30 seconds seems far too long; it means that without a user present at the console, the system will take far longer to boot. (On my systems, it takes less than 30 seconds to get from hitting the power button to reaching the gdm prompt.) Considering that the timeout stops when you hit a key, 5 seconds seems like more than enough time to hit something; certainly far longer than modern BIOSes give you to get into the setup menu, for instance. - Josh Triplett
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