Change grub to make XP primary?

mitchell7man · 03-15-2007, 10:01 PM

Hello, I dual boot Windows Xp and Ubuntu Edgy, my question is can you change grub so that when I turn on my PC, it automatically boots into windows XP, so that i don't have to hastle with that seeing that I use it more than UBUNTU, and that way, i only have to pick an os when i wan't to use Ubuntu?, Any ideas?, MJ

jay73 · 03-15-2007, 10:10 PM

You need to edit GRUB. At the top of the file /boot/grub/menu.lst there are two values:
timeout
default

If you set timeout (I think that that's what it's called) to a negative value, eg -1, GRUB won't boot anything and it will nicely wait until you pick an OS yourself.

If you do want GRUB to boot an OS for you, you need to adjust the value of default. If it is set to 0, it will automatically boot the 1st OS that appears in the menu.lst; if you change it to 1, it will boot the second one on the list.

mitchell7man · 03-15-2007, 11:34 PM

HEllo, today I have seen this in changes I have tried to make, when i try to save files it says i do not have permissions and that I am not owner, I am the only user on this system what do I do? I have tryed "su -", but i get an error saying authentication failure, don't know what to do, cuz i use my user password(I am the only user), is there some default password or something i don;'t know about?

jay73 · 03-16-2007, 12:58 AM

So you've been running Ubuntu without knowing the root password? Gee, no wonder you like windows better because you can't really do much without it. Unless you use sudo. If you try to execute a command and you get told you haven't got the right permissions, just repeat the command preceded by sudo, like this:

sudo [command]

If that doesn't help, you can always have a look at this:

http://fab.cba.mit.edu/central/?q=fo...ations_help/87

mitchell7man · 03-16-2007, 06:58 PM

I followed the link you gave me, and it worked perfectly, now i have access to the root account, thanks
MJ