I’m terribly sick of finding out how to make Windows Vista boot first using GRUB, so I posted it here. I dual-boot Ubuntu and Windows Vista and spend most of my time using Windows Vista. Hope it helps you guys too.
First, you’ll have to launch your terminal in Ubuntu. It’s probably at Applications > Accessories > Terminal.
Type this in terminal
gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
You’ll be prompted for you password as this operation requires elevated permissions.
There are some GRUB settings that you can consider changing:
timeout sec
You can change it to 5 seconds like I did so it loads into your OS faster. I’m always away from my computer during the boot up ’cause I hate to watch things boot up.
timeout 5
default num
Changing the default startup OS is extremely helpful.
default 6
(Booting up to Ubuntu or Windows Vista using GRUB.)
Why set default to 6? Windows Vista is the at position 6, remember that programmers, unlike my kindergarten teacher, loves counting from 0. From the above picture, my ‘default’ should be set to 6. It may be different in your set up.
Below is a preview of how the GRUB options look like, from the item 0 (Ubuntu) to item 6 (Windows Vista).
## ## End Default Options ##
title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel ...
initrd ...
quiet
title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,1)
kernel ...
initrd ...
title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel ...
initrd ...
quiet
title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,1)
kernel ...
initrd ...
title Ubuntu 7.10, memtest86+
root (hd0,1)
kernel ...
quiet
### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
The above codes worked for me and I hope it is helpful for you. This should work for Windows XP too I guess. Please know what you’re doing before you save anything. You may want to backup menu.lst too.
Tags: operating systems, ubuntu, windows
Thanks this was very helpful to me. I l’ve been loking for this all day.
by Elsa (Mar 25, 2008 at 2 PM)I got all that, but my v8.04 says I don’t have permission to save menu.lst; even though I typed my password correctly.
by person (Aug 9, 2008 at 10 PM)if you type ’sudo ls’, you’ll be prompted for the password. Is that password correct in the first place?
by Mr. Dew (Aug 10, 2008 at 12 AM)thanks, I missed the sudo part *(slap forehead)*. I guess I’m just not that smart. Sorry
by person (Aug 10, 2008 at 8 AM)Ok, I made that change. Vista boots first, but now linux can’t mount it’s partition
by person (Aug 10, 2008 at 8 AM)thanks this was a very helpful post !!
by Kareem (Sep 25, 2008 at 11 PM)I’m new to Linux and recently install Ubuntu. I have two HDs running XP on the first and the second has Vista with a second partition for the Ubuntu install. The install was successful but when I restart and Grub appears, if I select the longhorn loader, my computer restarts and then re-enters grub. Its akin to some endless loop I can’t get out of and access the longhorn loader. I can boot into ubuntu no problem. Any suggestions?
by Brandon (Nov 2, 2008 at 2 PM)Thank you so much…it works
by umi (Nov 17, 2008 at 2 AM)in a minutes ..after long long time searchin’…
GOD bless you….