Arch Linux

drkoma

Member

Registered: 2022-12-18

Posts: 25

Hide GRUB unless the Shift key is held down - Cant make it work

I  followed this instructions meticulously ( I think ) but still I cant get the grub prompt to appear

Hide GRUB unless the Shift key is held down
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB/T … _held_down

sudo touch /etc/grub.d/31_hold_shift
sudo vim !$

with this contents
https://gist.githubusercontent.com/anon … stfile1.sh

then ```sudo chmod +x  /etc/grub.d/31_hold_shift```

changed grub file

GRUB_FORCE_HIDDEN_MENU="true"

GRUB_DEFAULT="0"
GRUB_TIMEOUT="0"
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Arch"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="loglevel=3 quiet resume=/dev/disk/by-uuid/2c1ac284-0b5b-461c-920e-3710f51a29e6 resume_offset=2172928"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rootfstype=ext4 ibt=off"

GRUB_PRELOAD_MODULES="part_gpt part_msdos"
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE="hidden"

# Uncomment to use basic console
GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT="console"
GRUB_GFXMODE="auto"

# Uncomment to allow the kernel use the same resolution used by grub
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX="keep"
# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment and set to the desired menu colors.  Used by normal and wallpaper
# modes only.  Entries specified as foreground/background.
export GRUB_COLOR_NORMAL="light-gray/black"
export GRUB_COLOR_HIGHLIGHT="brown/light-gray"

# Uncomment one of them for the gfx desired, a image background or a gfxtheme
GRUB_BACKGROUND="/boot/grub/themes/bg.png"
GRUB_THEME="/boot/grub/themes/starfield/theme.txt"
GRUB_FONT="/boot/grub/unicode.pf2"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="sda_hda_intel.dmic_detect=0 resume=/dev/disk/by-uuid/2c1ac284-0b5b-461c-920e-3710f51a29e6 resume_offset=2172928"

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Grub doesnt appear but it also doesnt show up, no matter how I hold or press repeatedly the shift key at boot

rab0171610@gmail.com

Member

Registered: 2022-11-05

Posts: 20

Re: Hide GRUB unless the Shift key is held down - Cant make it work

Personally I set it to GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu and set it to lowest timeout possible, like 1 or 2.  This allows grub to show up for a second giving me the opportunity to switch kernels if need be on the rare occasion.
You could also try GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden instead of using the force_grub line+script you are using.  Though I don't think that will allow you to use shift to show the grub menu as you seem to think is necessary.
Did you see the note on the arch wiki link you posted?  "Note: This setup uses keystatus to detect keypress event so it may not work on some machines."
You are sure the script has execute permissions?
Also consider the possibility that you may just have to live with how grub is supposed to work and not how you want it to work.  Water doesn't flow uphill.

drkoma

Member

Registered: 2022-12-18

Posts: 25

Re: Hide GRUB unless the Shift key is held down - Cant make it work

Indeed, its trivial enough to discard it, not something too important. I will do as you said for now and if I dont switch much between distros or kernels will eventually deactivate it.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: Hide GRUB unless the Shift key is held down - Cant make it work

Does the menu appear if you press the <Escape> or <F4> keys? Any hotkey associated with a menuentry should cause that to boot.

Not sure why the wiki recommends a script. It should "just work", or at least it did when I tried it in a VM just now. The only caveat is if your hardware is supported, as per the ArchWiki Note.

EDIT: it's not working for you because you've set GRUB_TIMEOUT="0", which causes the default entry to boot immediately. You need at least 1 second to be able to "catch" the menu.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2022-12-19 19:42:59)

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