5.3 Changing the Default Boot Option
When the system starts, the boot options screen will appear and wait 10 seconds for the user to make an operating system choice. If no selection has been made before the timeout elapses, the default operating system will be started. On a newly configured system, the default operating system will be the standard Ubuntu image. This default can, however, be changed from within Ubuntu.
A range of boot configuration options (including the 10 second timeout and the boot settings outlined in “Installing Ubuntu on a Clean Disk Drive”) are declared in the /etc/default/grub file which reads as follows on a new installation:
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=””
The first step in changing the default boot system is to declare the GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT...