cannot display grub menu in natty

Hold shift at boot and it should show.

> SHIFT (until the menu displays) to display the grub menu. This does not occur for me on my system.

Try [ESC] or [Shift] twice.

If shift doesn't bring up the menu let it boot with default kernel.
After login open a terminal: ctrl+alt+t
Open grub:
gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Now you'll see some line like this example.
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 ## this is the line which is commented so the boot menu shows up at boot.
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=12
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

After commenting the specific line save the file and run:
sudo update-grub

Reference.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#/etc/default/grub%20%28file%29

btw. it isn't a new feature, exists since 10.04.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LucidLynx/ReleaseNotes#No%20delay%20for%20boot%20menu%20with%20GRUB%202

Sam:
Thanks for the suggestions. I will try them next opportunity that I can.
I guess I was "lucky" until now - the boot menu always appeared on my system.
Joe

I tried the following:
1. hit shift and esc twice (many times)
2. held down shift key from the start of BIOS display until system boots.
   I do get a "GRUB loading" message.
3. Tried uncommenting the /etc/default/grub line as suggested. No change. I ran 'sudo update-grub' after all changes.
4. Tried adding the keystatus check currently found in /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober to both the end of 00_header and in 40_custom. No luck.

I can only surmise that either shift is not working on my system as expected, or the menu is really displaying - I just cannot see it.

Perhaps Grub2 is unable to configure screen and display menu. Set a time-out and many kernels, boot and use down key to select another entry that default first. And check after if you booted on this entry or default one.

Thanks for the suggestion. I am able to only boot off the default=0 entry wich is 11.04. I could change the default but then I cannot get back to 11.04. I tried scrolling the down array to see if another entry booted, but this was not successful. Maybe I am not getting your pooint.

I have an update. First, I connected a different monitor, and still no grub2 menu when shift is held down. I was able to boot into an OS other than the default by down-arrowing more quickly than the speed I tried before. So this indicates that the grub2 menu is active, just not displaying properly on my system.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Configuring%20GRUB%202 #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

Boot from Ubuntu CD.
Mount the partition in which is /boot on /mnt:
    sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt # if /boot is on sda5
Edit Grub configuration file
    gksudo gedit /mnt/etc/default/grub.d
Uncomment GRUB_GFXMODE
Run
    sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda # if first disk is named sda. It should

You can get some tricks by looking at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD

I bellieve I have solved this mystery. When I either upgrade ot fresh install 11.04, Ubuntu installs a NVIDIA-like driver (I have a Nvidia GEForce graphics card) that allows 11.04 to run Unity but causes the grub menu to not display, even though it is there. I installed the latest Nvidia driver for my card, upgraded to 11.04, and behold, the grub2 menu displayed. However, the system would not boot into Unity nor classic. Thanks for all the suggestions. I msy write a bug report on this.

What happens when you try to boot?

It seeems to boot into "classic" mode with no top or bootom menus (no applications, etc). My internal and external hard drive do display. I tried booting from a Natty Live CD, mounting the correct partition, and tried to change the login screen to boot into Unity. This did not work at all. It booted into the same state as before. Maybe I didn't do something in the correct fashion for the login screen. I have restored my PC back to 10.10 for now.

I uncommented the GRUB_GFXMODE line in /etc/default/grub, reinstalled grub, and rebooted. This did not have any effect on displaying the grub menu. I verified that the change had been made. Thanks for the suggestion.

"It seems to boot into "classic" mode with no top or bottom menus (no applications, etc)." : welcome in the club. I had this issue, but I'm not sure how I solved it. I also have a Nvidia card. I had top bar in classic when I booted on recovery and after select "sanfailsafe X". You tell you reinstall 10.10. Your current issue is with 10.10 or have you upgraded to 11.04.

