up vote 169 down vote favorite
44

This issue came up recently for me (and I've been prompted to lodge it as a specific question about it):

My system is not dual-boot, I run a standard Ubuntu desktop system "on the metal" (I think running it in a VM is the same).

Pressing c while booting does not cause the GRUB menu to appear (which I believe it does for a dual-boot system).

How can I get the GRUB-menu to present itself on a single-boot system?

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12  
+1 excellent question to expose an essentially undocumented feature of Ubuntu boot process, the answer to which I only found by accident while groveling through grub.cfg. Thanks for hoisting this up to the top (Googleable) level. – msw Dec 3 '10 at 15:29
3  
Credit where credit is due... This issue came up in another question of mine (buried deep in the comments). Jorge Castro suggested that it would be a good idea to present as a question it its own right... (so credit to him.... and I'm happy to bask in the reflected glow ;) I can see the value of it being a primary Q/A. – Peter.O Dec 3 '10 at 15:45
up vote 155 down vote accepted

Menu will appear if you press and hold Shift during loading Grub.

For permanent change you'll need to edit your /etc/default/grub file -- place a "#" symbol at the start of line GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0.

Save changes and run sudo update-grub to apply changes.

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

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7  
Actually, you need to increase GRUB_TIMEOUT to something non-zero for the menu to appear. – Nick Pascucci Dec 3 '10 at 15:40
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@codeMonk: Oops! (I've deleted my previous comment because I was on the wrong track)... I originally misunderstood the context of "GRUB_TIMEOUT=0". The context you mean is in relation to the "permanent" display of GRUB-menu... I thought you meant in relation to the "Shift" key method... It is true that for a permanently recurring display, you need both "#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0" and "GRUB_TIMEOUT=*NON-ZERO*", as described in the link in the answer ... (I've just test it both ways.) – Peter.O Dec 3 '10 at 17:24
    
Yeah, sorry! ^_^ My bad, I must have misunderstood your question. – Nick Pascucci Dec 3 '10 at 18:20
1  
wow, why can't we just pick one key for this? – JohnAllen Apr 16 '16 at 7:08
2  
Holding left shift didn't work for me :( – Nick Apr 30 '17 at 22:31
up vote 47 down vote

I have tried both shift and space but nothing works. Only esc key works for ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 to get Grub Menu at boot time.

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same here. Only ESCAPE key worked with Ubuntu 14.04. – atmelino Dec 17 '15 at 4:52
11  
The same for Ubuntu 16.04 - only Escape works. This should be mentioned in documentation (Recovery Mode) – matandked Apr 23 '16 at 13:30
2  
Ubuntu 14.04 here. NOTHING works. – yPhil May 16 '16 at 23:25
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Shift key works fine on my v16.04 . – Sopalajo de Arrierez Sep 26 '16 at 20:56
    
On Xubuntu 17.10, (left) Shift did not work but ESC did. – Jesse Glick Nov 16 '17 at 16:16
up vote 14 down vote
  • Keep hitting Shift until you see "Grub Loading Message"
  • After the message, hold the Shift down until the menu appears.
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This is the nuance that helped me finally get in! Thank you! :) – ATSiem Oct 24 '14 at 3:35
1  
That so does not work for me. No matter what I do to this poor SHIFT key, this Intel NUC skips the grub menu :( – yPhil May 16 '16 at 23:22
up vote 3 down vote

I've heard Shift does it. But I've used Space before and it worked.

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1  
I've just now tried both Shift and Space, in two situations: In a VM, and "on the metal" ... The "Shift" worked in both situations... The "Space" failed in both situations... – Peter.O Dec 3 '10 at 15:39
3  
If you can't use shift, try escape. Seems to work for me with Ubuntu 12.10. – user530873 Mar 25 '13 at 23:34
    
Ubuntu 15.04. Space key works. Thanks! – DmitryKanunnikoff Oct 8 '15 at 9:11

protected by Community♦ Jan 23 '16 at 21:28

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