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Bug 617155

Summary: grub has redrawing issues when the title text is longer than the screen width
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Reporter: Lubos Kocman <lkocman>
Component: grubAssignee: Peter Jones <pjones>
Status: CLOSED CANTFIX QA Contact: Release Test Team <release-test-team-automation>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: 6.0CC: atodorov, byount, ddumas, mishu, plyons, rwilliam
Target Milestone: rcKeywords: Reopened, RHELNAK
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2012-08-14 13:17:36 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On:    
Bug Blocks: 705163, 782183, 840685    
Attachments:
Description Flags
menu.lst
none
short title in grub - no line wrap
none
long title in grub - line wrap happens none

Description Lubos Kocman 2010-07-22 11:01:56 UTC
Created attachment 433666 [details]
menu.lst

Description of problem:

Hello I found that when you'll install new version of kernel (=> new item is going to be append in menu.lst) grub is having redrawing issue while hiddenmenu is set

Each second of specified timeout new line is being written on the screen except of simple redrawing first line.

So it looks like 

Boooting Red Hat ... in 5 seconds
Boooting Red Hat ... in 4 seconds
Boooting Red Hat ... in 3 seconds
Boooting Red Hat ... in 2 seconds
Boooting Red Hat ... in 1 seconds


If you'll rewrite grub into the problem seems to be fixed.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

grub-0.97-65.el6.x86_64

How reproducible:

100%

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Make a clean install of something like RHEL6.0 20100715
2. update system => so new kernel will be installed
3. reboot the system
  
Actual results:

Grub is draws new line each second in specified timeout.

Expected results:

Grub should rewrite the line each time

Additional info:

Comment 2 RHEL Program Management 2010-07-22 11:18:12 UTC
This issue has been proposed when we are only considering blocker
issues in the current Red Hat Enterprise Linux release.

** If you would still like this issue considered for the current
release, ask your support representative to file as a blocker on
your behalf. Otherwise ask that it be considered for the next
Red Hat Enterprise Linux release. **

Comment 3 Dave Cantrell 2010-07-28 19:34:48 UTC
Moving this one to 6.1 proposed list.

Comment 5 RHEL Program Management 2010-10-01 20:04:56 UTC
Development Management has reviewed and declined this request.  You may appeal
this decision by reopening this request.

Comment 8 Peter Jones 2011-08-12 18:53:16 UTC
I can't reproduce this with grub-0.97-70.el6 and kernel-2.6.32-188.el6.x86_64 . Is there something special about your configuration I won't see on a default install?

Comment 9 Lubos Kocman 2011-08-15 07:00:48 UTC
Hello Peter

the deal is just to update kernel, so an additional record will be written in grub.conf

If it does not appear any more then it was probably fixed upstream.


Lubos

Comment 10 Peter Jones 2011-08-15 19:09:51 UTC
Those steps do not replicate the issue for me. Is it possible you've just got a label that's long enough to cause it to line-wrap?

Comment 11 Lubos Kocman 2011-08-16 10:59:43 UTC
Negative. It was repetition of the same line each second. grub setup(hd0) was a workaround.

Proposing as close->current release.

Comment 12 Dave Cantrell 2011-08-16 14:49:58 UTC
CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE per comment #11.

Comment 13 Bryan Yount 2012-05-01 21:38:59 UTC
Re-opening this bugzilla as the issue is not resolved. The problem occurs here whenever you have a grub title entry that is longer than the amount of text that can fit on a single line.

So, while this fits on a single line:
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux (2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64)

This, does not:
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (2.6.32-220.13.1.el6.x86_64)

Whenever you have this much text, the line word-wraps and causes the next line to be drawn below the original line instead of overwriting it. This causes the following behavior:

Booting Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (<kernel_version>) in 5...
Booting Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (<kernel_version>) in 4...
Booting Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (<kernel_version>) in 3...
Booting Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (<kernel_version>) in 2...
Booting Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (<kernel_version>) in 1...

Comment 16 Peter Jones 2012-07-12 18:22:32 UTC
(In reply to comment #13)
> Re-opening this bugzilla as the issue is not resolved. The problem occurs
> here whenever you have a grub title entry that is longer than the amount of
> text that can fit on a single line.

