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

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?


  • 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


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.


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It has been superseded by "grub-customizer", which while up to date, is also not in the standard repositories.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:

Grub Customizer preferences screen

Sources:

Startup Manager is dead

Grub Customizer PPA


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

    enter image description here


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

    Grub Customizer preferences screen

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


Hope that helps.