Suddenly my grub menu doesn't show up

[Jazz]

I searched through all forum posts and wiki pages, but still couldn’t make it work.
Today my Manjaro (on dual boot) booted strangely (without the usual countdown on the bottom), I pressed enter, logged in and rebooted to check the countdown again, but this time my GRUB menu didn’t show up at all!

I checked the /etc/default/grub and didn’t see anything unusual, checked all forum posts and this one looked promising, but didn’t help:

[Dual Boot] Can't get into grub but straightly boot Manjaro after updating Manjaro

Edit the file /etc/default/grub and change the following line… GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden … into… GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu Also make sure you add the following line to the file before saving… GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false Save the file and then run the following command in a terminal window… sudo update-grub

My entire grub file:

GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_TIMEOUT=2
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Manjaro"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet udev.log_priority=3 resume_offset=905216 resume=/dev/disk/by-uuid/bf0237cc-23e3-4c85-a28f-bd87cad5abcd resume_offset=905216"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# If you want to enable the save default function, uncomment the following
# line, and set GRUB_DEFAULT to saved.
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

# Uncomment to disable submenus in boot menu
#GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=y

# Preload both GPT and MBR modules so that they are not missed
GRUB_PRELOAD_MODULES="part_gpt part_msdos"

# Uncomment to enable booting from LUKS encrypted devices
#GRUB_ENABLE_CRYPTODISK=y

# Uncomment to use basic console
GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT=console

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal
#GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command 'videoinfo'
GRUB_GFXMODE=auto

# Uncomment to allow the kernel use the same resolution used by grub
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep

# Uncomment if you want GRUB to pass to the Linux kernel the old parameter 
# format "root=/dev/xxx" instead of "root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/xxx" 
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY=true

# Uncomment this option to enable os-prober execution in the grub-mkconfig command
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

# Uncomment and set to the desired menu colors.  Used by normal and wallpaper 
# modes only.  Entries specified as foreground/background.
GRUB_COLOR_NORMAL="light-gray/black"
GRUB_COLOR_HIGHLIGHT="green/black"

# Uncomment one of them for the gfx desired, a image background or a gfxtheme
#GRUB_BACKGROUND="/usr/share/grub/background.png"
GRUB_THEME="/usr/share/grub/themes/manjaro/theme.txt"

# Uncomment to get a beep at GRUB start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

# Uncomment to ensure that the root filesystem is mounted read-only so that
# systemd-fsck can run the check automatically. We use 'fsck' by default, which
# needs 'rw' as boot parameter, to avoid delay in boot-time. 'fsck' needs to be
# removed from 'mkinitcpio.conf' to make 'systemd-fsck' work.
# See also Arch-Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fsck#Boot_time_checking
GRUB_ROOT_FS_RO=false

The os-prober detects accurately all the OS on board, sudo update-grub executes correctly and I can forcefully show the grub menu by spamming SHIFT+ESC keys during the boot sequence. I feel like I’m missing something very obvious here. How could I bring the grub menu back as it normally worked?

[Mirdarthos]

Hi @Jazz,

I believe you were the victim of…Windows.

See

GRUB/Restore the GRUB Bootloader

I expect you’ll have to ensure the boot priority in the BIOS/UEFI is correct and reinstall GRUB as per the instructions in the above mentioned Wiki article.

Hope this helps!

[Jazz]

@Mirdarthos

I believe you were the victim of…Windows.

Hm… I didn’t boot into Windows for months, therefore I’m not sure how could Windows change anything when it was not even loaded. Thanks, I’ll look into your link anyway.

[Mirdarthos]

@Jazz

Hm… I didn’t boot into Windows for months, therefore I’m not sure how could Windows change anything when it was not even loaded.

In that case, quite possibly not. Not that I know of anyway.

However, I still think you’ll need to reinstall GRUB, so that link is still valid.

[maycne.sonahoz]

Do you have more than one monitor plugged in?

[Jazz]

@maycne.sonahoz

Do you have more than one monitor plugged in?

No, I don’t.

[brahma]

@Jazz

GRUB_TIMEOUT=2

try changing the timeout from 2 seconds to 5:
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
save grub, update grub, reboot

[Jazz]

@brahma

GRUB_TIMEOUT=5

OMG! Now it works, thanks!

But how come it worked for years with the previous setting, why I had to change it to 5s now, I don’t get it?

[brahma]

i really have no idea, but 2s is kinda low… but it can have something to do with the latest update? … but really have no idea… you can switch it back to 2seconds and test again…

[Jazz]

@brahma

it can have something to do with the latest update?

I would have to agree it has to be this.

I just checked: now grub doesn’t like any value less than 4 to be assigned to GRUB_TIMEOUT, so 1, 2 and 3 are just ignored. Surprisingly, now when I set it to 4, it behaves as the previous 1s countdown and when I set it to 5, it behaves like the previous 2s (as per new_timeout = old_timeout + 3).

How about that? This bug is weird.

(Sorry for the meme, it was stronger than me.)