Grub behaves non-deterministic

[Rashkae]

Josef Wolf wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> In Karmic, I have following options in /etc/default/grub:
> 
>   GRUB_DEFAULT=0
>   GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
>   GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
>   GRUB_TIMEOUT=2
>   GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
>   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
>   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
> 
> This is pretty much the default setting from the installation. With this
> setting, I would expect grub to show the menu for 2 seconds and then proceed
> the boot with the default unless the user selected a different entry.
> 
> What I actually see is:
> 
>  1. grub shows the menu, but never continues the boot unless I select
>     some entry manually
>  2. grub don't show any menu at all and continues boot immediately.
> 
> It seems to be random, which of those two options grub choose. I have never
> seen such behavior with grub-legacy.
> 
> BTW: Karmic is the only OS on this box.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 

GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0

causes grub to boot right away with no menu.  I think it gets made the
default like that if you only have 1 operating system.  Comment it out
to see the menu with a timeout.

Grub2 knows if it fails to boot for some reason (or maybe it happens if
the shutdown isn't clean?) and on the next boot attempt, the user is
brought to a menu with no timeout.