- Linux Mint Forums
- [SOLVED] Changing Grub boot order/default
- Grub Boot Menu¶
- How to make the Grub menu always visible¶
- How to theme the Grub menu¶
- How to Configure The Grub Boot Menu in Linux
- Configure Grub manually via Editing config file
- 1. GRUB_DEFAULT
- 2. GRUB_TIMEOUT
- 3. GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR
- 4. GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX
- 5. GRUB_TERMINAL
- 6. GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU
- 7. GRUB_THEME
- Apply Changes
- Configure boot menu via graphical Grub-Customizer
- How To Change The GRUB Boot Order Or Default Boot Entry In Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian, Or Fedora With Grub Customizer
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[SOLVED] Changing Grub boot order/default
Post by UgoRipley » Sun Jan 18, 2015 7:14 am
Hi all.
Yesterday evening I normally switched off my very ageing dual boot pc — I was in Windows XP — and went to bed.
Today at boot it says «Keyboard not detected», and I cannot select between Mint or Windows anymore.
With Mint being at the top of the list and Windows at the bottom, I’m forced using Mint (which could’nt be that bad, after all. ).
Once in Mint keyboard works normally, as I’m writing this post.
I checked the keyb connections and they look good to me.
I googled how to change boot order, so I guess I can work my way in moving Windows at the top of the list (even though I’ve found some posts saying that Grub Customizer is not so fault-free).
This is my /etc/default/grub file
# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update # /boot/grub/grub.cfg. # For full documentation of the options in this file, see: # info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration' GRUB_DEFAULT=0 #GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian` GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" # Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs # This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains # the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD . ) #GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef" # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only) #GRUB_TERMINAL=console # The resolution used on graphical terminal # note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE # you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo' #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480 # Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux #GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true # Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries #GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true" # Uncomment to get a beep at grub start #GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"
Once I’ll do that, in the worst-case scenario, and if I won’t be able to fix the hardware problem in other ways, I’ll be stuck in running Windows (as I’m now with Mint), so: will I be able to edit Grub from inside Windows?
Or will I have to run a Mint Live CD and edit grub from there?
Thanks in advance, precious Mint Community
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Grub Boot Menu¶
If you have more than one operating system installed, it allows you to select which one to boot.
Grub is also useful for troubleshooting. You can use it to modify the boot arguments or to boot from an older kernel.
How to make the Grub menu always visible¶
If you only run Linux Mint and there are no other operating systems on the computer, the menu is hidden by default.
To make it visible, as root, add these lines to /etc/default/grub.d/90_custom.cfg :
GRUB_TIMEOUT="5" GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE="menu"
Then type the following commands in a terminal:
How to theme the Grub menu¶
For compatibility reasons, some releases sometimes ship without a Grub theme:
You can make it look like this:
To do so, open a terminal and type:
apt install --reinstall -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confmiss" grub2-theme-mint
Or if you have a HiDPI screen, type this instead:
apt install --reinstall -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confmiss" grub2-theme-mint-2k
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How to Configure The Grub Boot Menu in Linux
GNU Grub, stands for GNU GRand Unified Bootloader, is the default boot-loader from the most Linux operating systems. It’s the most common way to handle the boot menu when dual or multi-boot other OSes with Linux.
Including Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, openSUSE, CentOS, Linux Mint, and others, you can configure Grub to do the jobs below:
- Change the default system to boot.
- Set boot menu timeout before automatically booting the default.
- Add Linux Kernel parameters.
- Hide the recovery menu entry.
- Set boot screen resolution.
- Change boot screen text font, background, and themes.
- And more.
And things can be done either via a graphical tool Grub-Customizer or by manually editing the configuration file.
Configure Grub manually via Editing config file
The main configuration file normally locates at /boot/grub/grub.cfg . It however varies on different Linux Distros, such as Fedora generates the file at /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg for UEFI and /boot/grub2/grub.cfg for BIOS-boot.
It is an automatic generated file that is being loaded by Grub on each boot. We don’t recommend to edit the file directly because it changes automatically after applying system updates.
Users can edit the /etc/default/grub as well as files under /etc/grub.d/ to control how to generate the main configuration file.
Firstly, open terminal and run command to edit /etc/default/grub .
Here I use the universal nano command line text editor. To save changes, press Ctrl+X, type y, and hit Enter. For choice, replace nano with your favorite text editor, such as gedit for Ubuntu/Fedora, xed for Linux Mint.
As you see in the picture above, lines started with # at the beginning are comments. They do nothing but descriptions. You can comment / un-comment a line by adding / removing # at the beginning.
1. GRUB_DEFAULT
The GRUB_DEFAULT line sets which OS to boot by default. The value can be either a number or full-name of a boot menu entry.
The number value counts from 0. It can be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, …
- To boot the first entry, set GRUB_DEFAULT = 0.
- For the second entry, use GRUB_DEFAULT = 1.
- And GRUB_DEFAULT = 2 will set the third entry as default.
You can also set the full-text of a menu entry as the value. For example:
Also it can set to GRUB_DEFAULT = saved. With it, you NEED one more rule to set default OS:
- Boot the last booted entry with one more line: GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT = true
- Set default entry anytime via grub-set-default command, without editing config file:
- sudo grub-set-default 1 set the second entry as default.
- sudo grub-set-default 3 set the fourth entry as default.
