How to reboot into Windows from Ubuntu?

Question

I'm looking for a way to reboot into Windows from Ubuntu on a 10.10/Vista dual boot system. The specific use case is that I would like to be able to ssh into my running Ubuntu instance and issue a command that will initiate a reboot directly into Windows.

I found a promising blog post, but the script that it suggests isn't working:

#!/bin/bash

WINDOWS_ENTRY=`grep menuentry /boot/grub/grub.cfg  | grep --line-number Windows`
MENU_NUMBER=$(( `echo $WINDOWS_ENTRY | sed -e "s/:.*//"` - 1 ))
sudo grub-reboot $MENU_NUMBER
sudo reboot

man grub-reboot isn't much help, but it seems to be leading me in the right direction:

set the default boot entry for GRUB, for the next boot only

WINDOWS_ENTRY=`grep menuentry /boot/grub/grub.cfg  | grep --line-number Windows`
MENU_NUMBER=$(( `echo $WINDOWS_ENTRY | sed -e "s/:.*//"` - 1 ))
echo $MENU_NUMBER

This returns the expected value, but on reboot the first menu entry is still highlighted. Any ideas why this isn't working or suggestions for other solutions?

Answer 1

• You have to edit your grub first.

  sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

• Search for the line GRUB_DEFAULT=0 and modify it to GRUB_DEFAULT=saved

• Update your grub using the following command.

  sudo update-grub

• Now create a file and add these lines,

  !/bin/bash
  WINDOWS_ENTRY=`grep menuentry /boot/grub/grub.cfg  | grep --line-number Windows`
  MENU_NUMBER=$(( `echo $WINDOWS_ENTRY | sed -e "s/:.*//"` - 1 ))
  gksu grub-reboot $MENU_NUMBER
  gksu reboot
  

• Make the script executable.
• And now you can run this script from terminal to reboot into windows.

• Or you can execute the following command in your terminal

  sudo grub-reboot X

• Where X is the menuentry position of the OS you want to restart in from the GRUB menu.(starting with 0 as the first entry)

For Example:

• If this is your grub menu and if you want to boot into windows you should give the value of X as 5.

• sudo grub-reboot 5

  

• You can also create a launcher for the above command,so that double clicking the launcher will reboot into windows.

Answer 2

I think I have found an even nicer way for people who want to the same while locally at their pc without ssh.

A solution to reboot into a specific system choosen through a unity launcher was just posted on webupd8. See http://www.webupd8.org/2011/05/custom-unity-launcher-to-reboot-in.html

I know this is not exactly what the question is about but in case someone has a similar question later this might be helpful.