[Bug 615139] Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Poor at Letting the User Choose the Default Operating System on Installation and During Kernel Upgrades

[PC]

Just installed 12.04 and the behaviour is the same.

1) No option during install (clean install from live CD) to set the
default grub operating system (boot option).

I manually edited /etc/default/grub and changed the
GRUB_DEFAULT=<number>
line.

The ran:
sudo update-grub


2) I then ran an update and a new kernel was installed. The result of this was to add an extra menu item (a sub-menu) to the grub list called "Previous Linux versions".

As my previously set default was after this in the list it was not longer the default.
So I had to edit /etc/default/grub again.

Hopefully now with the "Previous Linux versions" sub menu grub entry any
new kernel updates will not affect the default.

Would it be possible to include the grub sub-menu "Previous Linux
versions" in from the start (first install) so that the number of items
in the grub menu list would not change when the first and any subsequent
kernel updates occur?

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/615139

Title:
  Ubuntu 10.04 Poor at Letting the User Choose the Default Operating
  System on Installation and During Kernel Upgrades

Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: grub

  I am not sure if "grub" is the correct package to report this under,
  but it seems the one most associated with the system startup.

  If installing Ubuntu 10.04 as a dual boot system (ie adding it to a
  machine with one of more other operating systems already installed),
  using the default recommended installation routine you are not
  prompted what operating system should be made the default. Ubuntu
  10.04 is made the default, which seems a little arrogant.

  There is not clear method by default to change the default operating system. Search engine results seem to throw up most suggestions for one to edit the file: /etc/default/grub
  With Grub2 this file does not contain a list of all the startup options so one cannot easily determine which number should be made the default.

  There is a GUI method, which is good, but this is not installed by
  default. This is the package: startupmanager

  This installs an entry under: System -> Administration -> StartUp-Manager.
  This enables you to easily select the default operating system from a drop down list.

  1) Why during the installation routine can the user not be asked at
  least a simple question along the lines of:

    Select the default operating system on startup:
     1) Existing operating system - xxxx
     2) Ubuntu 10.04 (the one you are currently installing)
    Which ever option you choose can be easily changed later using the StartUp-Manager

  2) Why is the StartUp-Manager not installed by default?

  3) The same problem appears in a slightly different form when there is
  a kernel update. The user is confronted with a somewhat obscure
  message about whether the existing grub configuration should be merged
  or over-written, or something along these lines. Surely in the case of
  the user simply having changed the default operating system, a simple
  question along the lines of that suggested in 1) could be used
  instead?

  Is the root cause that there is not way the user can tell the system
  to keep an operating system other than Ubuntu as the default both
  during installation and during kernel upgrades?

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
  Package: grub (not installed)
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.39-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
  Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic i686
  Architecture: i386
  Date: Sun Aug  8 22:39:41 2010
  ProcEnviron:
   LANG=en_GB.utf8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: grub

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