modify timout and default options in boot menu of live cd, how to

[nessus]

I'm using Ubuntu Oneiric, 32 bit, with Mate and I'm trying to modify timeout and default options in the boot menu of the live DVD. I want it to default to memtest and set the timeout to 60 seconds or so. I altered /etc/default/grub but that seems to affect only the way booting from the HD works.

I saw this:
http://www.remastersys.com/forums/index.php?topic=2157.0 ("Retaining Custom Grub Menus") but that seems to be about making the menus in a HD based system made from a Remastersys backup work the same way the model did.

I read http://www.remastersys.com/info.html and there is a section titled "BOOT LOADER"  that seems to address this but it directs "EDIT the Grub config files in /etc/remastersys/grub/:
sudo <EDITOR> menu.lst.gutsyandbefore  -OR- menu.lst.hardyandlater"

but my /etc/remastersys directory contains only 4 directories:

customisolinux
isolinux 
plymouth 
preseed 

and a text file:
remastersys.version

Is this still valid for Oneiric? Am I supposed to create the subdirectory grub and create a text file menu.lst.hardyandlater? If there is something more relevant I should read I would appreciate it if anyone can point me toward it. Or am I reading the current instructions but just being stupid? Any insights anyone wants to share will be appreciated.

[fragadelic]

You should be using one of the 3.0.* versions of remastersys.

Now, in the /etc/remastersys/isolinux/ folder is the template config file.  The timeout on versions prior to 3.0.2 which is in testing, is 30 seconds.  In the config file you will see "TIMEOUT 300"  To set it to 10 seconds change it to "TIMEOUT 100"

You can also change any other settings there as this is the live boot config file.

[nessus]

Thanks. I delayed replying in the hope I would report success. But I can't. I was using the current version. Since then I've been using the one in testing, 3.0.2-1. I got the default right after one false start. But no matter how I set the timeout it is effectively 0. Before I edited this file, the timeout was working normally with both the old (i.e., current) and the testing version. I'm pretty sure I got the second line back to what it was to begin with and I have tried the third line at the original value also. Only the first line, the default line, I haven't restored, because I foolishly didn't back up the file and it wasn't as memorable as the other two.  I never see a menu now. It goes straight to the default, which is now memtest. I tried several normal values - 100, 300, 600 - and now I've run it up to 3000 but still no change. I am greatly puzzled. By the way, can I insert some REMed out comments in this file or are the exact line numbers important? And assuming I can, do I use the # convention of bash or one of the other remark-symbol conventions?

The first 3 lines of /etc/remastersys/isolinux/isolinux.cfg.vesamenu, which is the only file in the directory, and which are the only lines I've edited, are:

default memtest
prompt 0
timeout 3000

Any idea what I'm doing wrong here?

[fragadelic]

300 = 30 seconds
100 = 10 seconds

You must remaster after you make the change though.

[nessus]

Thanks. Yes, I tried those values and higher ones too. Even ran it up to 3000. And made new isos and burned one of them. Booting real machine from the one I burned or VM from the isos gives same result. Timeout is treated as 0. I suspect it is the first line I changed somehow affected the timeout funtion so that it is being ignored. I'll delete the file and re-install the new remastersys again to check that possibility.

[s4brains]

nessus,

Your mistake was changing the first line from the original "default vesamenu.32" to "default memtest".  This line should not have been changed.

If you want the default menu option to be memtest, you have two choices:

  1) You can reorder the set of label entries to make memtest the first label entry item which appears in the list. (You probably don't want to do this as it will make the menu appear rather odd looking.)  Isolinux normally considers the first label entry in the list as default.

or

  2) You can add a line within the label entry for memtest that says "menu default"  i.e. something like this:

Code:

label memtest
  menu default
  menu label memtest - Run memtest
  kernel /install/memtest
  append -

I believe that adding "menu default" will make memtest the selected entry when the menu appears, and it will be booted after the timeout period has expired unless the user makes a change by moving the selection bar.

Regards,

s4

[nessus]

Thanks, s4.  Restoring the 1st line and adding menu default as suggested worked perfectly.