2. GRUB_TIMEOUT
The GRUB_TIMEOUT value controls how long the boot menu will display in seconds, before it boots the default automatically. Press any key during the time will interrupt the timeout.
The timeout may not work if you set to 0 in recent Ubuntu releases, e.g., Ubuntu 20.04 & higher. It's overwritten by /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober file. As a workaround, add
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true
to disable 30_os-prober.You can control how the timeout count down via GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE. Though the value is also overwritten to always ‘menu’ in Ubuntu if more than one menu entries available.
- GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE = ‘menu’ will display boot menu and wait for timeout.
- Set GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE = ‘countdown’ will NOT display the menu, but countdown before timeout.
- And GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE = ‘hidden’ will also hide the boot menu, but wait until timeout silently.
There’s also GRUB_RECORDFAIL_TIMEOUT. If the last boot failed, it will stuck at boot menu until you choose an entry and hit Enter. In the case, use GRUB_RECORDFAIL_TIMEOUT to set a timeout to boot the default.
3. GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR
The value of the key is usually your Linux Distribution name, exported via a simple command. It is useful for a certain script in /etc/grub.d/ directory to take effect. Leave it unchanged unless you know what you’re doing.
4. GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX
The GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX value adds kernel parameters to the menu entry.
The GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT will also add kernel parameters. But they are added after those listed in ‘GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX‘. As well, it generates ‘recovery mode‘ for each kernel entry (without parameter).
To disable the recovery mode, use GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY = true.
5. GRUB_TERMINAL
The GRUB_TERMINAL value specifies the input and output device. You can use ‘GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT’ and/or ‘GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT’ respectively, or use ‘GRUB_TERMINAL’ to overwrite both to the same.
- “console” – native platform console.
- “serial” – serial terminal
- “serial_ “ – serial terminal with explicit port selection.
- “at_keyboard” – PC AT keyboard input device.
- “usb_keyboard” – USB keyboard using the HID Boot Protocol.
- “gfxterm” – graphics-mode output.
- “vga_text” – VGA text output.
- “mda_text” – MDA text output.
- “morse” – Morse-coding using system beeper
- “spkmodem” – simple data protocol using system speaker.
6. GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU
The key will toggle on / off the sub-menu (e.g. “Advanced options for …”). By setting GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU = true, it brings out the sub-menu items into top-level menu.
7. GRUB_THEME
Grub boot-loader supports themes! You can find a theme either in gnome-look.org or Github.
By installing theme folders into “/boot/grub/themes” directory, you can add GRUB_THEME=”/boot/grub/themes/THEME_NAME/theme.txt” to apply one.
And you can specify the boot screen resolution via “GRUB_GFXMODE”. For example:
It will try to use 32-bit color 1280×1024 resolution. If failed, fallback to 1024×768. The default will in use via ‘auto‘ if all the previous not available.
Apply Changes
After editing the config file, or running grub-set-default command, you need to update the main config file to apply change.
Normally, run this command will do the job:
The command vary on some Linux, such as Fedora you need to run for UEFI boot:
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg
For legacy bios boot in Fedora, run:
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Configure boot menu via graphical Grub-Customizer
Grub-Customizer is a free open-source tool to edit the Grub boot menu. It can do the most previous settings as easy as a few clicks. Including add, remove, edit, and rearrange the menu entries.
The software is available in the most Linux repositories. Except for Manjaro (due to package conflict), you can either install it in your system’s package manager, app store, or by running a command below:
- For Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint based system, run command to install the tool:
sudo apt install grub-customizer
sudo dnf install grub-customizer
sudo pacman -S grub-customizer
Once installed, open it from system app launcher and enjoy!
How To Change The GRUB Boot Order Or Default Boot Entry In Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian, Or Fedora With Grub Customizer
Those dual booting, either multiple Linux distributions, or Linux and Windows, might prefer changing the default GRUB boot order, or the default boot entry, so the operating system that’s most used is first / selected by default.
To change the GRUB boot menu order using Grub Customizer, go to the List configuration tab, select a boot menu entry and use the up and down arrows to change its position:
Instead of changing the GRUB boot menu order, you can also change the default OS (default selected boot entry). This way, even if an entry is shown as last in the GRUB boot list, it will be automatically selected when the GRUB boot menu loads. The option to change the default GRUB boot entry is available in Grub Customizer on the General settings tab — choose the default boot entry from the predefined dropdown:
After making any changes to your GRUB boot menu with Grub Customizer, remember to click the Save button to save the configuration and generate a new grub.cfg .
Grub Customizer ca be installed from the repositories on some Linux distributions, including Debian and Fedora. For Ubuntu, it can be installed from a PPA for Ubuntu versions older than 19.04 (it’s in the repositories for Ubuntu 19.04, 19.10, 20.04 and 20.10). Install Grub Customizer:
sudo dnf install grub-customizer
sudo apt install grub-customizer
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer sudo apt update sudo apt install grub-customizer
You can also download (scroll down for the latest version) the Grub Customizer DEB package without adding the PPA.
- Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo), 19.10 (Eoan Ermine), 20.04 (Focal Fossa) / Linux Mint 20, or Ubuntu 20.10 (Groovy Gorilla):
sudo apt install grub-customizer
On other distributions, look up Grub Customizer in your package manager, or see the instructions for building the application from source.