Description of problem: After a serial console install (virt), unable to access the grub menu to change boot args. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): * grub-0.97-64.fc13.i686 How reproducible: * Everytime I try to enter grub after a virt console=ttyS0 install Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install a system using "console=ttyS0 serial" (typical with virt). 2. After install reboot, and attempt to hit a modified key to access the grub menu (as has been done in previous releases). Actual results: Guest installation complete... restarting guest. Connected to domain vguest1 Escape character is ^] Press any key to continue. Press any key to continue. Press any key to continue. <press 'e' key> The menu screen flashes and quickly continues booting Expected results: I should be able to access the grub menu to provide custom boot args if needed. Additional info: * I've tried addition keys, including <space>, <enter>, <shift>, <esc> (note that modified keys don't work in serial console like they do when booting normally). sh-4.1# cat /mnt/sysimage/boot/grub/grub.conf # grub.conf generated by anaconda # # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file # NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that # all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg. # root (hd0,0) # kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_test1115-lv_root # initrd /initrd-[generic-]version.img #boot=/dev/vda default=0 timeout=0 serial --unit=0 --speed=9600 terminal --timeout=5 serial console title Fedora (2.6.33-0.51.rc8.git6.fc13.i686.PAE) root (hd0,0) kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.33-0.51.rc8.git6.fc13.i686.PAE ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_test1115-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_test1115/lv_root rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us console=ttyS0 rhgb quiet initrd /initramfs-2.6.33-0.51.rc8.git6.fc13.i686.PAE.img
Reproduced after a f13-alpha-rc4 install by serial console.
= Steps to reproduce = 1. Initiate a virt-install using only the serial output # virt-install --name AUTOQA --ram 768 --vcpus 1 --os-type linux --os-variant fedora13 --location http://dell-t5400.test.redhat.com/cblr/links/F-13-Beta-TC1-x86_64 --accelerate --nographics --disk path=/var/lib/libvirt/images/AUTOQA0.img,size=6,bus=ide -x "serial console=ttyS0" 2. Proceed with install 3. After install and reboot, attempt to enter the grub menu
Reproduced on bare metal system. So while virt may make it easier to reproduce the failure, the problem doesn't seem specific to the virt environment. I add the following lines to /boot/grub/grub.conf serial --unit=0 --speed=9600 terminal --timeout=5 serial console And wait to see the prompt on the serial and physical consoles: Press any key to continue. Press any key to continue. Press any key to continue. * FAIL - when prompted, press the <Up> or <Down> key on the serial console when offered the boot menu. The system boots immediately and does not offer the grub menu over serial console. * PASS - when prompted, press the <Up> or <Down> key on the physical console. The system correctly shows the grub menu and allows for editing the grub boot entries.
Confirmed with pjones (development) and jkeating (release engineering) that it is acceptable to move this issue to F13Blocker as it does not current block any Beta release criteria.
F-12 serial console installs set a grub.conf timeout=5 F-13 serial console installs set a grub.conf timeout=0 Thanks to bcl for the tip, that seems to be the trigger for the problem.
This bug was discussed at the 2010/04/30 blocker review meeting. It was agreed that this is not significant enough to be a release blocker, so we are dropping it to F13Target. However, since the fix is likely to be simple and non-invasive, we're happy to accept the fix if it's available in time (before Tuesday 2010/05/04). -- Fedora Bugzappers volunteer triage team https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers
This may be a bug in grub itself that it doesn't honor the terminal timeout, but a patch was sent to work around this by defaulting the global grub timeout to 5 when serial is in play.
Confirmed fix using anaconda-13.39-1 + http://jlaska.fedorapeople.org/updates-568528.img Safe to mark as VERIFIED/CLOSED once anaconda-13.40-1 is available
anaconda-13.40-1.fc13 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 13. http://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/anaconda-13.40-1.fc13
anaconda-13.40-1.fc13 has been pushed to the Fedora 13 testing repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report. If you want to test the update, you can install it with su -c 'yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update anaconda'. You can provide feedback for this update here: http://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/anaconda-13.40-1.fc13
anaconda-13.40-1.fc13 has been pushed to the Fedora 13 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.