Change which operating system boots by default

[fizzybrain]

I have newly installed Mint xfce 19, specifically to use FreeCAD 0.17 (which doesn't work for me on Windows 10) - fingers crossed.
My machine now automatically boots into Mint; how do I make it boot into Windows by default, and/or default to booting whatever I selected the previous time, and/or give me longer at the GRUB screen to make that decision?
Thanks

[rene]

You edit (as root) the file /etc/default/grub and adjust the GRUB_DEFAULT setting: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2 ... he_default

"GRUB_DEFAULT=saved" remembers the last choice, adjusting timeout would be done through GRUB_TIMEOUT and/or GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT.

[fizzybrain]

Thanks, sorted.
It seems bizarre that such a simple, obvious and early choice of booting behaviour requires going in and editing configuration files. It's exactly the sort of thing that will put a novice off.... Would it be so difficult to have a GUI grub configuration application included as part of the standard installation?
Every year or so for about the last two decades I have tried to love Linux; that enthusiasm tends to last anywhere between a few months and a few minutes.
Fingers crossed ... (again).
Thanks again

[rene]

It seems bizarre that such a simple, obvious and early choice of booting behaviour requires going in and editing configuration files.

Hah, just goes to show. I've always considered it bizarre to fire up a gigabyte GUI just to configure booting behaviour!

(Are our minutes up yet?)

[fizzybrain]

The novice user is already going to be running a GUI, which is kind of the point; many will never have even seen a terminal. They'll want to feel that they are in a safe place - that they can escape from - before tackling such things.

(so far so good - freeCAD runs properly on this Mint machine, and at last with Double Commander I have a file manager equal to - or possibly superior to - xplorer2 for Windows, in that it allows easy display of folder sizes. I haven't checked out the image viewers properly, but I think I might finally be in a position where there are Linux variants of or equivalents to everything I use on Windows, hurrah! Ah... Google Drive/OneDrive/Box/Dropbox integration, that could be a sticking point. To investigate...)

[vansloneker]

I'm with you fizzybrain. Be warned that the Update Manager may screw your personal Grub preferences without warning.
For an easy and convenient way to modify Grub you can install Grub Customizer:

Code: Select all

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

And certain Windows programs will even run on Linux after installing Wine. That way I can use irfan View (curiously developed by a Linux geek...)

[fizzybrain]

Thanks vansloneker, I used that in the end.
Why it's not included as standard is beyond me. Can it be more dangerous than someone an ill-informed person editing files by hand?

(Nearly gave up again after trying for two hours to get some kind of desktop sharing/VNC solution and reading all the comments about how this has all got more complicated than it used to be. Lots of guides with pages and pages of editing of configuration files. I can't help thinking that it must take knowledgeable people more time to write these guides than write a simple GUI. Of course, those are not equivalent skills, but....)

[catweazel]

It seems bizarre that such a simple, obvious and early choice of booting behaviour requires going in and editing configuration files. It's exactly the sort of thing that will put a novice off....

Welcome to a different world.

[fizzybrain]

If only the software were as welcoming as the forum contributors