Cannot edit menuentry inside grub2

felixonmars · 2012-04-04 04:34:49

I type a 'e',
but get those lines messed up(a long tab before every line, and a "\" at the end), and even if I "ctrl-x" without any modification, it fails with `unknown command: s`.
but there is no problem just hit enter to boot the same entry.

What could be the problem?

version:
grub2-bios 1:2.00beta3-1

and did a fresh grub2 installation after upgraded to this version.

Last edited by felixonmars (2012-04-04 04:37:47)

shefla · 2012-04-04 11:35:12

Hi felixonmars,

I am not sure of your problem.
Might be a keyboard mapping issue or a dependencies one.

Please check following packages are installed: device-mapper / freetype2 / fuse / gettext / sh (bash) / xz
pacman -Ss <packagename>

Can you use GRUB instead of GRUB2 ?

Regards

felixonmars · 2012-04-04 11:42:12

No, not related to keyboard, and all those packages are installed correctly and latest.

There was no problem before with grub2.

rnarch · 2012-04-04 18:06:03

Grub is much simpler than grub2 and does nearly everything functionally that grub2 can.

cfr · 2012-04-05 01:23:52

I don't have quite such an extreme problem but I see something quite similar. The longer lines look as though they extend past the end of the screen (the white border around the menu is obscured by the black background. Trying to edit these lines is, to say the least, interesting.

I've found the best way to add "3" to stop X starting, for example, is to move to the line below the one I need to edit, to press enter to get a new line, to type " 3", to move to the beginning of the line and to press delete. This tacks the addition onto the previous line. It looks all wrong, but it boots OK. If I try to actually read what I'm doing, I stand no chance.

Of course, this method is hopeless for editing anything in the middle of the line.

I haven't tried with ctrl+x. Have you tried with F10? That's worked OK to boot for me.

EDIT: I tried ctrl+x today just to see and it didn't work for me either. I didn't get an error. It just had no effect whatsoever. F10 still worked, however.

I don't know just what's wrong - whether it doesn't get the resolution right (my screen is 1366x768 and I set grub to use 1024x768 which seems to be closest) or maybe whether there is something odd about the font. The font used to display the lines for editing is very different from that used to display the instructions and menu. It is, for one thing, much bigger. I wonder if this is somehow to do with the problem. There is only one font under /boot/grub/fonts on my system which seems to be 16 pt unicode. That seems big - unless the font is tiny, I'd be surprised if that was being used for the menu entries etc. But it seems plausible it might be used when the lines are being edited. And somehow grub doesn't adjust the number of characters per line to fit the screen properly? There's definitely something screwy about the display...

I used grub very, very briefly. However, grub doesn't offer functionality I need and it may be the same for the OP.

EDIT: Incidentally, this problem is not new on my machine. It has always been impossible to see what I'm doing editing the lines. The best work around I've come up with is to try to foresee all possible eventualities and to create a large number of menu entries accordingly!

Last edited by cfr (2012-04-06 16:21:55)

rnarch · 2012-04-05 04:43:38

@cfr: Could you briefly tell the features that you really like in grub2 over grub legacy? I am looking for some incentive to move over to grub2.

For editing long lines, END key takes you to the end of the line and that seems to be one way of moving quickly to the end.

Last edited by rnarch (2012-04-05 04:45:55)

/dev/zero · 2012-04-05 04:54:10

rnarch wrote:

@cfr: Could you briefly tell the features that you really like in grub2 over grub legacy? I am looking for some incentive to move over to grub2.

This isn't helping.
If you have a question, first do some research, then start a new thread if your research comes up empty.

Last edited by /dev/zero (2012-04-05 04:54:31)

the.ridikulus.rat · 2012-04-05 05:53:04

@felixonmars: Post your grub.cfg .

cfr · 2012-04-06 01:34:24

rnarch wrote:

@cfr: Could you briefly tell the features that you really like in grub2 over grub legacy? I am looking for some incentive to move over to grub2.

Why?

As /dev/zero said.

For editing long lines, END key takes you to the end of the line and that seems to be one way of moving quickly to the end.

I know how to move to the end of lines, thank you. The problem is that if I do it that way, whatever I add ends up in the middle of the line not at the end and so, obviously, boot fails. I know it ends up in the middle because I see part of the line when the boot fails.

Last edited by cfr (2012-04-06 01:37:01)

felixonmars · 2012-04-06 03:08:12

So, as you suggested, I've switched back to grub legacy and everything is back to normal now

Arch Linux

#1 2012-04-04 04:34:49

Cannot edit menuentry inside grub2

#2 2012-04-04 11:35:12

Re: Cannot edit menuentry inside grub2

#3 2012-04-04 11:42:12

Re: Cannot edit menuentry inside grub2

#4 2012-04-04 18:06:03

Re: Cannot edit menuentry inside grub2

#5 2012-04-05 01:23:52

Re: Cannot edit menuentry inside grub2

#6 2012-04-05 04:43:38

Re: Cannot edit menuentry inside grub2

#7 2012-04-05 04:54:10

Re: Cannot edit menuentry inside grub2

#8 2012-04-05 05:53:04

Re: Cannot edit menuentry inside grub2

#9 2012-04-06 01:34:24

Re: Cannot edit menuentry inside grub2

#10 2012-04-06 03:08:12

Re: Cannot edit menuentry inside grub2

Board footer