Grub timeout ignored?

[Michael Schwendt]

On Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:59:03 +1030, Tim wrote:

> > /boot/grub/grub.conf  is the configuration file
> > /boot/grub/menu.lst  is just a symlink for compatibility
> 
> As I recall, that's a Red Hat-ism. 

True.

> The menu.lst file being the default
> GRUB file, as used by GRUB, 

Not true.  The default configuration file is /boot/grub/grub.conf because
a customisation patch tells GRUB to use that instead of menu.lst. The patch
also modifies the documentation -- although I think it doesn't remove all
traces of the original menu.lst file name, and an example config file
/usr/share/doc/grub-0.97/menu.lst is available on Fedora 12 e.g.

> and grub.conf being the file we're using.

Actually, there's some "magic" in Fedora's/Red Hat's grub-install which
would do the opposite and symlink a missing grub.conf to an existing
menu.lst.

> And that recollection tallies with what I've seen on other Linux
> installations that use GRUB.  Having said that, it shouldn't matter
> which is the file and which is the link.

It matters as soon as a user overwrites the symlink with a file (there
are editors who [can] do that, and sometimes it's just a matter of
deleting/moving a file and recreating it).

> It should be easy to test which is the default file:  Remove both,
> create separate, and slightly different, files.  Then see which is
> actually used when booting.

/boot/grub/grub.conf   no need to test that. With one exception: GRUB
searches for /grub/grub.conf in its Root Partition. So, the thing to
get right is to make sure that what is found in /boot on the mounted
file-system when running Fedora actually matches the place GRUB was
installed with. Simply modifying /boot/grub/grub.conf and changing
the descriptions of the boot entries should have an effect when rebooting
and taking a look at the boot menu.