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Making xp boot by default

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:39 pm
by Lukesedney
My system has two drives, and xp is on the main drive and the most recent linux mint on the slave. Currently, in order to boot into XP, I have to switch to xp within ten seconds of the splash screen appearing or it will automatically boot into linux. Is there a way to change this? Other people use this computer that are pretty technically oblivious and it would be a lot easier if action special was required to boot into linux instead of windows.

Re: Making xp boot by default

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 12:08 am
by idiotkiwi
I am no expert so someone else may also respond diferently. If so follow their advice.

Go into the terminal change directory to boot/grub and edit your menu.lst file as root (sudo gedit menu.lst)

It will have your Mint as the first entry after all the descriptions and followed by an XP entry.

Highlight and copy your XP entry and paste it into position above the Mint entry. Save and exit.

You should then be able to reboot with XP as the first distro.

If all is OK you can later remove the duplicate XP entry. If not OK you can restore to the original

Regards

Re: Making xp boot by default

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 12:31 am
by Lukesedney
Thanks. That worked perfectly.

Re: Making xp boot by default

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 12:47 am
by Fred
Ahhh yes, it worked. But It won't keep working. When the kernel is auto updated you will be screwed up.

Go back in to menu.lst and undo what you did. Up toward the top you will see a line, "default 0" change it to, "default 4". That is the correct way.

Fred