change operating system at boot up

Asked by firefox

I want to have win98 as the default at boot up but the help file says to go to app menu,system tools,boot. Well, there is no boot to go to.

I tried command line but it will not take "boot-admin" as suggested in the help file.
Now what to do?

Thanks, firefox

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Martin
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Martin (martin10) said :
#1

you have to edit manually your /boot/grub/menu.lst configuration file.

Run the following commands in the terminal:

sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst.bak
(if prompted, enter your normal user password)

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Text editor should appear. Now, find the line:

default 1

and change it to:

default 2
(if you are not sure about the number, restart your computer and look at the menu on wich position is win98)

if something fails, run:

sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst.bak /boot/grub/menu.lst

regards

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firefox (firefox-user2) said :
#2

Thanks for the quick response.

I tried your suggestion as well as others during the past few days I found in the help section without success.

I am using Ubuntu ver: 6.06 loaded on a slave drive with good old win 98 on the master drive.

After typing in the codes in terminal, the gedit box appears with two tabs showing.

One tab is " Menu.1st
Second tab is " Menu.1st.bak
The is no text appearing in the edit section, just blank.

I tried to open both tabs by clicking on them but no luck.

Keep in mind I am a neebie at this.

Any other suggestions?

THanks.

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Olivier Cortès (olive) said :
#3

it is menu.Lst (a small L, not a "1" (one)). you could copy-and-paste the command suggested.

the "default" option number suggested is function of how many lines "title" you have in the file, which do not start with a #.
count the "title" lines (starting from 0, not 1) and change the "default" at the start of the file to point to the number of your Win98 partition.

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firefox (firefox-user2) said :
#4

Success!!
I was sure that was a #1 and not an" L". But after following your directions I tried it again and it worked. Win 98 is now the default operating system.
I wish Ubuntu would include a simpler way to do this in the preference section as other Linux systems have done.
( Xandros) for example.

Thanks again for your help, now on to my next learning experience.
Have a nice day!

Firefox_user2