Boot loader / Auto booting windows

cynicalpsycho · 04-04-2009, 09:54 AM

With a dual boot, how would one go about making ones computer automatically boot up windows (or linux) unless otherwise specified by said user. giving me x amount of seconds (say 3ish) to decide to load up the other operating system before booting into the default one?

(In case you're wondering the predicament comes from sharing a computer with non-linux users)

yancek · 04-04-2009, 10:33 AM

If you are using Grub to boot (you didn't specify bootloader) there is a line near the top of the /boot/grub/menu.lst file that says 'default', example entry:

default 0
timeout 8

Entry above boots first title entry in menu.lst with a time of 8 seconds to select different OS. Grub counts from zero not one so count title lines to find one you wish to boot from.

cynicalpsycho · 04-04-2009, 08:13 PM

!Update!

After doing further exploration on the subject.
I decided to go with using FreeBCD on windows. Which allows me to adjust which OS boots by default, and how long the bootloader runs.