Hello

I have a strange problem:
I'm running a DSL (damn small Linux) distribution on an old P233mmx pc. Everything works great, except for the fact that at boot time, the timeout on the grub menu doesn't expire ...
It says something like "booting the highlighted entry in 3 seconds..." but it doesn't move on. I have to press enter and then everything works fine.

Any hint?
thanks
Nicola

Post contents of /boot/grub.grub.conf or it could be /boot/grub/menu.1st. Not sure what DSL uses.

Brian

here is menu.lst:


# This sets the default entry to boot.
# Remember that GRUB counts from 0, so 1 is the second entry.

default 0

# This sets the length of time in seconds that grub will wait for the user to select an OS
# before it boots the default on. I reccommend at least 15 seconds.

timeout 3

# Enter the entry for DSL here. Something like this.

title DSL-custom
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=normal

title DSL
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=normal noacpi noapm nodma noscsi frugal

title DSL fb800x600
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=788 noacpi noapm nodma noscsi frugal

title DSL fb1024x768
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=791 noacpi noapm nodma noscsi frugal

title DSL fb1280x1024
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=794 noacpi noapm nodma noscsi frugal

#title DSL with toram, mydsl, restore, hostname, and passwords
#kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=normal noacpi noapm noscsi frugal dma toram mydsl=hda5 restore=hda5 host=DSL1 secure

#title DSL with XFree86
#kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=normal noacpi noapm noscsi frugal dma toram mydsl=hda5/xfree restore=hda6 host=DSL1 secure

#title DSL with mydsl, restore, persistentancy, hostname, and passwords
#kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=normal noacpi noapm noscsi frugal dma toram mydsl=hda3 restore=hda3 home=hda3 opt=hda3 host=DSL1 secure

#title DSL Runlevel 2
#kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=normal noacpi noapm noscsi nodma frugal 2 base norestore

#title DSL Check filesystem(s)
#kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=normal noacpi noapm noscsi nodma frugal 2 base norestore legacy checkfs

#title Windows
#root (hd0,0)
#chainloader +1
#makeactive
#boot

I don't really see anything wrong at the moment.

Brian

Me neither ...
Moreover, I can't post in the DSL forum (no idea why ... I can't even access my account profile page because I don't have the rights ...)
Any hint? Maybe it's a faulty grub version?
I tried looking in the forums, but found nothing ...
thanks
Nicola

I can't think of anything for grub other than upgrading it like you mention.

Brian

Same problem here!

Xubuntu 8.04
Grub 0.97
In addition I can say that I did a modification in my /boot/grub/menu.lst file: after a fresh xubuntu installation the "hiddenmenu" feature was enabled; I edited the file and disabled it.

Xubuntu is the only OS in my (pretty old) box.
Tried to increase/decrease timeout. No success.
Tried to re-enable the "hiddenmenu" feature. No success.
Tried to reinstall grub thru Synaptics. No success.

Any help will be greatly appreciated

Regards
Claudio

bump!

Thanks
Claudio

The problem has gone!
Grub installation and /boot/grub/menu.lst are fine. The problem was elsewhere.

I replaced the CMOS battery of my mother board because since a couple of month my PC didn't keep date and time. To be honest I was too lazy before to open the case to replace the CMOS battery. Yesterday afternoon wheater was rainy so I decided to replace it.
I turned on my PC and... surprise: the grub menu started to countdown again!

I never could guess that a grub problem was due to the CMOS battery.
I hope this could be of some help for someone else

Cheers
Claudio

Problem have been solved.
thanks...
i have also same problem that my Trixbox(centos) countdown of 5 seconds dosn't start and i have to manually press enter to start boot process .

so just i have replaced the CMOS battery cell which solve my problem.
i think reason is that Linux kernel unable to Calculate the timing which breach it to start .

thanks.bracc0