Changing default boot option

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PongGod

Changing default boot option

Post by PongGod »

A Linux newbie here, just installed Mint 8 alongside my Windows 7. I'm trying to figure out how to make Windows 7 my default boot option, but not having any luck so far. Most of the articles I've found mention editing menu.lst which is supposedly found in the /boot/grub folder, but I'm not finding this file there. Is it because Mint 8 uses grub2 which works differently?

- Robert -
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Leppie

Re: Changing default boot option

Post by Leppie »

mint helena uses grub2 instead of grub legacy. menu.lst is a grub legacy file, grub2 uses the grub.cfg file.
to change the default boot entry, you will need to know the exact entry for your 7 install. check it like this:

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cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg | grep Windows | cut -d '"' -f 2
now open the grub defaults file with a text editor:

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gksudo nano /etc/default/grub
modify the following line as indicated substituting the entry with the exact output of the previous command:

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GRUB_DEFAULT="Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda1)"
save and exit the file, then run update-grub:

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sudo update-grub
your machine should now by default boot into 7.
Aging Technogeek

Re: Changing default boot option

Post by Aging Technogeek »

Get startup manager from Synaptic Package Manager (search "startupmanager" without quotes). It will give you a nice GUI way to change several things in the Grub menu.
PongGod

Re: Changing default boot option

Post by PongGod »

Thanks for the great suggestions. But I eventually managed to figure it out with help from this posting: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.p ... =3107328.0. I'll definitely look for that startup manager utility.

- Robert -
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