Bug#779815: grub-pc: hitting keys does NOT display menu with GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT

[Ian Zimmerman]

Package: grub-pc
Version: 1.99-27+deb7u2
Severity: normal

On my laptop system I set GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT to a nonzero value and
GRUB_TIMEOUT to 0.  According to the documentation, I should still be
able to force the display of GRUB menu by pressing a key while
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT is running down.  This does not happen; the system
tries to boot the default entry with no menu display no matter how
furiously I press various keys.

This is somewhat similar to bug #768299 but different because
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT is nonzero and I am pressing keys while the timeout
is running down, not holding them while powering up.

It may be relevant that the system in question (which is not the one
where I'm filing this report, because it is effectively unbootable
because of this bug) is a laptop, namely a Dell Inspiron XPS.  Possibly
GRUB doesn't know how to watch for key presses due to the special
hardware or BIOS.