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How do I access the grub boot menu before it tries to load the operating system?

4 Answers
Nicholas O'Leary
On Ubuntu, by default it will not display the grub menu. You must hold down the [shift] key on boot to display the menu - not [ESC] as was the case in earlier releases.

There are a few options to control this behaviour that can be set in the file: /etc/default/grub

If you want the menu to display every time, comment out the GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT setting by putting a '#' in front of it:

# GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0

You should also ensure the GRUB_TIMEOUT setting has a value greater than or equal to 1:

GRUB_TIMEOUT=10


If you make any changes to the file, you must run the command:

sudo update-grub

to ensure changes are picked up.

There is more information about the options in that file here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/communit...
10.8k Views · 6 Upvotes
Okhin Bulgroz
I assume you have a GRUB2 on your system (it's the default on Ubuntu).

When you boot, and as soon as the POST are running, hold the [ESC] key, it should spawn the grub menu. Edit, boot and edit the grub just as Angel Leon tells you (or perhaps somewhere in /etc/default/grub).
3k Views · 1 Upvote
Mattia Campagnano

Apart what other contributors have said, you can boot with a Linux Live CD/USB and access grub (sudo /etc/default/grub) from there.

At that point, you can change it as suggested and update it (sudo update-grub), then reboot.

266 Views · 1 Upvote
Angel Leon
Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst

and uncomment the "hiddenmenu" line.

...
## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
hiddenmenu
...
2.5k Views

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