[TriLUG] how to make grub menu visible when booting Xandros?

[Tom Roche]

What I have now: I can

* powerup my eee "bare" (i.e. no sticks or SDs inserted). I let the
   BIOS take all defaults, then I see the grub-loading messages flicker
   for a moment, then the eeeXandros splash screen. I.e. no grub menu.

* powerup my eee with a USB stick (on which I have eeeXubuntu
   installed) inserted. Hit Esc @ BIOS-time to get the Boot Selector
   Popup, choose the stick. I get a grub menu, from which I choose the
   appropriate line to boot to either the SSD or the stick.

- powerup my eee with a USB stick (on which I have eeeXubuntu
   installed) inserted. I let the BIOS take all defaults, then I see
   the grub-loading messages flicker for a moment, then the eeeXandros
   splash screen. No grub menu, no opportunity to choose eeeXubuntu.

What I want is to be able to:

+ powerup my eee with a USB stick (on which I have eeeXubuntu
   installed) inserted. I let the BIOS take all defaults, then see a
   grub menu, from which I choose the appropriate line to boot to
   either the SSD or the stick.

How to get that? FWIW, I did the following when booted to eeeXandros
on the SSD:

/home/user> sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst.0
/home/user> sudo chmod a-w /boot/grub/menu.lst.0
/home/user> cat /boot/grub/menu.lst.0
#
# Configured by Xandros Configuration system.
#
hiddenmenu
# default boot entry
default=0

# Boot automatically after 1 second.
timeout=0

# Fallback to Configure.
fallback=2

title Normal Boot
         root (0x80,0)
         kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21.4-eeepc quiet rw vga=785 irqpoll 
root=/dev/sda1
         initrd /boot/initramfs-eeepc.img

title Perform Disk Scan
         root (0x80,0)
         kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21.4-eeepc quiet rw vga=785 irqpoll 
root=/dev/sda1 XANDROSSCAN=y
         initrd /boot/initramfs-eeepc.img

title Restore Factory Settings
         root (0x80,0)
         kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21.4-eeepc quiet rw vga=normal 
nosplash=y irqpoll root=/dev/sda1 XANDROSRESTORE=y
         initrd /boot/initramfs-eeepc.img

then edited /boot/grub/menu.lst one change at a time to the point where

/home/user> cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
# hiddenmenu
# default boot entry
# default=0

# Boot automatically after 1 second.
timeout=10

# Fallback to Configure.
fallback=2

# removed 'quiet' from kernel line
title Normal Boot
         root (0x80,0)
         kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21.4-eeepc rw vga=785 irqpoll 
root=/dev/sda1
         initrd /boot/initramfs-eeepc.img

title Perform Disk Scan
         root (0x80,0)
         kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21.4-eeepc quiet rw vga=785 irqpoll 
root=/dev/sda1 XANDROSSCAN=y
         initrd /boot/initramfs-eeepc.img

title Restore Factory Settings
         root (0x80,0)
         kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21.4-eeepc quiet rw vga=normal 
nosplash=y irqpoll root=/dev/sda1 XANDROSRESTORE=y
         initrd /boot/initramfs-eeepc.img

but no love. How to force grub menu when booting from SSD?

TIA, Tom Roche <Tom_Roche at pobox.com>