I finally started the move over to Linux, and installed a dual boot system. So far liking it, except for 1 or 2 things. The big one is the process of dual booting.

I vaguely remember a friend a bunch of years ago always having the option to pick the OS on startup. Not having to hit F11 to pick the OS. Is there a way to do this? Everything I’ve found so far is about windows dual booting, which isn’t exactly helping.

Here’s my setup, so there’s an idea of what I’m working with.

Motherboard: MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC SSD 1 (Windows): Predator GM7000 2TB SSD 2(Linux Mint): Crucial P5 Plus 2TB

I just want to always have the choice of OS when starting up, without always having to hit F11 to get to the boot option. Any help is appreciated.

Edit: In case it matters, I installed windows on SSD 1 without SSD 2 installed, then did the same with Linux, removed SSD 1, and installed Linux to SSD 2 (using their respective slots) then put both in. So I didn’t install Linux with the dual boot option on the install screen.

Edit2: Got it working! As suggested, I had to change the boot order so Linux was primary instead of windows. Then had to change the timeout for grub from 0 to 30 (tried 5 but it was still too fast) and once I was able to see grub, I had the option to let it go into mint, run windows, or just pick Mint without waiting.

Way easier than going about it thinking windows first, since it refused to acknowledge i had another OS installed. Now I get to play around with drivers and software, and figure out why I can’t align my multiple monitors properly.

Thanks everyone!

  • drzoidberg@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    6·
    2 days ago

    Ok this is nearly exactly what I needed.

    I had to change the timeout for grub from 0 to 30, and grub let’s me pick windows or Ubuntu. Ran it twice to make sure. Previously I had windows as the primary boot, but windiws wasn’t showing any other OS.

    Thank you!

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      Fair warning, Windows has a bad habit of breaking GRUB and inserting itself as the default OS whenever it updates. Microsoft is historically not a good neighbor. Especially if you have them installed on the same drive. If you have separate drives, you’re usually fine. But if you partitioned a single drive and installed both next to each other, Windows will likely nuke your GRUB at some point.

    • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      Ahh, the zero timeout. Forgot some distros set that (I use Debian and it sets timeout to 5 seconds).

      Glad it works, congrats on joining the dual boot world!

    • sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.todayEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      I had the same exact setup as you. Glad to hear it’s working now.

      You can install “Grub Customizer” and personalize the menu appearance to what you want. Make it look like fallout or anything else. Just read the documentation before changing anything

      • drzoidberg@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Ok that’s kind of cool, I’ll be checking that out once I get everything working the way I want it lol.

    • MudMan@fedia.io
      2·
      2 days ago

      I don’t know what the Mint default is off the top of my head, but you may be interested to know you can set up GRUB to default to your last booted OS as opposed to a fixed one every time.

      It can be useful for updating through reboots or when you spend several days at a time on the same OS but you go back and forth every so often.

      If you already have it set up that way, carry on. If not, you can find out how with a quick online search. It’s one of those things that really feel like they should be a menu toggle but Linux still defaults to adding some line of text in some config file because GUIs are for cowards.

      • drzoidberg@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        I played with the grub settings a little bit, only cause I just wanted windows and mint next to each other instead of separated by a third option. It’s a nitpicky kind of thing, but I’m not stressing about it too much.

        I’ll definitely be digging more into grub though to see what I can play with.

        • MudMan@fedia.io
          1·
          2 days ago

          Yeah, it’s way more customizable than it seems to be, both visually and functionally. Definitely dig into it, it’s worth it even just in the amount of time it’ll save you menuing on each restart.

          There are even ways to switch to Windows from within Linux and bypass having to mess with the menu (the other way around is a different story). Like a lot of Linux things, what’s surfaced, what’s approachable and what’s possible are very different things.