Triple Boot Ubuntu/Fedora/Windows boot up asthetics

Ask Fedora
1

Got three OS in my grub:

boot to windows and black screen until windows starts it’s graphic things
boot to ubuntu and black screen until ending up at login screen
boot to fedora and scrolling OK this and that, lots of cryptic lines scrolling on and on, then finally ends up at login screen

any way to get this wonderful info scrolling by, that I don’t even come close to understanding so just useless to me, to just leave a black screen until the login comes up like ubuntu does?

some grub edit? some setting? something way over my head…?

2

Normally, Fedora has a pretty good graphical boot. Have you changed your kernel parameters, like adding nomodeset or removing rhgb quiet?

3

… should’ve added that this triple boot is using the Ubuntu grub (which looks better - more functional) and not the Fedora grub (big ugly font, less functional), and Fedora is on an ext4 partition, not btrfs.

4

Theoretically the use of ubuntu grub should make no difference by the time the system gets to the kernel command line parameters.
When the kernel command line contains rhgb quiet fedora uses the splash screen and does not display the scrolling list of actions during boot. When those are removed the list is displayed.

I have not tested, but I believe that removing the rhgb and leaving the quiet should leave the black screen with no messages and no splash screen. Guess I need to test that possibility.

What is the output of cat /proc/cmdline and cat /etc/kernel/cmdline after booting to fedora. That will tell us if there are options there (or missing) that cause the scrolling list of messages during boot.

EDIT: I tested and removing rhgb and leaving quiet still results in the scrolling list of messages

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6

If you use ubuntu grub will exactly happen that will show booting list of services etc … It is no way to hide it but if you using fedora grub by default is hidedenbecause is set to menu_auto_hide=true with command grub2-editenv - set menu_auto_hide=1 one more time that is for fedora grub check for ubuntu (should be same but not sure).I have one idea boot from ubuntu grub fedora and with sudo grub2-editenv - list check it and if menu_auto_hide is not on list do sudo grub2-editenv - set menu_auto_hide=1 again check list and if is there reboot and with same kernel boot fedora and see will be hidden or not

7

Correct, but that only applies to the grub boot menu, and is negated by having windows in the fedora grub boot menu (in which case the menu is always shown). It does not apply to the scrolling list of actions that are seen during boot after selecting the kernel used for boot.

8

Can you give us some more details? How are you booting Fedora from Ubuntu’s GRUB? Simply loading Fedora’s grub.cfg? Or chainloading into Fedora’s GRUB binary? I assume the latter since Ubuntu is not using BLS, IIRC, and thus its GRUB wouldn’t know how to handle Fedora’s /boot/loader/entries/ files.

That should only matter for bit rot, not for GRUB or the graphical boot. Also, GRUB will read Btrfs fine, it just won’t write to it.

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9

using ubuntu grub and booting to Fedora, then opening terminal and typing:

firebat@gateway12-PC:~$ cat /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-6.19.9-200.fc43.x86_64 root=/dev/sda8
firebat@gateway12-PC:~$ cat /etc/kernel/cmdline
root=UUID=77fab13f-9a12-4786-8672-7134a20dfc19 ro rhgb quiet
firebat@gateway12-PC:~$

10

booting fedora on the ubuntu grub, opening terminal and typing:

firebat@gateway12-PC:~$ sudo grub2-editenv - list
[sudo] password for firebat:
saved_entry=9237eaf3828540a2a660af193cc8c7ec-6.19.9-200.fc43.x86_64
menu_auto_hide=1
boot_success=1
boot_indeterminate=4
firebat@gateway12-PC:~$

11

The output from your system confirms that you are letting your Ubuntu GRUB discover Fedora’s kernels. It then boots it with a kernel commandline that is different from Fedora’s (root=UUID=77fab13f-9a12-4786-8672-7134a20dfc19 ro rhgb quiet).

If you check out any of the .conf files in /boot/loader/entries/, this is how Fedora’s GRUB starts the system.

