fix Released

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/978994

Title:
  GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT is badly documented

Status in grub2 package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  $ info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

  `GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT'
       Wait this many seconds for a key to be pressed before displaying
       the menu.  If no key is pressed during that time, boot
       immediately.  Unset by default.

  The documentation above does not state what the default actually is. I
  read it as implied that when GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT is unset the system
  will boot immediately. What it doesn't say is the important bit: when
  this feature is unset (default), the menu will be displayed, and when
  it is set, the menu will not be displayed.

  From https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2 :

  "The default behavior is to hide the menu if only one operating system
  is present. If a user with only Ubuntu wishes to display the menu,
  place a # symbol at the start of this line to disable the hidden menu
  feature. "

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
  Package: grub2-common 1.99-21ubuntu2
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-22.35-generic 3.2.14
  Uname: Linux 3.2.0-22-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.0-0ubuntu5
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Wed Apr 11 15:59:04 2012
  ProcEnviron:
   LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
   TERM=xterm
   PATH=(custom, user)
   LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: grub2
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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