I'm looking for a boot manager that hides itself

[MeDieViL02]

so you need to bring it up with a special key just like the menu to boot in safe mode

as i'd like to keep windows as the default boot up

[Foub]

so you need to bring it up with a special key just like the menu to boot in safe mode

as i'd like to keep windows as the default boot up

Under Ubuntu you can install a program that will allow you to set the default OS and then you can lower the timeout amount as well.

[MeDieViL02]

Under Ubuntu you can install a program that will allow you to set the default OS and then you can lower the timeout amount as well.

i'm planning to install ubuntu, is that program packed with ubuntu? or do i need to install it on ubuntu?

[markwolfe Veteran]

In the old days, I would recommend using a boot floppy with your alternate boot manager. But you can set up grub to silently boot your default and only be called up on a key input. If that is good enough.

[MeDieViL02]

In the old days, I would recommend using a boot floppy with your alternate boot manager. But you can set up grub to silently boot your default and only be called up on a key input. If that is good enough.

thats what i'm looking for yes

can i change grub setting on ubuntu after install?

[Foub]

i'm planning to install ubuntu, is that program packed with ubuntu? or do i need to install it on ubuntu?

You have to install it. Just search in Synaptic for grub.

[Lechio]

Edit these lines from /boot/grub/menu.list

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout		3

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
hiddenmenu

The boot menu is only shown if you press the "ESC" key.

The timeout to do this is of 3 seconds. You can change that to be more or less time.

Remember also to change the default boot entry so it can boot Windows as default.

EDIT: If you are planning to install Ubuntu using Wubi, that option will be configured from inside Windows. As it boots using the Windows boot manager.

Edited November 22, 2008 by Lechio

[robz0rz]

Once you've installed ubuntu, open up a terminal and type this in:

sudo apt-get install startupmanager

You will now have an entry in System>Administration called StartUp-Manager. This is a little tool that allows you to set up your bootloader as you wish (setting the proper default and timeout values for example)