Make grub show its menu?

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 04 May 2015 01:40:40 O. Sinclair wrote:
> On 04/05/2015 07:25, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > On Monday 04 May 2015 00:32:41 Nils Kassube wrote:
> >> Gene Heskett wrote:
> >>> I have an install based on ubuntu 10.04-4 LTS, with whatever
> >>> version of grub was used then.
> >>>
> >>> On boot, the esc key doesn't seem to be the show grub key, so it
> >>> sails right by it and boots the default=0 image.
> >>
> >> From <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#GRUB_vs_GRUB_2>:
> >> | Hold down (right) SHIFT to display the menu during boot.
> >>
> >> I suppose the rest of the page is interesting to you as well.
> >>
> >>
> >> Nils
> >
> > Thank you Nils.  I'll see if I can run memtest+ 2 or 3 cycles
> > tomorrow.
> >
> > The symptoms are a random freeze, with stationary video, no mouse &
> > no response to keyboard.  ssh -Y from here dead, any nfs shares from
> > there that go away lock up the rest of the network that might be
> > playnig client.  Another supposedly identical machine, running the
> > same install cd, runs fine for months at a time if no power
> > glitches.  Only recourse is the reset button.
> >
> > But why does it get moved around?  Do they flip a coin or ??
> >
> > Cheers, Gene Heskett
>
> You may simply have a hardware error. I have had 2 laptops with
> harddisk failure this year. No fun but it happens.

Yes, the main boot drive in this box went read-only about Feb 10, but now 
in May, it has yet to report a read error, so I copied off all my data 
without incident.  So this one is running wheezy now.  And will for as 
long as it takes for Jessie to be respun 2 or 3 times.  The "infant 
mortality" is very discouraging for what was supposed to be a stable 
release.

I have a psu coming for that box because thats usually the #1 suspect. 
But psu problems in my extended experience usually=random reboot.  This 
is more like the cpu clock stopped, or would that destroy the video on a 
D525MW intel atom board?  It shares the 1Gb of dram in the box.

The video exhibits no degradation, so my first clue that it has crashed 
or whatever, is often the motors on the cnc lathe it controls stopping, 
and because the watchdog on the io interface card doesn't get petted 
1000 times a second, it bites, and the card outputs are placed in a safe 
condition stopping everything.  The part being carved is not damaged.

And the logs are clean as a whistle.  No clues there.

Thanks Nils.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>