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.
Possibly related:
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….
That problem with Vista just cycling back to grub is caused by a twitch in Vista’s boot database. I fought that for a week on my brother’s computer. He bought it without a vista disk. Once I got a copy of a Vista disk, I just booted up on it and used it’s menu to detect and fix the boot error. Then both Ubuntu and vista booted fine. –enjoy
by vdawg (Jan 19, 2009 at 4 AM)To fix the Vista recycling back to grub error, boot on a vista disk, let it detect and correct the error. After that, both Ubuntu and Vista will start fine.
by vdawg (Jan 19, 2009 at 4 AM)I guess I should have read to verify that the post didn’t work when firefox hung on me. –enjoy y’all
by vdawg (Jan 19, 2009 at 4 AM)thank-you so much
by tithen (Jan 25, 2009 at 3 PM)i tried to change the time but i couldn’t. it shows =
by nilim (Feb 26, 2009 at 11 AM)The program ‘timeout’ is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install timeout
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run ‘dpkg –configure -a’ to correct the problem.
dpkg: requested operation requires superuser privilege
Thanks for posting this, I am going to try this.
I already have vista, and I just installed ubuntu 9.04 on a 2nd HD, and grub is installed. When i reboot my computer, I see grub, and the option to choose vista is there. HOwever, I can’t scroll down to it with my keyboard and it just automatically pops into ubuntu!
I am going to try what you have posted so that I may get onto vista.
Does this sound like a hardware issue? I installed Cygwin a while ago, and had this trouble, except that it would jump straight into vista.
Any clues to what might be happening? Thanks.
by quick question (May 22, 2009 at 4 PM)Thank you, very helpful!
If u want it to work, Just type
1. sudo apt-get install gksudo
(type yes)
2. sudo apt-get install gedit
(type yes)
3. gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
4. Change the default from 0 to your current XP/Vista/Win7 number.
It worked for me without this steps on Ubuntu, but Kubuntu and BackTrack4 requires this steps!
by Alle (Oct 12, 2009 at 5 PM)