Ubuntu – How to force Ubuntu to boot on a stuck boot menu

bootgrub2headlessserver

I have Ubuntu Server 11.04, but it is headless (no monitor). The only way I want to be able to access it is remotely via SSH. But, sometimes, say after a power loss, when the server restarts, it will get stuck on the Grub boot menu, and it won't count down. It will just hang there waiting for me to choose the first boot entry. This means I have to go there and plug in a monitor and keyboard.

But I can't do that remotely. How can I force it to continue booting to boot entry 1 (default) regardless of power loss or whatever?

Best Answer

The answer to this one can be found in the grub file /etc/grub.d/00_header

make_timeout ()
{
    cat << EOF
if [ "\${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=${2}
fi
EOF
}

Setting the timeout value to -1 will stop the count down. Change the value to a value > 0 i.e. set timeout=10

this section of the file would look like

make_timeout ()
{
    cat << EOF
if [ "\${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=10
else
  set timeout=${2}
fi
EOF
}

Then run

sudo update-grub2
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