Ubuntu
linux package

Grub shows a blinking cursor during start up

Bug #434362 reported by Rick Spencer
32
This bug affects 5 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux (Ubuntu)
Won't Fix
Low
Canonical Kernel Team
Ubuntu ubuntu-9.10-beta

Bug Description

Binary package hint: grub

New boot is looking nicer and nicer, but when booting, the screen displays a little blinking cursor. It would be ideal if we could hide this.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Sep 21 17:41:27 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: grub (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-10.34-generic
SourcePackage: grub
Tags: ubuntu-unr
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-10-generic i686

Rick Spencer (rick-rickspencer3)
Changed in grub (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
milestone: none → ubuntu-9.10-beta
tags: added: ubuntu-boot
removed: apport-bug
Steve Langasek (vorlon)
affects: grub (Ubuntu) → grub2 (Ubuntu)
Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu):
status: New → Triaged
assignee: nobody → Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

I tried to turn this off but it seemed to make no difference. I wonder if the kernel is immediately turning it back on at boot?

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Ha, I have a smoking gun. This cannot possibly be a GRUB bug; GRUB's cursor doesn't blink! The blinking cursor is set up by the kernel when it initialises the console.

We could turn it off in the initramfs, but there's probably some noticeable time between console initialisation and initramfs entry. If we want the cursor to be invisible at boot, then it will *have* to be done in the kernel, perhaps conditional on the "quiet" command-line argument. Something will need to take care of turning it back on once the system is up, though, as it will look rather odd otherwise.

affects: grub2 (Ubuntu) → linux (Ubuntu)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
assignee: Colin Watson (cjwatson) → nobody
Revision history for this message
Rick Spencer (rick-rickspencer3) wrote :

Colin - thanks so much for investigating this. I would say that given the priority of this bug (low) we should probably suggest that we don't tinker with the kernel at this point in the Karmic cycle. I would propose that we move this into the next release.

Rick Spencer (rick-rickspencer3)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Confirmed
status: Confirmed → Triaged
assignee: nobody → Canonical Foundations Team (canonical-foundations)
Revision history for this message
Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote :

if this is a kernel bug, I don't think it should be assigned to the foundations team?

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
assignee: Canonical Foundations Team (canonical-foundations) → Canonical Kernel Team (canonical-kernel-team)
Robbie Williamson (robbiew)
tags: added: ubuntu-boot-experience
removed: ubuntu-boot
Revision history for this message
Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee) wrote :

This bug report was marked as Triaged a while ago but has not had any updated comments for quite some time. Please let us know if this issue remains in the current Ubuntu release, http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . If the issue remains, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

tags: added: kj-triage
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Brad Figg (brad-figg) wrote : Unsupported series, setting status to "Won't Fix".

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Won't Fix
Revision history for this message
Dylan Justice (dsjstc) wrote :

Landed here while researching an identical boot issue with grub-efi in Saucy B1 after two hours of hair-pulling. Installed package grub-pc and everything immediately started working.

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