It used to be if I needed to reboot into a different(or even the same) OS when I clicked reboot I could get a drop down box in the countdown dialog and would automatically boot into that OS on reboot.
Now that seems to be gone. But for some reason talking that away and replacing it with a shinier boot screen is innovation! What is this? A race to the bottom?
Anyway, I looked through the sparse YAST boot loader options(I guess options are evil now?) and found nothing even relating to that. Further, what if I need to change boot options for Windows? Even those don’t exist!
KDE System settings had nothing to fix this either.
So not only is the YAST boot loader screen gimped to uselessness I have to baby sit the system to reboot.
Please tell me I am missing something and can get this back.
The Grub Legacy boot loader could be set to boot directly into one of its selections. However, openSUSE 12.2 has been switched over to Grub 2 to better support new high capacity Hard Drives, GPD partitions and UEI booting. But, the ability to boot directly into different settings does not seem to be there though you can change the default boot selections and play with the default time to boot the default, but there is no override the defaults with a new default for one boot only like grub legacy supported. To complain about how Grub 2 works and/or to offer new solutions, see their web site here: GNU GRUB - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)
I do offer some help you might find interesting. For help with the new Grub 2, see my bash script here:
It is possible to switch to Grub Legacy, but I am not sure I would do it after I had loaded openSUSE 12.2 and I am not sure any Desktop running in openSUSE 12.2, would pick up on it anyway. I do have a bash script that can do as you request on its own, but it only works with Grub Legacy and does not work with Grub 2.
As a Global Moderator, I have nothing to do with what the openSUSE developers have chosen and often they can only go with what the packages, developed by others can do. But we try here the best we can to help.
Thank you for your response. I know I got a little ranty(I have been dealing with tons of little things like this in 12.2) and there is nothing the mods can do other then give advice and yours was great.
It is back to 12.1 for now and I guess I need to start a search for a distro that puts functionality and productivity ahead of looks.
It makes me sad, Opensuse used to be the best OS around, and for some reason someone with too much power thinks that the prime use for an OS is to provide shiny worthless toys and take away and/or hide powerful tools from the user. If I wanted that I would be using Windows 100% of the time!
Since Grub 2 now support the new GDP and UEI BIOS I’d say it is a step forward. For the moment you can still go back to the old legacy GRUB but it is hard to say how long the will last. All the major distros are moving to GRUB2 or other booting to support the new hardware. If you find the reboot functionality essential you should ask for it on the GRUB2 mail list. Only way to get it back.
Well, GRUB2 does support booting (once) directly into selected menu entry:
bor@opensuse:~> /usr/sbin/grub2-reboot --help
Usage: grub2-reboot [OPTION] MENU_ENTRY
Set the default boot menu entry for GRUB, for the next boot only.
Am 09.09.2012 12:16, schrieb aborzenkov:
>
> jdmcdaniel3;2485107 Wrote:
>> But, the ability to boot directly into different settings does not seem
>> to be there [in GRUB2]
> Well, GRUB2 does support booting (once) directly into selected menu
> entry:
> Code:
> --------------------
> bor@opensuse:~> /usr/sbin/grub2-reboot --help
> Usage: grub2-reboot [OPTION] MENU_ENTRY
> Set the default boot menu entry for GRUB, for the next boot only.
> --------------------
>
>
And in fact that functionality is also available in KDE for the restart.
But I had to configure it. In the KDE control center (systemsettings)
where you configure the KDM screen there is a tab for the shutdown and
if you select that you have grub2 there then after the next restart of
kdm (e.g. reboot) you have the option back in the KDE restart button to
choose into which grub2 entry you want to boot.
–
PC: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.4 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.8.4 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10
Setting the grub menu default does not eliminate the menu from being displayed or the default time out from working and you have to reboot the PC with a separate command after you have made the default change. So, I don’t consider it to work as it did in Grub Legacy. Give it a try and see what you think.
