Many items in the start up list

MIH1406,

The grub loader gives you actually 3 choises:
1. start Ubuntu (normal or Recovery_Mode)
2. check the PC-memory with memtest386+
3. boot other OS (in your case Vista)

Sometimes something can go wrong during updating Ubuntu,
therfore grub always lets you choose between the newest version U-08.10 kernel-build-9 and your previous version U-08.10 kernel-build-7...

So your menu is normal! And (prediction) after the next update, another 2 lines comes on top of that menu.
But "nil desperando" ...
YOU can choose to see only the 2 most new kernels:

There is a file /boot/grub/menu.lst which grub reads starttime; in that file YOU can set how grub must start !

I will explain here how to do that:
.1. open a terminal window (in your menu <Applications>,... <Accesoires>,... <Terminal>,...
.2. in that windows enter the next command, what will ask you for your password (this is normal)

   sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

.3. you now see the Nano-Editor, we skip to line 98/100 by entering the next command; note that ^W here means pressing Ctrl-W ...

   ^Whowmany=

.4. you will see 3 lines with the word howmany, explaining how it works...
change the LAST of those lines, so that the word ALL is replced by the digit 2, then it says:

   # howmany=2

.5. in the end you want to SAVE the grub.menu, do that by pressing Ctrl-Ooh

   ^O

.6. close the nano-editor bij the key-combination Ctrl-X

   ^X

.7. close the terminal window, you can choose between the quick-combination
   ^D
or type in the command
   exit

Now reboot the system; today you see no change (because you already had 2 kernels in the list). But after the next update of your Ubuntu, you will se that the first line changed in

Ubunti-08.10, kernel...-10-...

and that the current FIRST line is moved to the THIRD.

Does this solve your problem?!?
Keep enjoying Ubuntu ;)

Your system is ok and is absolutely good to have more than one linux kernel installed on the pc...

Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-9-generic
Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic

But if you want only one kernel installed ( the latest ) you can remove previous installed kernels

If you want to remove the linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic you must simply remove it...

Open a Terminal from the menu Applications → Accessories → Terminal and to get all the packages related to the kernel 2.6.27-7-generic, type:

dpkg -l | grep -i 2.6.27-7-generic

Then remove them:

sudo apt-get --purge remove linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic linux-headers-2.6.27-7-generic

(if the system ask you a password give your user password, you will not see nothing when you type it, then press enter)

Hope this helps

I would like to ask a follow up question to this string, please

I understand al the aforementioned steps, however in my case the Grub loader gives me this option.

Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-9-generic
Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-9-generic (recovery mode)
Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.2.24-23-generic
Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.2.24-23-generic (recovery mode)
Ubuntu 8.10, memtest86+
Other operating systems:
Windows Media Center XP
Windows NT/2000/XP

My question is how to remove the NT/2000/XP option or should I not because it's needed for the Media Center to function? I have the Media Center set as the default start-up

Thanks
George

It gives me:
ii linux-headers-2.6.27-7-generic 2.6.27-7.16 Linux kernel headers for version 2.6.27 on x
ii linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic 2.6.27-7.16 Linux kernel image for version 2.6.27 on x86
ii linux-restricted-modules-2.6.27-7-generic 2.6.27-7.12 Non-free Linux kernel modules for version 2.

Do i have to remove all of them or only the first two??

MIH1405,

do NOT remove the Windows-options from the grub menu, otherwise you can nott boor to that Windows-version anymore!

Did you succeed to set this in /boot/grub/menu.lst:

  # howmany=2

Because, if you did; no more than 2 different kernels will be stated here (after the next kernel-update).

  grep howmany= /boot/grub/menu.lst

must have as last output-line

  # howmany=2

If this is correct, just wait until the next Ubuntu-kernel update... Then you will only see startup lines of the LAST TWO kernels: the newest one and the previous one.

Is this answer sufficient for you ?!?

It answers my question, but I don't know about MIH1406's question

Thanks
George

howmany did not solve it
I have put it to 1 but also nothing changed

The change in the grub-menu-list is done at the first next time the Ubuntu-update is done, e.g. when you go from the kernel-2.6.24.22 to kernel-2.6.24.23 ... At that moment the grub menu is re-created and the item "howmany=2" is used to shorten the list.

So please try to update your Ubuntu-version using Synaptic-Software-Manager, and check whether the list is modified.

Thanks marcobra, that solved my question.

By the way using startupmanager or modifying by hand your /boot/grub/menu.lst don't remove your old kernels.

I don't like to hide my installed kernels from Grub menu, i like to have all installed kernel showed.

When a new kernel is released i usually keep for a while the just released and the precedent working kernel.
Then if the pc is working good: i mean with audio, video and other hardware then i remove the old kernel.

Hope this helps

How can I remove the old kernel??