Change Default OS on dual boot

[TATSS]

I have a dual boot machine with Windows XP Professional and Redhat Linux 9.1. When I installed them I installed Windows first and then Linux, so now it defaults to Linux. I was wondering if someone could tell me how to change it so it will default to Windows. Thanks.

[RodneyMargis]

i dont knwo aobut redhat but in suse in the control center there shoot be an icon named boot loader. in there you should be albe to set the default and how many seconds it tkaes to boot each

[jglen490]

If you are using Lilo, you can edit /etc/lilo.conf to specify which label you want as default. If you are using Grub, you can edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to do the same thing.

[TATSS]

I don't know which boot loader I am using, but i tried to edit both of those files, and when I open them in a text editor nothing comes up. What am I doing wrong?

[jglen490]

It's likely a permissions problem, since either file has root ownership. I don't know what editor you tried or which ones you have, aside from "vi".

Open a terminal and switch user to root, then open an editor at the command line such as gedit and edit the file. Do this as follows:

su -
(Respond to prompt with root password)

cd /etc

gedit lilo.conf

That should bring up the gedit editor with lilo.conf so that you can edit the file. Of course, if you are using Grub, then cd /boot/grub and open menu.lst.

If you are using some other editor rather than gedit, then open the file with that editor.

When you are done then type in "exit" to close out your run as the root user.

[mikeL]

If you edit your lilo.conf file don't forget, to run /sbin/lilo

[LocoCoyote]

Just a quick note...in redhat 9 the config file for grub is
/boot/grub/grub.conf

I have no clue why RH doesn't use menu.lst or even where the modification was made

It is driving me......Loco!

[jglen490]

I don't know why RedHat chse to do that either. If they don't have a link between grub.conf and menu.lst, then they had to modify the source for grub.

It's weird.