Force Grub to Reboots into the specified OS

Posted on in Categories CentOS, Debian Linux, Gentoo Linux, GNU/Open source, Linux, Sys admin, Tips last updated March 22, 2006

Well these days multi-booting is common. GNU GRUB is a multiboot boot-loader software package from the GNU project. I have three operating system installed at work:
* Debian Linux

* FreeBSD 6.0

* Windows XP

As per my requirements, I keep rebooting into different oses. Recently I discovered grub-reboot command. As name suggest it reboots into the specified OS entry in Grub configuration file (menu.lst or grub.conf).

Syntax:
grub-reboot entry [options to grub]

Where,

  • entry: Is the entry number in menu.lst / grub.conf file.

For example, if you wish to reboot in FreeBSD then you can type command (3 is entry for FreeBSD):
# grub-reboot 3
This is also useful to force remote computer to reboot in specific OS over ssh session.

Read the man page of grub and grub-reboot for more information.

Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. He has worked with global clients and in various industries, including IT, education, defense and space research, and the nonprofit sector. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+.

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4 comment

  1. I have installed fedora 6 on my computer. I would like to Install windows Xp so that i will be dual booting. I am, however unable to boot from Windows disks. i have tried to remove the partitions with Gparted and SystemrescueCD but it will still not boot Windows. what should I do?

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  2. hello, it would be helpfull if you add the information that you must

    1) change the traditionnal ‘default 0’ by ‘default saved’
    2) force, in the entry you want to choose, savedefault 0 in order to re-initialise the number which is saved

    example :

    ### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

    # Windows 98 Boot avec Ghost
    title Norton Ghost – Sauvegardes

    root (hd0,0)
    chainloader +1
    savedefault 0
    boot

    thanks a lot for this post

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  4. please help me, im constantly getting this error caused by a virus which is 0xc000014c and i am unable to boot my pc no matter what option i choose. then i stumbled upon using grub dos prompt by constantly pressing escape button. the last time that this happened i got a 0xc0000248c error i think and i found a set of codes from the net which i inputted in the grub command line. luckily i was able to boot my laptop back then.. but now, i cant seem to find the codes and i am really helpless and tired. it has been 2 days since this happened. sadly, i don’t have the windows 7 installation disk. so if anyone could give me the grub commands to boot my window, it would really be appreciated and it would be a great help for me.. pleasee help meee

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