[Bug 2080785] Re: Wrong defaults after (deprecated) changes: #GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE

[udippel]

So we confuse each other? Sorry!

I've been on Linux since last century, and on grub since its inception, and usually with more than one OSes on each machine. #GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE had been set to "hidden" since then. 
A few days ago, I seem to have lost the ability to boot to W10, since no grub menu showed, and on that rather old machine I could select a boot drive, but no boot partition in the BIOS. 

Then I learned through askubuntu that the effect of the "hidden"
parameter had been changed. Instead of 'show the menu' when more than
one OS was accessible through grub, now grub would follow strictly and
hide the menu, irrespective of the number of OSes accessible through
grub.

I was afraid of having lost the W10 partition; the ability to boot to it, spent some hours playing with everything, and in the end I was almost tempted to pull out a W10 DVD to repair the W10 installation. And all, despite of everything in order, only because someone had decided that "hidden" is now supposed to be followed strictly and actually hide the grub menu irrespective.
To me this is totally unnecessary and buggy: changing the semantics of an old parameter and thereby deprive everyone who relies on the previous definition from selecting the OS to be booted, is totally unnecessary. Instead
1. A new parameter could have been found, like "strictly_hidden"
2. At (release) upgrade the "hidden" could have been replaced by the safer "menu". Better safe than sorry: better show the menu, even if not desired, than locking users out of their OSes.

I hope, this clears it up!?

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2080785

Title:
  Wrong defaults after (deprecated) changes: #GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE

Status in grub2 package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  #GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden 
  has been default setting for at least a decade, also here on my various machines with multiple OSes. It did work in a reasonable manner: (wiki.ubuntuusers.de/GRUB_2/Konfiguration) "Die Einstellung hidden bzw. countdown wird ignoriert und das GRUB-Menü immer angezeigt, wenn mehr als ein Betriebssystem von GRUB verwaltet wird." (With more than one OSes being bootable through grub, the setting 'hidden' will be ignored).
  This made sense for single OSes (no need to show, and if, with Esc), as well as with multiple OSes (showing the OS that is going to come up). With my recent update (release), suddenly no more grub menu showed. 
  According to https://askubuntu.com/questions/1526795/grub-menu-doesnt-show-any-longer one had to set this grub variable to "menu". Immediately the grub menu popped up again. 
  All the hassle around this would have been unnecessary without the changed behaviour of grub with the identical variable. (While this change could be questioned, this is not my concern here.)

  It is an unnecessary bug behaviour to change items with the identical
  parameter. For security and user convenience, either the grub default
  ought to have been set to the 'safe' (no loss of OS) value of "menu",
  or a new parameter introduced; keeping the behaviour of existing
  parameters as such (and eventually only withdrawn after extended times
  of deprecation, if at all).

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 24.04
  Package: grub2-common 2.12-1ubuntu7
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.8.0-44.44-generic 6.8.12
  Uname: Linux 6.8.0-44-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.28.1-0ubuntu3.1
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
  CurrentDesktop: KDE
  Date: Sun Sep 15 18:27:31 2024
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2021-08-07 (1135 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 20.04.2.0 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20210209.1)
  SourcePackage: grub2
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to noble on 2024-08-30 (16 days ago)
  mtime.conffile..etc.init.d.apport: 2024-07-22T16:59:07

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