How to View Changes on Grub

StartUpManager is a project designed to give you a graphical user interface to GRUB. Using this program, you can see exactly how your GRUB menu will behave on reboot of your system, before or after changes are made. The only unfortunate downside to this package is if you are running anything except Ubuntu or Debian. StartUpManager was created by the Ubuntu community and has not spread out from there yet. If you are running Ubuntu, installation and use of StartUpManager is straightforward.

Instructions

1. Click "System" and navigate through "Administration" and click "Synaptic Package Manager" to open the graphical packaging system for Ubuntu.

2. Click "Settings" and navigate through "Repositories" and click "Ubuntu Software" inside Synaptic. Check "Community-maintained Open Source Software (universe)" (do not deselect this if it is already checked) and close the new window.

3. Click "Reload" from the Synaptic menu. In the right panel, select "startupmanager" to select it for installation and click "Apply." The package will automatically download and install.

4. Click "System" and navigate through "Administration" and click "StartUp-Manager" to open the GUI GRUB interface. The first tab allows you to view and change your boot options. The second tab is for viewing and editing the appearance of GRUB during boot.

Tips & Warnings

• Make a backup copy of "menu.lst" before making major changes to your GRUB configuration.

References

• Ubuntu Help: StartUpManager
• Linux App Finder: StartUp Manager