No grub2 menu display; can't boot F17

[David A. De Graaf]

On Wed, Jul 04, 2012 at 02:30:05PM +0200, Christopher Svanefalk wrote:
> Sounds like a hardware issue...I too have installed F17 from scratch without a
> single issue. What input devices/ports do you use on the failing machine? What
> are the system specs?
> 
> On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 1:51 AM, Joe Zeff <joe at zeff.us> wrote:
> 
>     On 07/03/2012 04:31 PM, David A. De Graaf wrote:
> 
>         As I also mentioned, this problem occurs on only one of four machines
>         on which I've installed F17.  The other three work properly.
>         There is no difference in the way I installed F17, that I'm aware of.
> 
> 
>     Are there any significant differences between this box and the others?

I have discovered BZ 817187, comment 16, which supplies the solution
to the missing menu.  Apparently the gfxterm, used by default by grub2,
is defective.  Who knew?

The fix is to add this line to /etc/default/grub
    GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console
and rerun 
    grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

All four of my machines use different hardware.  Why only the fourth
chokes on the output from gfxterm remains a mystery.

Thanks to all who tried to help.

-- 
        David A. De Graaf    DATIX, Inc.    Hendersonville, NC
        dad at datix.us         www.datix.us