Grub does not allow choice

[joneall]

I just installed 14.04 yesterday and that went quite well, although slowly.

But when I boot, the grub menu comes up with an asterix next to the first entry, which is just Ubuntu, not Ubuntu 14.04 or something like that. And the up-down arrows have no effect on the choice, nor do page up-down or anything else.

If I do ctl-alt-del and reboot, then it seems to come up without the asterix and I can pick another system.

What gives?

[Snowhog]

It's how Grub now shows itself. Down-arrow and press Enter to see the 'other' choices.

[joneall]

It's how Grub now shows itself. Down-arrow and press Enter to see the 'other' choices.

Curious behavior. Especially without any doc. But, ok.

[joneall]

It's how Grub now shows itself. Down-arrow and press Enter to see the 'other' choices.

Uh, no. My system just hung (!), so I had to reboot. I got the grub screen with an asterisk in front of Ubuntu. The arrows had no effect whatsoever. Hitting Enter just after the down arrow booted Kubuntu. No choice possible.

[Snowhog]

Hmm. Is this a desktop PC? A wireless keyboard?

[joneall]

Hmm. Is this a desktop PC? A wireless keyboard?

Desktop with USB keyboard. Never gave me any trouble before I installed 14.04.

[joneall]

Getting curiouser...

Curiously enough, on the grub screen, the left and right arrows stop the countdown. So it seems the system does detect the keyboard.

However, the up-down arrows have no result whatsoever.

This keeps me from reaching my backup 13.04 system. This is quite annoying since 14.04 hangs after a while See

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...567#post349567

[Teunis]

Have you tried to reconfigure grub?

sudo update-grub

This command should scan the system for bootable partitions and operating systems, then add them to the grub menu.

[BobTreat]

The asterisk goes with the highlighted choice. If choices are presented then you have choice, seems your issue is navigation. I know this doesn't solve anything. I would try to reisntall grub after I performed a sudo dpkg --configure -a to rule out or fix any broken packages.

[JillSwift]

IIRC the asterisk means "This is what I'm about to start". <Esc> should turn on the menu. I think this was implemented by someone who has cats. (Anti accidental keyboard input.)

[Teunis]

Originally I thought you meant the other options did not show in grub but re-reading your post I now believe you mean the entries are there but you can't access them.
In other words, the keyboard is partially disabled during grub?

Still, have you tried to repair grub using the command given?

[Frank616]

I noticed the lack of choice in the default GRUB screen as well, however, my arrow keys work (old machine with PS-2 keyboard). I can use the arrow keys to get the list of bootable kernels, which I now HAVE to do as unfortunately, GRUB selects the 12.04 kernel by default, and the 12.04 kernel hangs partway through the boot. I have to boot again, choose the options and select the 14.04 kernel. Then it works.

I was going to try sudo update-grub, but I hate to mess with it, as at least the machine works at this point. I could also purge the old kernel, but again, I'd hate to break this still rather experimental install (I did an 'in place' upgrade on this machine).

Suggestions?

Frank.

[Teunis]

Yes, the suggestion is to get rid of kernels you don't use and need, especially one that belongs to a different distribution.

Updating grub seems to be a necessity because it's quite uncommon it would 'automatically' select anything but the newest.
After kernel removal update-grub will be run anyway.

[joneall]

Grub ok

I've never had any pb with updating grub, so I don't think you should worry about that. Do delete your old distribs first tho.

Yes, my grub list looks fine, but my keyboard is blocked. HOWEVER, I have found that if I enter ctl-P, it unblocks the keyboard.

I do not think this is a grub thing. I have the same pb if I select the BIOS option to choose the boot device. I can not use the arrow keys to select a device until I have entered ctl-P. On the other hand, if I first go into BIOS config, the arrows work ok.

Did I say bizarre?

[Frank616]

Teunis and others:

OK, got is all fixed, as noted in the thread here.

Seems my 'in place' upgrade had a number of issues, GRUB and the old kernel being but one of them.

Frank.