grub2 mystery

[Timothy Murphy]

Mateusz Marzantowicz wrote:

>> I have a large number of entries in /boot/grub2/grub.cfg under Fedora-17,
>> eg -------------------------------------
>>         menuentry 'Fedora Linux, with Linux 3.3.2-6.fc16.i686' --class
>> fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option
>> 'gnulinux-3.3.2-6.fc16.i686-advanced-185af560-81d0-46b8-
acf0-9ab09e7cd0e2'
>> {
>>                 load_video
>>                 set gfxpayload=keep
>>                 insmod gzio
>>                 insmod part_msdos
>>                 insmod ext2
>>                 set root='hd0,msdos2'
>>                 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
>>                   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-
>> bios=hd0,msdos2 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos2 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos2 --
>> hint='hd0,msdos2'  ce1365ea-11ec-49e1-85d9-f25a292c9274
>>                 else
>>                   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root
>> ce1365ea-11ec-49e1-85d9-f25a292c9274
>>                 fi
>>                 echo    'Loading Linux 3.3.2-6.fc16.i686 ...'
>>                 linux   /vmlinuz-3.3.2-6.fc16.i686
>> root=UUID=185af560-81d0-46b8-acf0-9ab09e7cd0e2 ro rd.md=0 rd.lvm=0
>> rd.dm=0
>> SYSFONT=True  KEYTABLE=uk rd.luks=0 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rhgb quiet
>>                 echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
>>                 initrd  /initramfs-3.3.2-6.fc16.i686.img
>>         }
>> -------------------------------------
>>
>> However, these do not appear in the list I get when booting,

> What is exactly not shown on grub's boot menu? 

There are about 10 similar menuentries in grub.cfg ,
none of which appear in the boot menu.

> As you can see, there are
> tons of "if" statements in grub configuration file. Depending on your
> specific conditions some entries may not appear.

I would have thought the menuentry would appear
since the if...fi does not appear to include anything relevant.

To my mind the entry is ludicrously, farcically, complicated.
The whole grub2 setup seems to me to complete ignore the user's perspective.

> If you like an order, you can remove old and unused kernels. After
> several updates I had about 6 but used only one - recent. Now I have two
> menu entries in grub and shorter config file.

This is not necessary in my case, since the only kernels that appear
are the Fedora-17 ones, together with a Windows entry.
My query is in the opposite direction, why the entries in grub.cfg
do not appear in the list that appears at boot-time.


-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College Dublin