After any install of Karmic, 9.10 the new GRUB 2 bootloader will not start the generic kernel. On first reboot after a fresh install, when you select the standard boot image you are left with a black screen, and possibly a blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner. To boot anything functional I was forced to start in rescue mode, resume normal boot, login as my user, then run [cci]startx[/cci] to start GNOME. What a disaster! Simple fix? You got it!
It’s time to edit Grub2, a daunty little beast that is not to be mistaken for Grub.
1. Open the grub config
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
2. A note : grub.cfg cannot be modified without changing the file permissions first. Do not modify [cci]/boot/grub/grub.cfg[/cci] Simply put, every time you run update-grub this file is re-generated. Changes here can be dangerous.
3. Find the following, or similar depending on your kernel
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=94db3b6d-1959-49d3-8565-6e3e28acdc64 ro quiet splash
4. Remove “quiet splash”
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=94db3b6d-1959-49d3-8565-6e3e28acdc64 ro
5. Run
sudo update-grub
6. Reboot