How to change the time for OS selection menu in GRUB?

Question

I have Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04 in my system and i saw that the default time for os selection menu is only 10 sec, as i am new to Linux can anyone tell me how to increase this time?

Answer 1

• Press Alt + F2

• Type command, gksu gedit /etc/default/grub

• change the GRUB_TIMEOUT value to 15 or 20 as required. (value in second) or Setting timeout to -1 will make GRUB wait indefinitely until you manually select an entry and hit enter, It should look like

  GRUB_TIMEOUT=10

• save it. Close gedit. Now open a terminal and run

  sudo update-grub

Answer 2

I used to use startup manager, as pointed out by Chad--24216, but alas, it's no longer being maintained, nor is it in the repositories.

It has been superseded by "grub-customizer", which while up to date, is also not in the standard repositories. To to add and install it simply do the following at the terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer

Press enter to confirm adding the PPA

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

Press Y to confirm

You can now launch grub-customizer in the usual ways. If you ignore the complete list you'll see when it first launches, and just press "Preferences" button on the toolbar you'll get a nice summary dialog where you can change the timeout value and default menu item, as shown below:

Sources:

Startup Manager is dead

Grub Customizer PPA

Answer 3

You need to edit /etc/default/grub file by opening a terminal and running this command: sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

You need to set the value of GRUB_TIMEOUT to how long (in seconds) you want the grub menu to appear. GRUB_TIMEOUT is actually the number of seconds before the default entry is automatically booted. If you want to see the menu for 10 seconds which is the default, then do:

GRUB_TIMEOUT=10

Also, make sure that you add # before the GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 line:

#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0

Then do a sudo update-grub and reboot.

Answer 4

There are two ways to do it

1. Start-up Manager (Development discontinues)
2. Grub customiser (Not in the official repositories as yet)

---

Using Start-up manager (available upto 12.04)

Install it by typing:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install startupmanager

1. Open up start-up manager

2. Change the timeout setting to 10 secs

   

---

Using Grub Customiser

1. To to add and install it simply do the following at the terminal (You need to add a PPA):

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer

   Press enter, then type

   sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

   And press Y to confirm

   

2. Click on the General tab and change the time out to 10 secs

---

Hope that helps.

Answer 5

Web-E's answer is really the best way to do it. However, if you want a GUI way of modifying GRUB that doesn't involve editing a file, you can download an install "startupmanager" from USC or Synaptic. Or with Universe repo enabled, you can open Terminal and install by typing:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install startupmanager

Answer 6

You need to change the timeout for grub.
Have a look at this guide for really simple instructions on changing grub's timeout / os selection time :

how to change the time for os selection menu in grub