Category: Ubuntu

Ubuntu 11.10 has broken the Startup-Manager, here are steps to make Windows always boot first

If you change boot order manually in /etc/default/grub or via startup-manager, you will discover that each time a new kernel is delivered, Windows is moved in another place in menu. You need to force grub to put Windows at top position each time it rebuild its configuration.

For this use the following commands:

cd /etc/grub.d
sudo mv 30_os-prober 09_os-prober
sudo update-grub

and reboot.

Older Notes:

Ubuntu has started using Grub2 and the menu.lst is now gone. Install the "Startup-Manager" to change default boot item.

It's installed under "System, Administration, Startup-Manager

Common Tasks, review and add here directly:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1302743

Press Alt+F2 to bring up the Run Application dialog box, enter "gconf-editor" in the text field and click on Run

The Configuration Editor should pop up.

The key that we want to edit is in the apps/metacity/general.

Click on the + button next to the "apps" folder, then beside "metacity" in the list of folders expanded for apps, and then click on the "general" folder.

The button layout can be changed by changing the "button_layout" key. Double-clicke button_layout to edit it.

Change the text in the Value text field to:
menu:maximize,minimize,close

Click OK and the change will occur immediately, changing the location of the window buttons in the Configuration Editor.

Note that this ordering of the window buttons is slightly different than the typical order; in previous versions of Ubuntu and in Windows, the minimize button is to the left of the maximize button.

You can change the button_layout string to reflect that ordering, but using the default Ubuntu 10.04 theme, it looks a bit strange.