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Idea #20185: Facilitate OS choice and management when multiple-booting.

bug This idea is a duplicate of Idea #21: Professional-looking bootloader.
Written by leandromartinez98 the 8 Jun 09 at 20:26. Category: Look and Feel. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale

In computers using multiple OSes, Grub displays a list
with the titles of each Kernel available, maybe separated
by some fake title. The recovery mode and the memtest
are essentially not used, neither are old kernels that
are kept installed after some kernel update. The menu can be manually organized, but Kernel updates usually mess up the organization.
Tags: Grub

18
votes
closed
Solution #1: Create OS "groups" and "group" defaults
Written by leandromartinez98 the 8 Jun 09 at 20:26.

The idea is that Groub, by default, should show two
OS options (for example), and a alternate advanced
choice key:

[code]
Ubuntu 9.04

Windows XP

Press F1 to expand the kernel lists.
[/code]

When pressing ENTER over Ubuntu 9.04 or Windows XP,
Grub would choose the default Ubuntu 9.04 kernel,
or default Windows XP kernel. The two options shown,
then, are "groups", which contain all Ubuntu and
Windows kernels. Each group with a default option.

When pressing F1, all kernel options appear:

[code]

Ubuntu 9.04
Ubuntu 9.04 recovery
Ubuntu 9.04 memtest
Windows XP
Windows XP recovery
etc...

[/code]

When a kernel update occurs in Ubuntu, only the Ubuntu 9.04 group is affected, in such a way that the main menu is not affected. Particularly, if the default boot OS is Windows, the addition of kernels to the ubuntu list would not affect the booting kernel.





6
votes
closed
Solution #2: Allow the user to specify the order of the OS's
Written by Darwin Survivor the 9 Jun 09 at 18:15.
Ubuntu likes to put itself at the top of the list, with it's old versions and memtest following. In a dual-boot the alternate OS (ex: XP) is always at the bottom.

If a user wants to boot XP, they have to hit the arrow-down key about 5 times, then enter.

Why not simply allow the user to specify:
- ubuntu-main
- XP
- ubuntu-recovery
- ubuntu-previous_kernel
- ubuntu-previous_kernel_recovery
- memtest
-6
votes
closed
Solution #3: Enable hot-keys
Written by Darwin Survivor the 9 Jun 09 at 18:42.
If there are 6 items in grub
1) ubuntu
2) ubuntu recover
3) ubunty-prev_kernel
4) ubuntu-prev_kernel_recovery
5) membtest
6) XP

you should be able to hit "1" to boot ubuntu and "6" to boot XP.

This would make grub easier to use (no arrow keys required) and shorten the boot time (1 key to boot XP instead of 6)

Of course this only works with less than 9 or 10 items, but you would still get hotkeys for the first 9 or 10 boot options.
7
votes
closed
Solution #4: Simple mode and detailed mode
Written by Endolith the 11 Jun 09 at 16:59.
The simple mode would be shown by default, and would hide all the options that people don't usually want. If you have a dual boot system, for instance, it should just show two options:

1. Ubuntu Linux
2. Windows XP

At the bottom of the screen it will tell you which key to press to get the advanced options, which will then show you previous versions of the Ubuntu kernel, memory test, etc.:

1. Ubuntu Linux 2.6.22-14
2. Ubuntu Linux 2.6.22-14 (recovery)
3. Ubuntu Linux 2.6.20
4. Ubuntu Linux 2.6.20 (recovery)
5. Windows XP
6. Windows XP Safe Mode
7. Memory test

And simple mode (at least) should be graphical, similar to these screenshots:

Propose your solution

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Comments
Shady3D wrote on the 10 Jun 09 at 13:38
i think i read before that Ubuntu 9.10 won't have choices when booting unless u click a button, to interrupt and then it will show the list of OS's

toxwa wrote on the 10 Jun 09 at 16:19
@Shady3D: I don't know if that's true, but I would like that (it would speed up boot time on dual boot setups) and it could still be combined with on of the solutions above.

I would like OS groups (solution 1).
Solution 2 is allready possible, but I would like an easy GUI to select the order (solution 2) instead of manually editing some files and having a message pop up on every kernel update about overwriting your edited files.

There are also some slightly related ideas floating around brainstorm that want to get a "restart to ", which would also increase productivity of dual boot setups.

toxwa wrote on the 10 Jun 09 at 16:21
the "restart to " should have been "restart to *OS on grub list*"

leandromartinez98 wrote on the 11 Jun 09 at 19:17

Solution #4 is essentially the same as #1. I think
the graphical appeal of the solution is another
aspect of the problem.


Asminja wrote on the 15 Feb 10 at 18:35
I would say that solution #4 (or #1) seems the best choice. When I first booted Ubuntu, I was definitely confused as to which choice was the correct one. Plus, if one wants to boot Windows or whatever, they shouldn't have to scroll through a five- or six-item list to get to what they want. The graphical option certainly helps with those who have even more OS's on their computer. *Thumbs-up*


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