This is *not* the case described above. If the problem is that the text is too long for the screen, fix the text. Certainly don't re-open an unrelated bug.

Comment 17 Bryan Yount 2012-07-12 18:35:39 UTC
(In reply to comment #16)
> (In reply to comment #13)
> > Re-opening this bugzilla as the issue is not resolved. The problem occurs
> > here whenever you have a grub title entry that is longer than the amount of
> > text that can fit on a single line.
> 
> This is *not* the case described above. If the problem is that the text is
> too long for the screen, fix the text. Certainly don't re-open an unrelated
> bug.

I disagree, Peter. This is still an issue. Grub needs to overwrite the first line always instead of wordwrapping and printing on the new line. This issue is not resolved.

Comment 18 Bryan Yount 2012-07-12 20:08:10 UTC
Created attachment 597895 [details]
short title in grub - no line wrap

[Reopening bug. Issue still exists. Original comment on bug didn't understand the full issue. This comment is the actual issue.]


Description of problem:
When you install a version of the kernel that causes the "title" entry in the grub menu to be longer than the width of the screen, grub does not redraw the countdown on the same line as it should.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
grub-0.97-77.el6.x86_64


How reproducible:
100%


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Make a clean install of something like RHEL6.0 20100715
2. update system => so new kernel will be installed
3. reboot the system
  
Actual results:
Each second of specified timeout new line is being written on the screen except of simple redrawing first line.

So it looks like:

Boooting Red Hat ... in 5 seconds
Boooting Red Hat ... in 4 seconds
Boooting Red Hat ... in 3 seconds
Boooting Red Hat ... in 2 seconds
Boooting Red Hat ... in 1 seconds


Expected results:
Grub should rewrite the line each time at the top of the screen

So at the end of the countdown, it should look like:
Boooting Red Hat ... in 0 seconds

Comment 19 Bryan Yount 2012-07-12 20:10:33 UTC
Created attachment 597896 [details]
long title in grub - line wrap happens

Comment 21 Dave Cantrell 2012-08-14 13:17:36 UTC
From Peter Jones:

----------
Fundamentally what they're asking for in a grub fix is to make it not
behave like a terminal, which is at odds with how grub's output code is
designed to function. I think we could probably compute how long we're
displaying and figure out if the line wrapped and move the cursor to
(hopefully) the right place before re-displaying.

So while I think it's probably possible to address this in grub, but I
really don't think it's the right thing to do.  At best it's kicking the
can down the road, and even then it'll presenting a bad user experience.
If we want to do a good job, we need to be using a label that's shorter
- with the one that's triggering the bug, the label for what you're
booting is more than half of the screen width.  It's kind of absurd.

We can't keep making the labels longer and longer - what will we do when
the label doesn't fit within the menu page?  Just make it wrap?  That
will be ugly and terrible.  Not displaying it isn't any better.
----------

I'm setting devel_ack- and marking this bug as CLOSED CANTFIX.  The grub labels simply need to be shorter.

Comment 22 Bryan Yount 2012-08-23 19:21:33 UTC
(In reply to comment #21)
> I'm setting devel_ack- and marking this bug as CLOSED CANTFIX.  The grub
> labels simply need to be shorter.

So do I need to open an RFE to have the labels always be shorter or is this something we need to discuss with RHEL PM since it's more of a broad request?

Comment 23 Dave Cantrell 2012-08-24 12:52:06 UTC
(In reply to comment #22)
> (In reply to comment #21)
> > I'm setting devel_ack- and marking this bug as CLOSED CANTFIX.  The grub
> > labels simply need to be shorter.
> 
> So do I need to open an RFE to have the labels always be shorter or is this
> something we need to discuss with RHEL PM since it's more of a broad request?

It's not really an RFE, it's really just a bug in the component that provides the text for those labels.  It's too long, needs to be shorter.

Comment 24 Bryan Yount 2012-08-24 18:26:03 UTC
(In reply to comment #23)
> It's not really an RFE, it's really just a bug in the component that
> provides the text for those labels.  It's too long, needs to be shorter.

Opened bug #851706 to have the grub title strings shortened