What's the default 14.04 /etc/default/grub file contents?

I, like this guy also accidentally whacked my /etc/default/grub file, though I did it by using > instead of >> in a configuration script. The provided answer looks different from what I remember in the 14.04 desktop default grub file...what does it contain?

Teaching to fish...is there some resource/method I could use to find the answer myself without having to do a 14.04 reinstall just to find out?

2

3 Answers

There is still an answer possible to the part of the question "Teaching to fish...":

... could use to find the answer myself without having to do a 14.04 reinstall just to find out?

I did a search for /etc/default/grub on :

Sorry, your search gave no results

Stripped the first /etc, so the second source package name search is for /default/grub. The results give a hit:

/usr/share/grub/default/grub grub2-common

Do I have this file still on my Ubuntu machine?

$ sudo ls /usr/share/grub/default/grub
/usr/share/grub/default/grub

or, for example:

$ sudo [ -f /usr/share/grub/default/grub ] && echo Found || echo Not\ found
Found

As a matter of fact, it is there.

And what are its contents?

$ sudo cat /usr/share/grub/default/grub
# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
# info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"
# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=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 `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480
# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true
# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"
# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

As you might have spotted there is one more obvious different line compared to the output from Rinzwind's answer:

#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0

Here you go:

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
# info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"
# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=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 `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480
# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true
# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"
# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

0

The file /etc/default/grub belongs to no package, dpkg -S /etc/default/grub and apt-file search /etc/default/grub will both return nothing. However, /etc/default/grub is generated by grub-pc when it is not present. Therefore, in order to recover it (or at least a truly default up-to-date version), it suffices to reinstall grub-pc.

g=/etc/default/grub; [ -f $g ] && mv $g ${g}.bak
apt purge grub-pc
apt install grub-pc

If you can't access the system because you are unable to boot. An option is to chroot in it. Boot with a USB live distro. Then, mount the system under /mnt, rebind special fs, and chroot.

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
for d in dev proc sys etc/resolv.conf; do mount --rebind /$d /mnt/$d; done
chroot /mnt

And follow the previous instructions.

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