I have a multi-partitioned system. My "main" Ubuntu is on /dev/sda5. This system is currently back to running 10.10. It is also the partition on which this question/issue occurred on. It is currenly not viable to be on 11.04 on this partition since I cannot boot into Unity nor does the classic provide me any working interface. I solved the grub display problem only to be hit with no working 11.04 system. If you remember the solution to your problem, please let me know. On /dev/sda7 I am running 11.04 under Unity. This was a fresh install with grubn being on /dev/sda5 (on 10.10). So I can play around with Unity. Windows Vista is on /dev/sda1. I need to be able to use my new HP slide scanner which does not work un Linux. The ideal solution is to start from 10.10 on /dev/sda5 (with all my current setup), upgrade to 11.04, have grub menu dislay properly, and be able to boot into Unity or classic. I am willing to go back and try new suggestions or solutions on /dev/sda5.

I installed latest proprietary driver, but you already did it. I activated it and verify it was used after reboot.
I chose "Classic without effect" instead of "Unity".
And some other things I forgot. Sorry.
Could you reopen question, else I will be alone to answer your question.

I will re-open issue. I think all I need to do is click on the button "I Still Need An Answer". If there is another way, please let me know.

> 3. Tried uncommenting the /etc/default/grub line as suggested.

The line needs to be commented instead of *un*. One can also say outcommented, which means the command isn't active.
It should look like this.
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0

Please read Grub Wiki.

This is an update. I have been back running on 10.10. I performed the upgrade to 11.04 via Update Manager. This time, I DID get the grub menu. I guess if one upgrades enough times, one is bound to get what one is looking for. I still cannot boot into Unity. I was able to successfully boot into Classic and Classic (No effects). But when I attempted to boot into Unity, I get the no menu bars, only the hard drive icons display. I booted into recovery mode, and tried the two Nvidia drivers available, but I could still not boot into Unity. I tried changing login screen to boot into a chocei cvalled "Gnome/OpenBox" just to see what this was. That was a big mistake. The system would not boot, and I could not boot from recovery into failsafe mode. I was stuck, so I have restored my system to 10.10. I am not convinced that I have a driver problem. For some reaosn, the system does not upgrade successfully or totally into Unity.

I found a link that refers to not having a desktop http://askubuntu.com/questions/37651/how-can-i-activate-unity nad a procedure to follow to get out of this condition. I plan on trying this out next opportunity I get.

I upgraded to 11.04 from 10.10, and I was able to bring up the Unity desktop following the steps outlined in URL from my last comment. I plan to stay on 11.04 unless someone provides me a more instructions on how to directly upgrade to 11.04 without all this hassle. I think I will close this question now. Thanks for all the support.

This procedure to go from Classic to Unity works too well. It basically changed classic to Unity, so now I do not have classic mode. This is not what I want. I think I will go back to 10.10.

> basically changed classic to Unity, so now I do not have classic mode

Bug #734373 was fixed. After upgrade there're still plenty more packages pending.
Open update-manager reload package list and update again.

I have found at least two other users on the Ubuntu Foruns that are experiencing the exact same problem as me with different graphic cards. Unfortunately, there has been ro response to their problems. I think I will wait a week, and then retry upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04. I could also perform a fresh install. I do not have a lot of non-standard applications on my system. No one has of yet responded to my bug report written from this question. I did a fresh install of 11.04 on a separate partition and Unity works fine.

I foiund a reference to the following link from Ubuntu Forums that describes several suggestions on things to try
http://ubuntu4beginners.blogspot.com...-in-unity.html . It appears that several others have had this problem. I will try them and see what happens for me.

I followed the steps in the url http://ubuntu4beginners.blogspot.com...-in-unity.html . . I did not need to proceed very far until I discovered that the software package "compiz-gnome" was NOT installed (or removed) by the upgrade. I installed the software package, invoked the Compiz settings manager, activated the Ubuntu Unity plugin. I then rebooted and there be Unity! When I switched to Ubuntu Classic, I did not get the expected Ubuntu Classic - it was a cross between Unity and True Classic (Task bat on the left, no top menu bar, but bottom menu bar). I switched to Ubuntu Classic (no effects) and there was the old familar Ubuntu.I am not sure if this was as to be expected. But at least I can get back to true classic if I wish. So in my case the upgrade was missing "compiz-gnome".