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StartUp Manager-An GUI tool for managing Grub,Usplash and Splashy

admin — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:34:25 +0000

StartUp-Manager is a free open-source GUI tool to manage settings for Grub (Grub Legacy), Grub 2, Usplash and Splashy.
It provides a menu-driven interface which allows the user to set boot menu options such as the default operating system, menu timeouts and displays, password protection and much more. StartUp-Manager accomplishes this by translating the user’s GUI inputs into bootloader settings without the need to manually edit the bootloader file (in Ubuntu, normally /boot/grub/menu.lst).

Grub 2 Note: StartUp-Manager ver 1.9.12-1 works with GRUB 2, however some of the options available with Grub Legacy have not yet been incorporated to work with Grub 2. The Boot Options tab remains essentially unchanged. The Appearance and Advanced tabs contain fewer entries at present, and the Security tab does not exist with Grub 2 fully-installed.

Currently the following StartUp-Manager options work with GRUB 2:

* Timeout
* Default OS/kernel
* Misc. (Writes to the “GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=” line of /etc/default/grub but will not remove the same entries such as “splash” and “quiet” already entered on “GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”)
o Show text during boot
* Display resolution – Placed on “GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=” line of /etc/default/grub as “vga=XXX”. During boot GRUB 2 will note that the “vga=” option is deprecated.
Install Startup-Manager
Run this command in terminal(Applications/Accessoires/Terminal):

sudo apt-get install startupmanager

This will properly install this on your machine,and you can launch this from System->Administration->StartUp-Manager.
Pictures:

see more about StartUp-Manager

Edit Ubuntu GRUB boot manager settings with Kgrubeditor(GUI)

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:03:52 +0000

Kgrubeditor is a tool to view and edit the menu.lst file of the GRUB boot manager. It offers many features and it is the perfect solution for those who want to change the way GRUB works, without messing with the menu.lst file.
With kgrubeditor,you can add,remove and edit entries in grub list,and change grub timeout,background image(this maybe for Grub 2,I didn’t test it in old grub),make a backup,repair grub if broken,and so forth.
Install Kgrubeditor
This is available from synaptic(System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager).Just search “kgrubeditor”(without quotes) and mark to install.

Following is required packages,check if you have them installed from synaptic:

imagemagick
image manipulation programs
also a virtual package provided by graphicsmagick-imagemagick-compat
or graphicsmagick-imagemagick-compat
image processing tools providing ImageMagick interface
NOTE:Kgrubeditor didn’t work in both my ubuntu 9.04 and 8.10 machines until I installed graphicsmagick-imagemagick-compat
kdebase-runtime (>= 4:4.1.2)

runtime components from the official KDE 4 release

kdelibs5 (>= 4:4.1.2)

core libraries for all KDE 4 applications

libc6 (>= 2.1.3) [i386]

GNU C Library: Shared libraries
also a virtual package provided by libc6-udeb

libc6 (>= 2.2.5) [amd64]
libqtcore4 (>= 4.4.3)

Qt 4 core module

libqtgui4 (>= 4.4.3)

Qt 4 GUI module

libstdc++6 (>= 4.1.1)

The GNU Standard C++ Library v3

Launch kgrubeditor from Applications->System Tools->KGRUBEditor
Some pictures of kgrubeditor:

Clean up Ubuntu old grub boot menu after upgrades

admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:00:17 +0000

Ubuntu always adds new items into the grub without removing the old ones after upgrades.If you have this problem and want to clean up old entries from your grub menu,this tutorial may helps.

Edit the file /boot/grub/menu.lst by following command in terminal:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Find out the line which says “#howmany=all”,change it to “#howmany=1″.Close and save the file.Next time grub menu boots up,the newest kernel lines will be shown.

If you just want to delete the one entry in grub menu,also in the above file find the section start as “## End Default Options##”,find out the part and delete it.

Add Windows into grub menu after install Ubuntu

admin — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:18:50 +0000

If you have installed Windows in your computer first,commonly windows will be in grub menu after you install ubuntu.But there’s always someone can’t boot windows after install ubuntu.In this tutorial I’ll tell how to figure out it.

First,boot up your ubuntu and open up a terminal window,edit menu.lis file by following command

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Add following section in the screen

title Microsoft Windows, Codename: XP
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

Here root (hd0,0), means my windows was installed in the first partition of first hard disk.

Click here,if you want to make windows boot up as default OS.

Set Windows as Default OS in Grub

admin — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:22:16 +0000

If you’ve installed both Ubuntu and Windows in your computer,your system will be start up through grub and Ubuntu starts as the default OS in grub.you may use Windows more often than Ubuntu and you do not want to select to boot up Windows everytime you start the computer.Here is an easy way to set Windows as default OS.

First,in your Ubuntu open up a terminal window and run following command:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Find the section in the file like this:

There are four titles match the four grub menu when you start the computer,count from above to below with the numbering starts at 0,in this screen Windows is number 3 and just change the line which says default 0 to default 3.

Another way,in the screen above cut the marked section and paste it to the above of the first title,save and close the file then restart.

Note:For grub2 (ubuntu 9.10 and higher version),see this to set default OS:http://ubuntuguide.net/3-ways-setting-xpvistawindows-7-as-default-bootup-os-in-grub-2

Boot up ubuntu directly without loading grub menu

admin — Sun, 10 May 2009 02:18:16 +0000

After Ubuntu 9.04 installed,it stay in seconds and go into Ubuntu directly without booting menu when my computer restart.I have to press Esc key during the suspended time and select OS in grub menu whenever I do not want to boot up Ubuntu.In this tutorial I will explain how to make grub loading grub menu without press Esc and booting up a default OS with timeout.

First,in ubuntu system open up a terminal window and execute:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

At the file window,add “#”at the begin of line “default 0″,”timeout 5″,”hiddenmenu”,following is what I have done.

then at the top of boot menu add tow lines

default 0

timeout=5

close and save the file.

Change the Grub menu timeout in ubuntu

admin — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:16:59 +0000

You will see the Grub menu when your ubuntu system boots,and the only issue is that the default timeout in 10 seconds.This brief tutorial will tell you how to change the default timeout.

Open a terminal window and type :

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

At the next window find the section looks like this:

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout        10

Change the number after “timeout” that is in seconds,then save the file.you will have that time to choose the menu item you want when you reboot.

Grub missed after reinstall Windows,or Grub error17 after delete Ubuntu partition

admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:14:37 +0000

1.If you reinstalled Windows with Linux in your HDD,Windows will be directly startup with not Grub load when you restart the computer,and Linux cannot be startup.

2.If you deleted Linux partitions incautiously,when restart the computer Grub will be loading error and the computer doesn’t boot any startup disks.

This article may help you if you have the problems above.

Grub doesn’t work when you reinstall Windows:

First,go into the BIOS and set the CD to be the first boot device.

then,you need a Linux install CD and boot from the CD.

Open a terminal window after startup,and execute the command:

sudo grub

find /boot/grub/stage1

root (hd0,x)

setup (hd0)

where “x” is a number presented after execute “find /boot/grub/stage1″

restart your computer,and hope this helps you.

Loading Grub error:

First,also go into BIOS and set the CD to be the first boot device.

then you need a Windows install CD and boot from the CD.

Press R to go to the recovery console when it asks you whether you want install windows etc.

startup disks include Windows will be present to you

enter the number at the beginning of Windows,then you will go to command line.

For XP or NT users:

C:\WINDOWS\cd..

C:\fixboot c:

C:\fixmbr

and for DOS based system use “fdisk /mbr”

Tips:

select the new entry by execute command:

C:\bootcfg /rebuild