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Thread: Editing Grub2 menu.lst?

  1. #1
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    Editing Grub2 menu.lst?

    Back on the legacy Grub, I could edit the menu.lst file to change the appearance of the boot menu (e.g. change Ubuntu 9.10, Linux blah blah blah to just Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala).

    It looks like you can't do that with Grub2. Opening menu.lst from terminal results in a blank file.

    Where is the new menu.lst (if there is even one associated with Grub2)?
    Desktop: AMD Phenom II X3 720 (3.2GHz), GSkill 4GB DDR2 1066 RAM, Sapphire Radeon HD 5870, OCZ Vertex 2 SSD (60GB), 750GB + 640GB WD Caviar Black; Windows 7 Pro / Ubuntu 9.04

  2. #2
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    Re: Editing Grub2 menu.lst?

    The new menu.lst is grub.cfg. It's not meant to be edited manually.

  3. #3
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    Post Re: Editing Grub2 menu.lst?

    You REALLY need to look in the closed Karmic-development forum & there is a very good tutorial in the Tutorials & Tips forum...You can't edit grub.cfg directly--there are several files in /etc/grub.d that are edited & then you do a standard sudo update-grub

    Grub2 is quite a bit harder to work with than grub, but grub2 is MUCH more powerful--do the searching & reading before edit work--the testing group has been working with grub2 for 6 months now & I for one am just really getting where I edit it without looking at the posted info.....The developer for SUM (start-up manager) will have a SUM2 out sometime in the next couple of months & that will make things much easier...
    "Let's nobody be dead today----Looks very bad on my report" One of my favourite lines from AVATAR
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  4. #4
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    Re: Editing Grub2 menu.lst?

    You can run

    Code:
    sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
    change "GRUB_DEFAULT=0" to "GRUB_DEFAULT=4" Change the number in red to the coresponding number of your desired boot OS, I used 4 because that is my where my win install is.

    then

    Code:

    Code:
    sudo update-grub
    The last line is important as i tried it once without running the grub update command and it didn't stick.

    I hope that helps

  5. #5
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    Re: Editing Grub2 menu.lst?

    I use start up manage also, but I always used to edit menu.lst for aesthetic reasons I mentioned before. I don't want one partition to show up, I want to change the entry names on others, etc.
    Desktop: AMD Phenom II X3 720 (3.2GHz), GSkill 4GB DDR2 1066 RAM, Sapphire Radeon HD 5870, OCZ Vertex 2 SSD (60GB), 750GB + 640GB WD Caviar Black; Windows 7 Pro / Ubuntu 9.04

  6. #6
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    Re: Editing Grub2 menu.lst?

    Quote Originally Posted by powel212 View Post
    You can run

    Code:
    sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
    change "GRUB_DEFAULT=0" to "GRUB_DEFAULT=4" Change the number in red to the coresponding number of your desired boot OS, I used 4 because that is my where my win install is.

    then

    Code:

    Code:
    sudo update-grub
    The last line is important as i tried it once without running the grub update command and it didn't stick.

    I hope that helps
    Default OS isn't my problem, I'm trying to edit entry names
    Desktop: AMD Phenom II X3 720 (3.2GHz), GSkill 4GB DDR2 1066 RAM, Sapphire Radeon HD 5870, OCZ Vertex 2 SSD (60GB), 750GB + 640GB WD Caviar Black; Windows 7 Pro / Ubuntu 9.04

  7. #7
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    Post Re: Editing Grub2 menu.lst?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lazy-buntu View Post
    I use start up manage also, but I always used to edit menu.lst for asthetic reasons I mentioned before. I don't want one partition to show up, I want to change the entry names on others, etc.
    Understood--I ALWAYS edit my grub entries--you really need to do some reading on grub2 before you do anything--MUCH has changed........Look at the Tutorial thread---it was done by a fellow Alpha-tester & is the best guide on the topic to date.

    And there were a couple of great threads in the closed forum about that very topic....
    "Let's nobody be dead today----Looks very bad on my report" One of my favourite lines from AVATAR
    Linux User#395230
    Ubuntu User# 13498

  8. #8
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    Re: Editing Grub2 menu.lst?

    These are two instructive threads on this issue. The second link has directions to do what you want. Unfortunately, editing grub2 is not as easy as it was with grub1.

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1287602

  9. #9
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    Re: Editing Grub2 menu.lst?

    If you're a real control freak, you can remove the executable flag from all the little scripts in /etc/grub.d except for the custom one, and then put all the grub.cfg lines you want in there. That way, when update-grub runs it'll just put the contents you defined. As far as I can tell, that's the only easy way of controlling which bootable partitions get listed in the menu.

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