How to change the default boot OS

[yosepht]

I have a dual boot system with Ubuntu 8.10. I am hoping to get
zoneminder working soon but in the meantime I would like my
system to default boot XP. What do I need to do to Grub for that
to happen? Your help is greatly appreciated.:)

[tommy1987]

Simply edit the file residing at:

/boot/grub/menu.lst

You can change the order of the Operating Systems here.

[balaknair]

To change the boot menu order, you need to edit a file named menu.lst.
To do this open a terminal(Applications menu> Accessories> Terminal) with the following commands2)

1) Back up the existing GRUB menu.lst
sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst_backup

2) Open the menu.lst file in Gedit text editor with root privileges
gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

3) Now find the following sections in the file
a)

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs


b)


# on /dev/sda1
title Windows NT/2000/XP
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


(The actual lines in your menu.lst will be slightly different from mine of course.)

Cut the text you find in b) and paste it just above the beginning of a)


title Windows NT/2000/XP
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs


Save and exit the file. Now GRUB will show Windows at the top of the list as default.

[yosepht]

:) Thank you very much that is very helpful.

[Hobgoblin]

Or you can install Startup-manager for a GUI method of doing it.