GRUB2 and EFI installation questions

[nonamedotc]

Hi all,

I did my first UEFI installation (Fedora 20) a few days back. As I was working on my system and carrying out general maintenance, I noticed something that I cannot understand. Here it is -

I noticed some differences between the grub configuration file (grub.cfg) that I have under /boot/efi and the file generated using grub2-mkconfig. What I am talking about is -

In the case of /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg, I have -

[...]

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Fedora (3.12.6-300.fc20.x86_64) 20 (Heisenbug)' --class fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os 
$menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.12.5-302.fc20.x86_64-advanced-UUID' {
	load_video
	set gfxpayload=keep
	insmod gzio
	insmod part_gpt

[ ... ]

Whereas, in the case of grub2-mkconfig

[ ... ]

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Fedora, with Linux 3.12.6-300.fc20.x86_64' --class fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os 
$menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.12.6-300.fc20.x86_64-advanced-UUID' {
	set gfxpayload=text
	insmod gzio
	insmod part_gpt

[ ... ]

This diffference exists for all the installed kernels.

Since grub.cfg is generated based on /etc/default/grub, I looked at it and found this

[ ... ]

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.luks.uuid=luks-UUID vconsole.font=latarcyrheb-sun16 rd.luks.uuid=luks-UUID 
$([ -x /usr/sbin/rhcrashkernel-param ] && /usr/sbin/rhcrashkernel-param || :) rhgb quiet"
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text

I have been breaking my head over the following issues -

1. If the GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX value is set to text, why is my "automatically" generated grub.cfg contain set gfxpayload value as keep?

2. Why is the function load_video appearing in one config file but not the other?

3. Differences in the kernel versions listed (green text above).

4. If I replace the automatically generated grub.cfg with manual grub2-mkconfig generated grub.cfg, I do not get GUI. (I am using NVIDIA driver package from rpmfusion, not nouveau). There are no problems with the original grub.cfg.

----------------------------------------

I am not very familiar with GRUB other than reading the manual to solve any problems I have. I have not found answers from GRUB manual for these - If anyone can clarify one or more of the above stated issues, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks much!

[PabloTwo]

Ah, yeah, it's a bit of a struggle. I've got two F20 installs now on the same desktop pc (32 and 64 bit) and both using the Nvidia drivers. When you say:

"If I replace the automatically generated grub.cfg with manual grub2-mkconfig generated grub.cfg, I do not get GUI."

Do you mean the grub menu itself (low res screen, white text on plain black background), or the Plymouth boot screen, or both?

Myself, I always use a text screen boot mode (no filling up Fedora logo gui), and want that in a somewhat hi-res mode for my 1920x1080 native res LCD monitor. The "rhgb" is taken out of my kernel boot lines and for good measure I also run:

# plymouth-set-default-theme details --rebuild-initrc

What you DON'T want in your /etc/default/grub file is:

GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text

That will only get you massive console ugliness and infuses the "set gfxpayload=text" entry. Either remove it altogether or replace it with:

GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD=keep

What you DO want in your /etc/default/grub file is:

GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD=keep

Which will get you the "set gfxpayload=keep" Without the "keep", if you have a nice colorful and themed grub menu screen, when it passes things over to Plymouth, it loses the higher resolution screen and current graphics mode and switches over to low res console text. Leigh claims you cannot have a gui Plymouth boot screen when using the nvidia drivers due to a frame buffer issue. Maybe that's so, but you can have a decent looking text mode Plymouth boot screen.

Here are my /etc/default/grub files from both of my installs that you can crib from and try for yourself if you care to:

F20 32 bit:

GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="$(sed 's, release .*$,,g' /etc/system-release)"
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.md=0 rd.lvm=0 rd.dm=0 $([ -x /usr/sbin/rhcrashkernel-param ] && /usr/sbin/rhcrashkernel-param || :) rd.luks=0 vconsole.keymap=us quiet LANG=en_US.UTF-8 nouveau.modeset=0 rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau video=vesa:off"
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"
GRUB_THEME="/boot/grub2/themes/system/theme.txt"

F20 64 bit:

GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="$(sed 's, release .*$,,g' /etc/system-release)"
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU="true"
GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="gfxterm"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="vconsole.font=latarcyrheb-sun16 $([ -x /usr/sbin/rhcrashkernel-param ] && /usr/sbin/rhcrashkernel-param || :) vconsole.keymap=us quiet nouveau.modeset=0 rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau video=vesa:off"
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"
GRUB_GFXMODE=auto
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD=keep
GRUB_THEME="/boot/grub2/themes/system/theme.txt"

The 32 bit install never gets a "grub2-mkconfig" due to the 64 bit install is my "Master" grub2 boot menu, which boots 4 OS's (W7 and 3 Fedora's).
And I admit to having to manually add "load_video" and "set gfxpayload=keep" into the other two Fedora menu entries in the F20 64 bit menu after running grub2-mkconfig, as they are then lost.