The KDE Manual says this: When Boot manager is set to Grub or Lilo, kdm will on reboot offer you options for these boot managers. Note that this option is not available on all operating systems. Which makes me think you are not using the SuSE Login manager to get this to work. There is no option I see called Reboot:
Am 09.09.2012 16:17, schrieb Martin Helm:
> I use the SUSE login manager and I have this option, but I have a german
> KDE, the option you see is called Restart in your english version.
>
Just to be clear about what I mean by “this option”:
After the change to grub2 in the setting you found (and one reboot), the
“Neustart” which is “Restart” for you, sorry for the wrong translation
shows a small triangle on the yellow button which appears, pressing that
button and keep it pressed (left mouse button) opens the selector for
the different grub2 entries I have.
–
PC: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.4 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.8.4 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10
Very interesting, but not sure why the German version would be different, but the screens don’t even look the same for some reason. The menu looks like the grub advanced options menu so does your computer actually reboot upon selection or is it using kexec like my FastBoot does? The latter would mean it can only load Linux distros from the same boot folder and does not support chain loading an OS as required by Windows.
Am 09.09.2012 17:36, schrieb jdmcdaniel3:
> Very interesting, but not sure why the German version would be
> different, but the screens don’t even look the same for some reason.
I use the openSUSE theme for kdm but androbit as plasma theme that’s the
whole reason it looks different.
> The menu looks like the grub advanced options menu so does your computer
> actually reboot upon selection
It reboots upon selection into the corresponding grub2 selection which
it mirrors.
I cannot test right now chainloading since this machine has no other
operating system on it just 12.2 (I use multi kernel settings hence you
see more entries because I keep the last 2 kernels).
I can nowhere see that it uses kexec, any trick to find that out?
If it helps I can make a video with a plain english KDE on 12.2 without
any customization and a dual boot system (Windows + openSUSE 12.2) from
one of my VBox machines tonight and share it.
–
PC: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.4 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.8.4 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10
One quick update on that, I made the change now on two other machines
with KDE, oS 12.2 and grub2, one is dual boot with Scientific Linux. The
boot process goes definitely through grub2 marking the corresponding
entry for boot and I can switch between openSUSE and Scientific Linux
that way.
On all three machines I have that “context menu” to select what to boot
next when pressing the restart button but on one machine it does
absolutely nothing whatever I select as operating system for the next
boot and always boots the default entry.
I have to investigate what makes the difference between them during the
next days since that smells a bit fishy.
Just for the files, so far all machines are updated/upgraded ones, none
is a fresh 12.2 install. I will look at a fresh install and what it does
in a virtual machine, but that can take a while.
–
PC: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.4 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.8.4 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10
I just brought up openSUSE 12.2 in a VM with little done except the initial update, set the Grub2 boot option and still nothing I can find. Its as if we have different versions. In every case, I have been using the 64 bit DVD to make my installs.
Am 09.09.2012 21:06, schrieb nrickert:
> What happens if you click on that tiny inverted triangle to the right
> of “Restart Computer” and just left of the cycle button?
>
No, no, not clicking the triangle or the button itself, I simply do not
know how to explain better:
Move the mouse cursor over that restart button then press the left mouse
button, but not like a mouse click, press the left mouse button and keep
it pressed, do not release it, it takes a second or so and then this
restart menu opens.
@jdmcdaniel3:
I also use 64bit, I also use the DVD (for upgrade from version X to Y I
use zypper dup though).
What is your output from
cat /usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc | grep \\[Shutdown\\] -A 1
for me it is
[Shutdown]
BootManager=Grub2
–
PC: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.4 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.8.4 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10
Of course right click does nothing and left click (even on the triangle), well, I restart, suddenly, no matter where I am at in this message.
I wonder if this is like finding the number of people that can roll their Tongue into a tube? Those that can, see the boot selections and those that can not, well are doomed I guess. Humm…
