Bug 634894 - boot failure 2.6.34.6-54 + grub menu is hidden = system appears unusable
Summary: boot failure 2.6.34.6-54 + grub menu is hidden = system appears unusable
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: grub
Version: 13
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
low
urgent
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Lubomir Rintel
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2010-09-17 10:00 UTC by Phil V
Modified: 2011-06-28 12:43 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2011-06-28 12:43:20 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Phil V 2010-09-17 10:00:35 UTC
[not sure whether grub is the right component]

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
For what it's worth, the new kernel is kernel-2.6.34.6-54.fc13.x86_64

How reproducible: 100%.


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install Fedora 13 x86_64 by USB or DVD
2. Reboot and complete installation. Rebooting is successful and repeatable
3. yum install yum-plugin-fastestmirror.noarch yum-plugin-keys yum-plugin-remove-with-leaves
yum update yum*
yum erase  m17n* ibus* smc*    # I think these are not needed 
yum update 

 
Actual results:

On reboot, a blinking cursor in the upper left. 
Screen blanks once, the blinking cursor in the upper left returns.
Keyboard lights turn off and the keyboard is unresponsive.
GRUB boot menu does not appear.

Additional info: ASUS A8V Deluxe MB, AMD Athlon 64 3400+, 3GB RAM

Comment 1 Phil V 2010-09-17 10:08:11 UTC
If the live USB is then used to boot the machine, and then the 
"boot from local disk" option is chosen
after some seconds of unsuccessful boot attempt

there is a message about 4 lines down, asking for a bootable drive. (can't recall the message exactly)

GNOME "Disk Utility" reports no filesystem problems on the boot partition.

Comment 2 Phil V 2010-09-19 21:42:50 UTC
It is a stunningly BAD design decision to add 

"hiddenmenu" 

to grub.conf 

How is a user to know that pressing escape  --- at the right moment --- 
will make the menu appear so then you can choose a working boot option instead of the default broken kernel. (2.6.34.6-54.fc13.x86_64)


This design decision has turned a minor problem -- one bad kernel -- into a waste of many hours of reinstalling and troubleshooting.


How do we tell yum to skip a particular kernel version, or at least to stick with a working one?

Comment 3 Jon Masters 2010-09-20 19:45:34 UTC
It is indeed an unfortunate design to hide the grub menu in the interests of "flicker free" mode switching. We should be showing the grub menu in any case, and people can live with a flicker. One of the first things I do after installing Fedora, in addition to disabling the graphical boot, is to fix this config.

Comment 4 Phil V 2010-09-22 19:00:47 UTC
On my monitor (an Acer AL1951 LCD), I still get the flicker anyway,
so it's not clear that there is any advantage.

(I can appreciate that, IF a system was being booted every time with a 
   constant, 
   reliable 
kernel, there would be a value in hiding the grub menu.)

Comment 5 Phil V 2010-09-22 19:06:34 UTC
kernel 2.6.34.7-56.fc13.x86_64  and
kernel 2.6.34.6-54.fc13.x86_64

fail to boot on
ASUS A8V Deluxe MB, AMD Athlon 64 3400+, 3GB RAM

However, my laptop seems to run great on them.

2.6.33.3-85.fc13.x86_64

As far as I know, yum-available kernels in updates prior to 2.6.34.6-54 worked just fine.

Comment 6 Phil V 2010-09-22 19:27:10 UTC
Jon: You wrote: One of the first things I do after installing Fedora, in addition to disabling the graphical boot, is to fix this config.

How do you disable graphical boot? I've found competing ideas online:

/etc/inittab
change id:5:initdefault:
to id:3:initdefault: 

or

/etc/sysconfig/init from GRAPHICAL=yes to GRAPHICAL=no
(I don't see this line)

Comment 7 Jon Masters 2010-09-24 17:54:29 UTC
I kill "rhgb" and "quiet" on the command line, sometimes during install.

Comment 8 Phil V 2010-10-11 22:04:50 UTC
ah, thank you, you mean in grub.conf or its equivalent.

Comment 9 Bug Zapper 2011-05-31 13:16:00 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora 13 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 30 (thirty) days from now Fedora will stop maintaining
and issuing updates for Fedora 13.  It is Fedora's policy to close all
bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained.  At that time
this bug will be closed as WONTFIX if it remains open with a Fedora 
'version' of '13'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora version prior to Fedora 13's end of life.

Bug Reporter: Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that 
we may not be able to fix it before Fedora 13 is end of life.  If you 
would still like to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it 
against a later version of Fedora please change the 'version' of this 
bug to the applicable version.  If you are unable to change the version, 
please add a comment here and someone will do it for you.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's 
lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events.  Often a 
more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes 
bugs or makes them obsolete.

The process we are following is described here: 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping

Comment 10 Bug Zapper 2011-06-28 12:43:20 UTC
Fedora 13 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2011-06-25. Fedora 13 is 
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further 
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of 
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.


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