Is there no "GRUB_THEME="/boot/grub2/themes/system/theme.txt"" in your /etc/default/grub file? If not, add that entry, and make sure you have the grub2-starfield-theme package installed.

I can't really answer your opening question though, other than to say Anaconda's initial install and generation of the grub2 menu entries might have been done somewhat differently than what you do manually using the grub2-mkconfig command.

[nonamedotc]

Ah, yeah, it's a bit of a struggle. I've got two F20 installs now on the same desktop pc (32 and 64 bit) and both using the Nvidia drivers. When you say:

"If I replace the automatically generated grub.cfg with manual grub2-mkconfig generated grub.cfg, I do not get GUI."

Do you mean the grub menu itself (low res screen, white text on plain black background), or the Plymouth boot screen, or both?

Hi PabloTwo! Thanks for the reply.

What I meant by no GUI was this - You know how when booting is done, the nvidia green screen flashes and then lightdm shows up? I do not get that.

If I enter VT and do startxfce4, I get nvidia - device not found (or something - I can post that complete error message later, if needed) error .....

This happens only in the case of grub.cfg generated using grub2-config.

I do not understand that "load_video" line either ....

Leigh claims you cannot have a gui Plymouth boot screen when using the nvidia drivers due to a frame buffer issue. Maybe that's so, but you can have a decent looking text mode Plymouth boot screen.

I remember Leigh mentioning that in another thread and I like the text mode myself and that's why I started messing around with /etc/default/grub, grub2-mkconfig, etc.

I will try what you have suggested and post my observations again. Thanks again!

[PabloTwo]

OK, understand now that you get no gui login screen. I'm not having that issue at all. I get a decent looking grub2 menu screen, then boot up with a hi res text mode, then a momentary blank screen, then the lightdm gui login screen.

I don't know if it makes any difference, but I'm using the akmod-nvidia-304xx drivers from rpmfusion instead of the newer 331.xx drivers due to an issue I had with the 331.xx drivers not having any working CTRL-X in any X terms.

[Ahmad Samir]

From my grub.cfg:

function load_video {
  if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then
    insmod all_video
  else
    insmod efi_gop
    insmod efi_uga
    insmod ieee1275_fb
    insmod vbe
    insmod vga
    insmod video_bochs
    insmod video_cirrus
  fi
}

IIUC, it's pretty much redundant if you're using text GRUB (i.e. grub terminal_output is not gfxmode).

It could be that your current grub.cfg was created by Anaconda at install time, at which time you hadn't edited /etc/default/grub yet.

IIRC the RpmFUsion nvidia packages modify grub.cfg (it runs grub2-mkconfig, edits /etc/default/grub, runs grubby).

When the boot fails to bring up the GUI login screen, check if the nvidia kernel module is loaded, also if the nouveau module got loaded (it shouldn't). I couldn't see from your posts the kernel cmdline, are there differences too?

[PabloTwo]

Duh, just getting awake with first cup of coffee and booting up the laptop and it suddenly hits me.

When you install the nvidia drivers, it adds three parameters to your current kernel boot line in the grub.cfg file, mostly to blacklist nouveau. It does not add them to your /etc/default/grub file. So when you run the grub2-mkconfig command, those entries are removed from the kernel boot line. You need to manually include them in your /etc/default/grub file to keep that from happening.

nouveau.modeset=0 rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau video=vesa:off

Sorry it took me so long to recall that.

[nonamedotc]

Duh, just getting awake with first cup of coffee and booting up the laptop and it suddenly hits me.

When you install the nvidia drivers, it adds three parameters to your current kernel boot line in the grub.cfg file, mostly to blacklist nouveau. It does not add them to your /etc/default/grub file. So when you run the grub2-mkconfig command, those entries are removed from the kernel boot line. You need to manually include them in your /etc/default/grub file to keep that from happening.

nouveau.modeset=0 rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau video=vesa:off

Sorry it took me so long to recall that.

Yup! That was it!

Thanks a lot! I did look at nouveau blacklist yesterday but I don't know what I have thinking I did not look in the one place that really matters -

Thanks a lot PabloTwo! Everything resolved!