Ubuntu – Grub menu not waiting despite of GRUB_TIMEOUT=10

bootgrub2

I have Ubuntu 12.04 installed along side of windows 7.

The grub menu doesn't seem obey GRUB_TIMEOUT=10, I see the grub menu there for a split second and it immediately defaults to the first option.

Grub menu worked fine when I first installed ubuntu. I am not able to pinpoint what exactly broke it(maybe some update?). I did resize my ubuntu partition using gparted but am not sure if that is what caused it. here are my settings from etc/default/grub

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

How do I fix this?

Edit: As suggested by 'kamil' this is what I have tried so far with no luck

1) hold the shift key while booting

2)

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
edit GRUB_TIMEOUT to `GRUB_TIMEOUT=10`
sudo update-grub

3)

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
edit GRUB_TIMEOUT to `GRUB_TIMEOUT=10`
sudo update-grub2

4)

at the end of your /etc/grub.d/00_header file, comment out the if condition except for the regular set timeout line like this:

#if [ \${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
# set timeout=-1
#else
set timeout=${GRUB_TIMEOUT}
#fi

then sudo update-grub and sudo update-grub2

5)
install boot repair

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair
boot-repair

boot-repair output –

Boot successfully repaired.

The boot files of [The OS now in use – Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS] are far from
the start of the disk. Your BIOS may not detect them. You may
want to retry after creating a /boot partition (EXT4, >200MB, start of
the disk). This can be performed via tools such as gParted. Then
select this partition via the [Separate /boot partition:] option of
[Boot Repair]. (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootPartition)

http://paste.ubuntu.com/1220468/ – here is the full boot-repair data

Could grub files not being at the start of the disk create such issues?

Best Answer

I've solved this very issue by deleting the file /boot/grub/grubenv (which contained the line

set recordfail=1 ) and reissuing

sudo update-grub

afterwards.

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