Hi,

When I boot my computer, I'm left looking at a screen that reads "GRUB
loading stage2..." for almost exactly 30 seconds before the GRUB menu
pops up.

I'm using grub-0.95-3.5 on a Centos 4.0 distro. Here is the contents
of my grub.conf file:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this
file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
password --md5 $1$JvoNNfCU$L6VqcVpF5qT5Ycbk0ka501
title CentOS (2.6.9-34.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-34.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-34.EL.img
title CentOS 4.0 (2.6.9-5.0.3.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-5.0.3.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-5.0.3.EL.img
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any suggestions of how to remove this 30 second pause?? I'm not even
interested in being able choose between my linux versions, I'd be happy
for just the default to load up each time.

And finally, when I say "almost exactly", I mean that the only time I
measured the pause with a stopwatch, it was 30 seconds dead. Perhaps
this suggests something is timing-out somewhere?

Many thanks,

Duncan Jones

On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 06:15:29 -0700, duncan wrote:

> Hi,
>
> When I boot my computer, I'm left looking at a screen that reads "GRUB
> loading stage2..." for almost exactly 30 seconds before the GRUB menu
> pops up.
>
<snip>
>
> Any suggestions of how to remove this 30 second pause?? I'm not even
> interested in being able choose between my linux versions, I'd be happy
> for just the default to load up each time.
>
<snip>
>
I googled for this:
http://www.suseforums.net/lofiversio...php/t5169.html

I have seen some delays loading the menu on various systems, but not as
long as 30 seconds. Other systems show no delay. My guess is it has to
do with the BIOS, and probing devices for possible boot targets. Different
BIOS versions and different BIOS settings may be the simple explanation
for this behavior. Verify your BIOS settings. Also, check other
disc controllers (scsi, ide) are initialed properly initialized.

--
Douglas Mayne

Douglas Mayne wrote:
> On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 06:15:29 -0700, duncan wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > When I boot my computer, I'm left looking at a screen that reads "GRUB
> > loading stage2..." for almost exactly 30 seconds before the GRUB menu
> > pops up.
> >
> <snip>
> >
> > Any suggestions of how to remove this 30 second pause?? I'm not even
> > interested in being able choose between my linux versions, I'd be happy
> > for just the default to load up each time.
> >
> <snip>
> >
> I googled for this:
> http://www.suseforums.net/lofiversio...php/t5169.html
>
> I have seen some delays loading the menu on various systems, but not as
> long as 30 seconds. Other systems show no delay. My guess is it has to
> do with the BIOS, and probing devices for possible boot targets. Different
> BIOS versions and different BIOS settings may be the simple explanation
> for this behavior. Verify your BIOS settings. Also, check other
> disc controllers (scsi, ide) are initialed properly initialized.
>
> --
> Douglas Mayne

Thanks for the advice, Douglas. I think I've solved the problem now by
changing which drives are masters/slaves etc.

My original setup had both my harddrives on one IDE cable, with my
primary one being the master. I had two DVD drives on the other IDE
cable.

Having switched it so that both hard-drives are on different IDEs
(primary is master on IDE1, and secondary drive is slave on IDE2) it
seems to work fine.

No more Grub waits :-)

- Duncan Jones