12

OK - first, ubuntu grub’s os-prober does not support btrfs so I installed Fedora 43 on an ext4 partition - ran the ubuntu grub updater and it found fedora and added it to it’s boot list along with ubuntu and windows.

Looks like I need to edit ubuntu’s grub something or other to add the rhgb thingy?

13

…maybe this needs to be posted on askubuntu or linuxconfig instead?

14

And I take it you need to re-run this every time you install a new kernel version on Fedora? That would be because the os-prober detects the vmlinuz file, which includes the version number, like vmlinuz-6.19.10-200.fc43.x86_64.

Because of what I wrote above, this is going to be a transient solution, which you would need to repeat after every Fedora kernel update. In your case, I would probably disable the os-prober and add two static scripts in your Ubuntu /etc/grub.d, which output the entry for your Windows and Fedora installation. In both, I would just chainload the specific bootloader that knows how to boot the respective system, i.e., bootmgfw for Windows and Fedora’s grubx64.efi, which can read Fedora’s /boot/loader/entries/*.conf files.

In the case of Windows, this would be something like the following file:

/etc/grub.d/50-windows 
#!/bin/sh
cat <<EOF
menuentry "Windows" {
  insmod chain
  insmod ntfs
  search --fs-uuid $uuid --set=root
  chainloader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}
EOF

Note that it’s been a while since I have done this, these days I simply create multiple entries in my UEFI and select the right one from there. I suggest you compare this with what the os-prober has currently given you for your Windows installation. And then adjust the same for your Fedora and put it in a file /etc/grub.d/51-fedora. And you can also switch the numbers 50 and 51 around to have the Fedora entry first.

15

Fedora is very much able to detect both windows and ubuntu when it updates grub using os-prober and IME has always worked to boot other OSes using their native boot managers.

Is the very short time of irritation with the aesthetics of fedora’s grub worth more than the time spent trying to track down this issue.?

For most individuals, grub and the grub menu (which you must be using to multi-boot 3 different OSes) appears for a very short time, and during boot only, so the aesthetics there are mostly meaningless. The time spent within the OS is several orders of magnitude larger.

As also noted above, instead of using grub to control booting some use the bios boot menu to select their OS for booting.

What I have done on multiple occasions is simply use the fedora boot loader and disable grub updates in the other linux OS since that means fedora can always detect updates to the other OS and adjust the grub menu accordingly (automatically each time fedora is updated – or any time the user runs grub2-mkconfig).

16

…actually, I’ll just wait until Ubuntu updates its kernel and runs its os-prober to catch the Fedora new kernel ~ really just in no hurry :grin:

Ya gotta know that although Ubuntu’s latest kernel is 6.8.0-106, on my Ubuntu boots I still use 6.8.0-85 - an older kernel, but hasn’t the bugs of their newer kernels :spider:

17

… same on shutdown, on and on and on, scrolling away - a nuisance, not an irritant :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

kinda remins me of my first red hat install back in 1998… lets say ‘too nostalgic’?

18

Started using Ubuntu 24.04 and found kernel 6.8.0-53 to ‘work’, testing every kernel that update sends my way and rejecting ubtil 6.8.0-79 came along and ‘worked’, too… then nothing until 6.8.0-84, and so 6.8.0-85 came next and it’s the current ‘latest’ working one… and nothing since so far - got this one test that makes or breaks ubuttu’s latest wonder kernel as far as my needs are concerned :laughing:

19

And this will continue as long as you are not using the fedora grub for booting.

20

Thankfully, I mostly use Ubuntu 24.04.3lts Desktop…

21

ACTUALLY, while adding Hibernate to my Fedora
see:
https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/enabling-hibernation-on-fedora-43/181392
and adding: “rhgb quiet” to the “root=” part, the ubuntu grub fedora boot is nice and clean now! Black screen, and restore from hibernation goes to my lockscreen extension setup ~ SWEET!

:smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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