No grub menu, only boots into Kubuntu

[Murdoc]

Setting up a new computer for a friend. Mostly goes fine, but the monitor I'm using for it won't show the whole screen, even when I move it around, so I can't see the bottom buttons, unless I move it in such a way that it shrinks the entire screen to either half or a quarter of the monitor's size, then I can see those buttons, but not much else. Anyway, setting up a dual boot with Win7, with it on one hd, Kubuntu on another. Should have worked, but now won't show a grub menu, only boots straight into Kubuntu. I don't know if I missed out on a dual-boot setting on the screen, or if it's a problem with having two hard drives (do I need to worry about placing grub/mbr/whatever somewhere specific?). One more oddity is that when the grub menu should appear, the monitor says that there's no connection for several seconds until the Kubuntu screen comes up. I thought that maybe the monitor (which is small and old, possibly broken somehow) couldn't read that screen and it was coming up anyway, so I tried using the keyboard to stop the countdown and select something else, but it had no effect, so I'm guessing that's not the case.

So I'm just wondering if there is something easy I can do to fix this, or would it just be easier to re-do the whole installation?

[vinnywright]

when you first start the box hold down the shift key wile its starting up and see if you get the grub menu

VINNY

[Murdoc]

Nope, same thing. And actually it says "input not supported" instead of no signal, in case that means anything.

[vinnywright]

if the box is booting strate to kubuntu then it is going through grub,,,,,the shift key will show the grub menu if pressed at the right time (I have never had to do anything but hold it down as the box starts)
you can make the menu show all the time by opening the file /etc/default/grub with kate as root ,,,, press alt+F2 and type

kdesudo kate /etc/default/grub

in the text bar that will open or do it in a konsole.

change the line .....
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true

to.....
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=false

save and exit kate

open a konsole and do

sudo update-grub

now restart the box and you will see the grub menu for 10 seconds before it boots the default(top) entry ,,,,,,,,if it is 10 on this line in /etc/default/grub .... GRUB_TIMEOUT=10

if during those 10 seconds you use the arrow keys to move down the grub menu the "time out" will quit and the menu will stay until you select an entry

VINNY

[Murdoc]

Ok, turns out that was part of it, thank you! As I said before when I tried to use the arrow keys to stop the timeout in case the menu was showing up and the monitor couldn't see it for some reason, it didn't work and it still booted into Kubuntu. This time after I applied the changes you suggested it did stop, and after choosing something at random it happened to go into windows. So I knew at that point the problem was either the monitor or the video card (I've had that problem before, still haven't figured out why a different video card wouldn't be able to see it), so I managed to dig out an older monitor to try, and it all worked just fine. The computer's up and running and has no problems with rebooting, booting into either OS, etc. Thanks for the help!

[GreyGeek]

I have noticed on my box and several others, but not all, that holding the shift key down too soon can trigger a keyboard or other error. Pressing it too late misses that window of opportunity. Sometimes when to press the shift key is a by-guess or by-golly. To avoid that frustration I always have the grub show for at least 3 seconds. Once you hit the down arrow the timer shuts off and nothing will happen until you press the Return Key.

[Snowhog]

To avoid that frustration I always have the grub show for at least 3 seconds.

I have my timeout disabled -- value set to a negative number (-10). This means the grub menu stays displayed until I do something. I want all my choices.

[SteveRiley]

I want all my choices.

Do you want the red pill or the blue pill?

[Snowhog]

Why must I choose? I'll have them both thank you very much!

[SteveRiley]

Hm. Mixing reality and illusion. I wonder what happens if you combine methylphenidate with lysergic acid? Uh...I'll be back later!