Making GRUB wait *only* if key pressed?

Ian Goldby

I've got a dual boot configuration. I rarely go into Windows, but the GRUB delay is set to 20 seconds so I have a chance to if I need it.

Can I configure GRUB to display the boot menu if and only if a key is held down, and otherwise to boot straight into Linux?

If not, can LILO do this? If LILO is the answer, what steps do I need to follow to remove GRUB and replace it with LILO?

Thanks in advance.

basramm · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 10:15 am Post subject:

Well, not exactly what you asked for, but wouldnt it be sufficient if you set the delay to real low value, like 1 second?
This way you would hardly notice grub and still could change configurations.

Ian Goldby · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 2:44 pm Post subject:

Thanks - that worked.

I tried a delay of 0, but that made it boot immediately without looking to see if a key is pressed. In fact, a delay of 1 seems to boot immediately if no key is pressed - the GRUB boot menu doesn't get displayed.

It doesn't work though with the shift key, so as I hold the space bar down I get some clicking from the speaker as a keyboard input buffer gets filled up, but it is BALGE (by and large good enough) :-)