Hello all! I’ve recently decided to try out Ubuntu Linux and it seems to work great, despite me knowing next to nothing about the *nix world. Ubuntu is very cool and pretty easy to use, although not the most user friendly. So I haven’t been able to figure out from the included documentation how to switch the order of items in the bootloader. It’s set up to automatically boot into Ubuntu after 10 seconds or so. XP is at the very bottom of the list. I’d like to switch it so that it’s the other way around, with XP on top and booting automatically if I don’t select otherwise within 10 seconds. Is there an easy and practical way to make this change? Thanks in advance for any advice.
Wish I could help you, since I have recently done this… but to be honest, I don’t remember how I did it. I remember not being able to see it in the XP boot menu options, nor in the Ubuntu options.
Sorry for the lack of help, but here is a free bump to figure it out.
The funny part is, it’s probably the most user friendly Linux distro I’ve tried. 
And also the one I’d use if I were inclined to go full-time Linux. Pretty neat.
Can’t really help you here myself, but have you tried checking over at Ubuntu’s community forums? They were pretty helpful when I had some problems earlier this year.
Since you are using Ubuntu which is debian based, I’d imagine your bootloader is GRUB.
Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file, simply cutting and pasting which ever “stanza” you want first.
Then run “update-grub” at a command line.
Be careful, you can screw-up your system doing this.
LarsenMTL
To elaborate on larsenmtl’s advice:
Open a terminal window (how you do this depends on what window manager you have - I can’t remember how it’s set up in Ubuntu’s default Gnome menu, but it’s fairly obvious). Type “sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst”, and enter your password when asked. This opens up the file with root access, which allows you to modify it.
What you want to look for is the line that says
default 0
This tells Grub to default to the first line of the menu it offers, which is numbered as zero rather than one. Further down the file, you’ll see a section which has the entries for the menu options, with XP appearing below the Ubuntu options. Changing the ‘default’ line to a different number will select another option - and IIRC the ‘Other operating systems’ line is counted, so in my case there’s three Ubuntu choices, that line and then XP, so for Windows as the default I’d change the ‘default’ line to 4.
Here’s my menu.lst file, with the bits I’m talking about bolded:
menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.
## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
**default 0**
## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 10
## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu
# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue
## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret
#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#
#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST
### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below
## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs
## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specifiv kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
# kopt=root=/dev/hda3 ro
## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,2)
## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true
## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false
## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery mode) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single
## nonaltoption boot targets option
## This option controls options to pass to only the
## primary kernel menu item.
## You can have ONLY one nonaltoptions line
# nonaltoptions=quiet splash
## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all
## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true
## ## End Default Options ##
**
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.12-9-386
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-9-386 root=/dev/hda3 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-9-386
savedefault
boot
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.12-9-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-9-386 root=/dev/hda3 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-9-386
boot
title Ubuntu, memtest86+
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
boot
### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
**
Learn something new every day…
I wonder if you can set
timeout 10
to zero, and it’ll wait at the menu until you make a choice?
(Idle thoughts, with the repeated caveat of possibly screwing up your system )
Thanks GorillaMan, that worked perfectly!