[Bug 1298476] Re: Trusty: inconsistent behaviour of GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=countdown

Thu Mar 5 13:07:07 UTC 2020

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** Changed in: grub2 (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Incomplete

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Title:
  Trusty: inconsistent behaviour of GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=countdown

Status in grub2 package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  For some reason GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=countdown is not being treated in a
  consistant manner on all my machines. On ASUS m4a785m(2), ASUS
  m5a97(1) and ASUS p8h61m despite having the GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE set to
  countdown and GRUB_TIMEOUT set to 10 in /etc/default/grub I was
  getting a menu. On ASUS Sabertooth, ASUS a88xpro and another ASUS
  m5a97 countdown worked as designed. After a bit of trouble shooting I
  found that the /boot/grub/grub.cfg files on the offending hardware
  were actually setting the GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE value to menu in a OS-
  PROBER block at the end of the file despite it being set to countdown
  in the /etc/default/grub file. Since the offending code was in an OS-
  PROBER block I tried setting GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER to TRUE and
  running update-grub which corrected the problem. Although this
  temporarily fixes the problem I do not think it is addressing the real
  issue which is the inconsistent setting of GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE and
  therefor inconsistant behavior even on different machines of the same
  hardware. Since ASUS m5a97(2 different machines) exibited both the
  fail and pass mode I have to think that this is not hardware specific
  but possibly something going haywire in grub_mkconfig. Here is my
  /etc/default/grub file with the problem:

  # If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
  # /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
  # For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
  #   info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

  GRUB_DEFAULT=0
  GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
  GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=countdown

  GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

  # Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
  # This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
  # the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
  #GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

  # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
  #GRUB_TERMINAL=console

  # The resolution used on graphical terminal
  # note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
  # you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
  #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

  # Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
  #GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

  # Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
  #GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

  # Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
  #GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

  # WolfLand specific changes
  export GRUB_COLOR_NORMAL="light-gray/light-gray"
  export GRUB_COLOR_HIGHLIGHT="magenta/light-gray"

  GRUB_BACKGROUND="/usr/share/backgrounds/warty-final-ubuntu-bt.png"

  Here is the "working" /etc/default/grub file:

  # If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
  # /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
  # For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
  #   info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

  GRUB_DEFAULT=0
  GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
  GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=countdown
  GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true

  GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

  # Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
  # This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
  # the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
  #GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

  # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
  #GRUB_TERMINAL=console

  # The resolution used on graphical terminal
  # note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
  # you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
  #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

  # Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
  #GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

  # Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
  #GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

  # Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
  #GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

  # WolfLand specific changes
  export GRUB_COLOR_NORMAL="light-gray/light-gray"
  export GRUB_COLOR_HIGHLIGHT="magenta/light-gray"

  GRUB_BACKGROUND="/usr/share/backgrounds/warty-final-ubuntu-bt.png"

  Note that the only difference is the GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true
  directive.

  I can try and recreate the problem and provide /boot/grub/grub.cfg
  files if needed.

  lsb-release -rd:

  Description:	Ubuntu Trusty Tahr (development branch)
  Release:	14.04 

  Grub version is 2.02~beta2-7,

  Almost forgot.. I upgraded 10 machines (9 desktop and 1 laptop) to Ubuntu 12.04.4 last night and set them up to use GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=countdown. All 10 machines worked as expected without any issue (a mixture of MSI and ASUS
  hardware) so the problem seems to be related to Trusty(e.g. 14.04) only.

  Thanks,
  B.Bogert

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