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I have a dual boot system of Ubuntu 12.10 and Windows 7. Stupidly, I set my default boot OS to Windows 7 using this method and set GRUB_TIMEOUT=0. Now when I boot, the Ubuntu red/purple screen flashes on and off and proceeds with booting Windows 7, effectively locking me out of Ubuntu.

Is there any way to:

  1. Change the "booter?" to Windows 7, which would not have the timeout.
  2. Hold down a key to over-ride the timeout? I've already tried shift without success.
  3. This link is exactly the problem I've been having, however I don't completely understand the part about booting from a live cd.
Community
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Joel
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2 Answers2

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You can boot from an Ubuntu live CD. And then follow the instructions given in the link.

The idea behind using a live CD is to give you access to Linux partition via terminal. Earlier you changed the Grub configuration, You need to do it again. But you cannot (easily) do it from Windows.

So the easy way is to use Ubuntu Live and then when you boot in to it, use the terminal to edit the /etc/default/grub file.

Update the grub so that changes are taken into effect: update-grub

abhishek
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  • Booted from a usb Ubuntu installer, selected "Try Ubuntu", and referred to this question to run update-grub: http://askubuntu.com/questions/145241/how-do-i-run-update-grub-from-a-livecd – Joel Jan 02 '13 at 21:23
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    Editing /etc/default/grub on the current installation solely isn't going to help. As Joel pointed out, you need to run update-grub too, after a successful chroot into the installation. – gertvdijk Jan 02 '13 at 21:37
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Does Esc work for you? Also note that you have to hold Shift down for a while before the menu appears.

Source: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

Glutanimate
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