need to remove countdown timer from dual boot Kali Linux and Windows 7

[ajay12131]

Hi there. I know its a hardware forum, but since I found people asking Linux questions here also, therefore I'm putting up my question too.

So my question is, how can I remove the countdown timer from dual boot Kali Linux & Windows 7 boot menu.

I installed Kali over Windows 7 yesterday and its working fine. The problem is just that there is a 5 second countdown timer and then it boots into Kali by default as I forget and miss to select windows within time.

So I want to remove the timer completely so that I may select to boot the OS of choice without having to hurry up. Is it possible?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Timeout is configured in GRUB.

 

[skittle]

set the parameter 'GRUB_TIMEOUT' to -1 in the file /etc/default/grub
then run

sudo update-grub

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#timeout

 

[ha0]

Yes, its possible, and quite easy. All you need is to customize the grub.cfg file.

Login as Super User (root privilege) and open "/boot/grub/grub.cfg" using leafpad or any other text editor.

Now search for "set timer=5" and DELETE the whole line and save the file.

Now just reboot your computer and you'll see the OS selection menu will stay there untill you manually select one.

Note: you must DELETE the line "set timer=5". Don't change the timer to "0" else the first OS in the list (Kali) will be booted directly.

Good luck.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Yes, its possible, and quite easy. All you need is to customize the grub.cfg file.

Login as Super User (root privilege) and open "/boot/grub/grub.cfg" using leafpad or any other text editor.

Now search for "set timer=5" and DELETE the whole line and save the file.

Now just reboot your computer and you'll see the OS selection menu will stay there untill you manually select one.

Note: you must DELETE the line "set timer=5". Don't change the timer to "0" else the first OS in the list (Kali) will be booted directly.

Good luck.

Works for legacy GRUB (0.98) but not GRUB2 which most, if not all distributions are using these days.

 

[techie_dude]

which bootloader r u using -- grub or windows bootmgr??

 

[ajay12131]

Thanks all of you for your help but ha0's solution worked like a charm for me. - deleted that line and now I have what I wanted. Thanks a lot.

 

[skittle]

Please please do not make a habit out of directly editing your grub.conf file. It is not safe to do so. Even says so in the grub.conf file its self!

[root@hplaptop grub]# cat grub.cfg
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

 

[ha0]

I totally agree with ex_bubblehead and skittle as to not mess with the GRUB configuration file as it can mess up the boot loader completely. But as ajay12131 asked it for Kali Linux, I was so sure for I myself had edited it on my Kali and Windows 8.1 dual boot and it worked for me perfectly (however I backed up the original file). In face, I've even customized it a little more. I've deleted unused tests from the loader menu, and also renamed the OS to more specific ones like "Windows 8.1 Pro" from "Windows 8 loader" and "Kali Linux" from "Debian/Kali......." and its working absolutely fine.

Note: This method works 100% for Kali Linux 1.0.6 (may/may not work with latest one).