Grub an ubuntu

eeeboy · 05-15-2007, 12:29 PM

As I told before in previous posts, that I am quite newbe in Ubuntu and somewhat novice in Linux too.

As I was installing ubuntu for first time , I preferred default installation ( though I had little experience with grub since I use this several times for setting up red hat linux).

Well , after installing and rebooting my machine I found that , grub shows a list of operating systems where among 3 first two are Ubuntu (one is normal boot, another is recovery mode) and rest is Windows. And time out is 10 sec.

Now I want to make windows my default os ( i mean first in the list ) and also want to change the timeout too.

I searched boot.ini in windows , but could find anything there , so its solely grub control !

So tell me how I can change this grub settings in ubuntu ?

thanks in advance

regards

eeeboy

Hern_28 · 05-15-2007, 12:37 PM

Edit the grub menu, it is usually in the /boot/grub folder on the hd unless you specified a different place. all you have to do is move the entries for windows to the top of the list or you can specify it as default.

masonm · 05-15-2007, 12:37 PM

All of those parameters are in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file.

sadiqdm · 05-16-2007, 02:57 AM

Open a terminal window in Ubuntu and type su then your root password

Type cd /boot/grub
then cp menu.lst menu.lst.backup to make sure you have a working version of the file.

Then type joe menu.lst to open it in my favourite text editor

(use vi or emacs if you prefer)

This is the top bit of mine:

Code:

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default         0

scroll down till you find this:

Code:

## ## End Default Options ##

title           Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
root            (hd0,7)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=c37b4b0c-2bdb-4add-b5
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic
quiet
savedefault

title           Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic (recovery mode)
root            (hd0,7)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=c37b4b0c-2bdb-4add-b5
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic

title           Ubuntu, memtest86+
root            (hd0,7)
kernel          /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title           Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title           Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root            (hd0,0)
savedefault
chainloader     +1

Count down the entries beginning title till you get to the one you want to boot as default. In my case XP is 5. Subtract 1 and enter that number in the line beginning default at the top of the file.

Then hit CTRL+K+X to save and exit, and reboot. Note the above is for Kubuntu 7.04, so the exact wording may be different.

Good luck!

binary_y2k2 · 05-16-2007, 07:31 AM

If you don't want to go in the the command line to edit the file, you can open /boot/grub/menu.lst in a GUI (graphical) text editor. Just run the command

Code:

gksu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

or for Kubuntu

Code:

kdesu kate /boot/grub/menu.lst

Duck2006 · 05-16-2007, 08:28 PM

Code

Quote:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Edit and save

binary_y2k2 · 05-17-2007, 10:50 AM

don't use sudo with GUI apps, that's what gksu ans gksudo are for

sadiqdm · 05-21-2007, 04:21 AM

I've been sent PM's about how to install a 2nd Linux following my post above, so I've posted my reply as a new topic in the Linux Distributions section - see here