Skip to main content

Hide-show grub menu at boot

Fedora 13: These instructions should apply to other Linux distribution using grub version 0.97 and later.

The default installation of the GRUB boot loader by Fedora 13 set the timeout value to 0 and the hiddenmenu option enabled, which effectively hides the GRUB boot menu from the user.

Viewing the GRUB menu without changing the defaults​

The grub menu can be made to appear by holding down a key, such as SHIFT, during the boot process.

Changing the defaults so the boot menu always appears​

Edit /boot/grub/grub.conf:

  1. Remove (or comment out) the hiddenmenu line.
  2. Set the timeout parameter to the length in seconds that GRUB will wait before booting the default menu option, if the user does not press any keys.

References​

  • man grub

GRUB vs. GRUB2:

When searching for information about GRUB on the Internet, be aware that Grub2 is a very different program from the version shipped with Fedora, and information about Grub2 will not necessarily apply to Fedora. The Fedora project has not yet switched to using Grub2 because it does not support some system configurations on which Fedora is used.