StartUp-Manager

Not all settings appear to be working

Asked by mightymouse2045

Hi there,

I have run startup-manager with the following settings:

Boot Options

Timeout - 3 seconds (working)
Default OS - Ubuntu Jaunty (working)
Display Res - 1280x1024 (Working for splash image only, not for text and not for TTY screens ctrl + alt +F1 to F9)
Color Depth - 24bits (unsure how to test this)
Misc Show menu (Working)
Misc show splash (Working)
Misc Show text (Not working - if I take out quiet at the end of the kernel line then is shows crappy text before getting to splash screen, and no text while splash screen is up)

According to http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1541970 the tty screens should also display in the set resolution, and colour depth (how can i test to see what it is running at by the way?)

Appearance

Use Colors - (working)
Theme background image (working)
Usplash theme (Working on 1280x1024 but not for 1600x1200)

Advanced

Number of kernels - 1 (not working just displays all of them)

After exiting this is what my menu looks like:
*****************************************************

color light-blue/blue light-cyan/cyan

#A splash image for the menu
splashimage=/grub/splashimages/97109-bam.xpm.gz
default 0
timeout 3

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=a269f240-0df8-400e-a4b9-ed1762ef46cf ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=475885fe-42c5-4e76-b381-f4cd569f57a7

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=splash vga=795

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=1

## specify if running in Xen domU or have grub detect automatically
## update-grub will ignore non-xen kernels when running in domU and vice versa
## e.g. indomU=detect
## indomU=true
## indomU=false
# indomU=detect

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=true

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu jaunty (development branch), kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=a269f240-0df8-400e-a4b9-ed1762ef46cf ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title Ubuntu jaunty (development branch), kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=a269f240-0df8-400e-a4b9-ed1762ef46cf ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title Ubuntu jaunty (development branch), kernel 2.6.27-12-generic
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27-12-generic root=UUID=a269f240-0df8-400e-a4b9-ed1762ef46cf ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.27-12-generic

title Ubuntu jaunty (development branch), kernel 2.6.27-12-generic (recovery mode)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27-12-generic root=UUID=a269f240-0df8-400e-a4b9-ed1762ef46cf ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.27-12-generic

title Ubuntu jaunty (development branch), memtest86+
kernel /memtest86+.bin

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

title Other operating systems:
root

title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1
savedefault

Regards,
Peter

Question information

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Status:
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For:
StartUp-Manager Edit question
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Solved by:
Jimmy Rönnholm
Solved:
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Revision history for this message
Best Jimmy Rönnholm (jronnholm) said : 		#1

Yes, I am aware of these problems, and it is a small dilemma.
You see, when I wrote this program Ubuntu and Debian worked pretty much the same when it comes to editing menu.lst.
It was preferred to edit those commented out lines, such as '# defoptions=splash vga=795' and then running update-grub, which would overwrite everything in the section that begins with '### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST' and apply values from those comments.

Now, a lot of users had hand edited the entries in the automagically generated list so when update-grub was run(for example at a kernel update) their customizations were overwritten. Therefore Ubuntu devs changed the way update-grub works and the behavior startup-manager depended on. I dont know exactly how update-grub works now, but I think it still works the way sum expects it to when menu.lst has never been hand-edited.

Further, as I understand, we are not supposed to use the vga=xyz on the kernel line anymore in Ubuntu. Resolution for the boot splash is changed in /etc/usplash.conf. On Debian with splashy as the bootsplash, the vga=xyz line is still the way to set splash resolution though.

So, since Ubuntu has changed a lot during the last few releases, I would have to change a lot in startup-manager to adapt to this and probably make it an Ubuntu-only tool.
I have considered doing this, but then we will probably have kernel modesetting and plymouth in Ubuntu Karmic. Grub2 should not be too far away either, with its new update-grub system.

Therefore, I am tempted to hold off doing these changes and see what happens with Plymouth and Grub2.
If they get more widespread use, and distributions dont differ too much in their configuration, I would rather target Plymouth and Grub2 only and hopefully have the tool usable on more distros.

So that is the options I see:
*Keep it broken for recent Ubuntu versions but working with Debian.
*Rewrite its behavior to make it compatible with recent Ubuntu versions but incompatible with Debian and older Ubuntu versions, and at the same time duplicating most of what tools like kgrubeditor can already do.
*Keep it broken with recent Ubuntu versions for now, but rewrite when and if Plymouth and Grub2 get more widespread use so it is usable on more distros rather than less.

Currently I am leaning towards the third option, and am recommending kgrubeditor as a replacement in the meantime.

I hope that answers why things are broken right now.

Revision history for this message
mightymouse2045 (eagleeyes426) said : 		#2

ok will hold off till option 3 :)

Cheers
Peter