Description of problem: Default configuration (GRUB_DEFAULT=saved) is not resulting in the last-selected kernel being booted. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 1:1.99-12.fc16 How reproducible: Always fails on this machine, but I'm not sure whether I can reproduce it on another machine. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Upgrade to F16 2. Edit /etc/default/grub (in my case, to remove rhgb and quite, I like to see what's happening) 3. grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg 4. reboot (many times) Actual results: Grub2 always defaults to the original kernel; I have to select the latest kernel manually, but this selection is not saved, although /etc/default/grub is configured to save it: GRUB_TIMEOUT=5 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Fedora" GRUB_DEFAULT=saved GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.lvm.lv=vg_sc1_f14plus/lv_swap rd.md=0 rd.lvm.lv=vg_sc1_f15plus/lv_swap KEYTABLE=us SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 rd.luks=0 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd.lvm.lv=vg_sc1_f15plus/lv_root rd.dm=0" Expected results: Grub defaults to the most recently selected kernel Additional info: I'm guessing that the reason is that grubenv is not being updated. ls -Z gives -r--------. root root unconfined_u:object_r:boot_t:s0 grub.cfg -rw-r--r--. root root system_u:object_r:boot_t:s0 grubenv ls -l -r--------. 1 root root 4886 Nov 28 20:11 grub.cfg -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1024 Nov 28 18:15 grubenv i.e. grubenv was last updated immediately after I upgraded from Fedora 16 (it's now Nov 30, and I last rebooted the system about 1200 today); I modified /etc/default/grub and grub2-mkconfig-ed fairly soon after the upgrade, and haven't touched it since (i.e. in particular, it was before doing the initial update after the upgrade). Grubenv contains # GRUB Environment Block saved_entry=Fedora Linux, with Linux 3.1.0-7.fc16.x86_64 but according to /proc/version: Linux version 3.1.2-1.fc16.x86_64 (mockbuild.fedoraproject.org) (gcc version 4.6.2 20111027 (Red Hat 4.6.2-1) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Tue Nov 22 09:00:57 UTC 2011 I'm happy to provide any other diagonistic information (I haven't succeeded in finding anything else relevant myself).
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html : ‘GRUB_DEFAULT’ ... If you set this to ‘saved’, then the default menu entry will be that saved by ‘GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT’, grub-set-default, or grub-reboot. ‘GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT’ If this option is set to ‘true’, then, when an entry is selected, save it as a new default entry for use by future runs of GRUB. This is only useful if ‘GRUB_DEFAULT=saved’; it is a separate option because ‘GRUB_DEFAULT=saved’ is useful without this option, in conjunction with grub-set-default or grub-reboot. - but it will not work anyway, see bug 732058.
Workaround for this problem (and other similar ones) posted in: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=732058 Cheers.
Thanks Mads, JM; I hadn't picked up on 732058 (must have used the wrong search terms). Marking as duplicate. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 732058 ***