Change Order of Boot Options in Grub 2

[Ubuntist]

I'd like to change the order in which the boot options appear on my dual-boot system so that 1) XP comes first and the latest Ubuntu kernel is second, but 2) Ubuntu is the default.

Under the old Grub, I could edit menu.lst accordingly. I have found an extensive discussion of how to customize Grub 2, but it kind of blows my mind; I'm just a naive, non-technical Ubuntu enthusiast.

Could someone please give me a pointer or two?

[oldfred]

You can do it several ways. One make a copy of 30_osprober as 06_osprober as all the files are processed in the order and any executable file with 2 digits and an underscorce will be processed. Then you have to turn off the 30_prober. Or you can copy 40_custom to 06_custom and copy your windows entry into that file. You still have to turn the prober off or you will get duplicate entries. After all changes you rerun the update.

cd /etc/grub.d
sudo cp 40_custom 06_custom
sudo chmod 755 /etc/grub.d/06_custom

copy your windows entry from /boot/grub/grub.cfg into 06_custom

gksudo gedit 06_custom

gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub
add
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER="true"
Change to 1 or 2 for your ubuntu line
GRUB_DEFAULT=0

After all updates
sudo update-grub

More info from Herman:
http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/...0Commands.html

[dcstar]

I'd like to change the order in which the boot options appear on my dual-boot system so that 1) XP comes first and the latest Ubuntu kernel is second, but 2) Ubuntu is the default.

Under the old Grub, I could edit menu.lst accordingly. I have found an extensive discussion of how to customize Grub 2, but it kind of blows my mind; I'm just a naive, non-technical Ubuntu enthusiast.

Could someone please give me a pointer or two?

You could do all of what is listed in the other post, or you could just install the old Grub package and get back the previous - easily editable - way of doing things (but look at a HOWTO first!).

[wilee-nilee]

I use startup manager it is in synaptic. Experienced users have suggested that it isn't stable for grub2 but I have had no problems, right before the rc release it was causing a downgrade to legacy grub if installed but that was fixed in less than a week. I suspect that if it wasn't stable it wouldn't be in synaptic, but it may be that it is only there if you open all the repositories I don't know, it works for me.

[herdivet]

OK, I'm lazy, I'll admit it. That looks like a LOT more work than the old method for editing GRUB's menu.lst.

I found a quicker, maybe not better, way to do this.

Edit /etc/default/grub

change the line:

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
to
GRUB_DEFAULT=x where x is the number of the OS you want to have boot by default. You can count down from the GRUB menu on bootup - include the Recovery Mode entries and the Memory Test entries.

When finished editing, run 'sudo update-grub'.

It worked great for me (Ubuntu 9.10) - your mileage may vary.


Bill

[Ubuntist]

Thanks, everybody. I decided to do it the "official" as described by oldfred, in the hope that I'd learn something about Grub 2 and that the changes I made would be stable against future upgrades, etc. Anyway, I got it to work although I kept forgetting to update-grub.

[oldfred]

Just a question. I know it looked like a lot of changes as I posted it, but it seemed to work. Was it all that difficult in hindsight?

Yes, you have to open/edit several files instead of just menu.lst, but if you corrupted menu.lst you could not boot. I also am learning grub2 but have started to like it for some of its new features, which of course adds complexity.

[Ubuntist]

I think what makes the new Grub more complicated from my point of view is that it will probably be more difficult to remember what to do next time I need to do this. I only mess with Grub once in a great while. Under the old Grub, if I could just remember which file I had to edit, then I could figure it out from there, just by seeing the structure of the file and from the comments I left in it. With the new Grub, remembering a file name isn't going to be enough. I suppose I could have left comments for myself in the first file to be edited. I can easily see, though, that the new Grub is superior if you use it frequently.

[herdivet]

OK, I now want to post what I think is the absolutely easiest (maybe laziest) and most foolproof way to do this. It's all GUI, no command prompt required, no editing necessary.

Click Applications
Click Ubuntu Software Center
Search for Startup Manager
Install Startup Manager
Close Ubuntu Software Center

Click System | Administration
Click Startup Manager
In 'Default Operating System' click the drop down and choose whatever you want to have as the default.
Click Close

You can also change other startup parameters here, all in a simple GUI format. Extremely simple.

[avstudio1]

OK, I now want to post what I think is the absolutely easiest (maybe laziest) and most foolproof way to do this. It's all GUI, no command prompt required, no editing necessary.

Click Applications
Click Ubuntu Software Center
Search for Startup Manager
Install Startup Manager
Close Ubuntu Software Center

Click System | Administration
Click Startup Manager
In 'Default Operating System' click the drop down and choose whatever you want to have as the default.
Click Close

You can also change other startup parameters here, all in a simple GUI format. Extremely simple.

This is the way it should be, thanks!