Changing grub default boot order

[Jim Byrnes]

On 03/29/2013 03:34 AM, Colin Law wrote:
> On 28 March 2013 23:25, Jim Byrnes <jf_byrnes at comcast.net> wrote:
>> On 03/28/2013 03:14 PM, Colin Law wrote:
>>>
>>> On 28 March 2013 17:45, Jim Byrnes <jf_byrnes at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On 03/28/2013 12:12 PM, Colin Law wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 28 March 2013 15:47, Jim Byrnes <jf_byrnes at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I upgraded from 10.04 to 12.04 by installing 12.04 on a different hard
>>>>>> drive
>>>>>> and dual booting.  Now I would like to make 12.04 (sdb) the default.
>>>>>> This
>>>>>> link [1] suggests using grub-customizer [2]. Does anyone have any
>>>>>> experience
>>>>>> with this app?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> How did you manage to install 12.04 and not end up with it as the
>>>>> default?  The question is relevant because you might be best to
>>>>> reinstall grub from 12.04.
>>>>>
>>>>> Colin
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I put a new hard drive in the machine and disconnected the one with 10.04
>>>> on
>>>> it.  I then installed 12.04 on the new drive.  I wanted to keep the info
>>>> on
>>>> 10.04 available.  I had planned on using a drive caddy. At this point I
>>>> had
>>>> completely forgotten about dual-boot.  Once I had both hard drives hooked
>>>> up
>>>> this is what I ended up with.  Maybe there was a way to have 12.04 as the
>>>> default but I didn't realize exactly what would happen.
>>>
>>>
>>> I am going to suggest an alternative solution.  The problem, I think,
>>> is that it is booting off the old disk.  I suggest changing the boot
>>> sequence so that it boots off the 12.04 disk.  If you find that you do
>>> not then get the boot option of 10.04 then run sudo update-grub.
>>>
>>> Colin
>>>
>>
>> Yes it boots off of the original hard drive. 10.04 is on it as sda and it
>> sits at the top of the grub menu.
>>
>> Are you suggesting that I fiddle with the bios.  I don't know if there is an
>> option to select which hard drive to boot from. I had thought about it but
>> never followed up.
>
> Yes, adjust it in the bios.  If you have two drives I think you should
> be able to select which one to boot from  Alternatively swap over the
> two drive connections so that (I think) sda and sdb will swap, though
> not absolutely certain whether that will achieve the same result.
>
> Colin
>

I just tried that and it did not work.  A lot of text scrolled by and I 
ended up at a console.  I thought "oh crap" what did I do now, but a 
reboot got me back to normal.

I also found some info on the web about changing GRUB_DEFAULT=. I tried 
changing it to GRUB_DEFAULT=14. (sdb1 is on line 15) and I tried 
changing it to "Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-39 generic (on /dev/sdb1)". 
Both of these were suggestions I found on line but neither worked.

Regards,  Jim