After installing Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala on a dual boot Windows system, the bootloader will default to starting Ubuntu. If you want to default to loading Windows and/or change the timeout settings without messing with the config files there is a simple solution.
First you need to go to the software center and install startup manager by going to Applications -> Ubuntu Software Center. Do a search for StartUp-Manager and install. After the installation, go to System – Administration -> StartUp-Manager, a dialog box will open up where you can set the Timeout seconds and a drop down list where you can select which OS you want to be the default.
Once you select your options it will save the file and the next time you boot the options will take effect.
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Dammit! I’ve been going online to re-read the grub.cfg technique every time I need to change the boot order on computers.
This is sooooo much easier.
March 14th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
This would be better if there were some options for ONLY ONCE.
This way you could boot into Windows THIS TIME and then when you reboot from there….you’ll be back in Ubuntu.