Why are more operating systems options appearing on my laptop?

June 13, 2008 3:28 AM

Why do more operating system options keep appearing when I turn my computer on?

I have installed ubuntu on my laptop, I also run windows on it, just in case I need something.
When the computer turns on, I have the choice whether to use windows or Ubuntu. Originally, there were only two choices, now more and more ubuntu options have been added, there are 5 now, what's going on?

posted by sliderjc to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Sounds like you've upgraded the kernel version. This probably happened automatically with auto-updates. Grub (or whatever the ubuntu bootloader is these days) added the new kernel versions, but kept the old one just in case something went wrong.

If the latest version works just fine, it's safe to edit that menu and get rid of the older versions.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/clean-up-ubuntu-grub-boot-menu-after-upgrades/

That's one page I found with a quick google, but there are many step-by-step guides out there.
posted by MiG at 3:39 AM on June 13, 2008

Some more information would be helpful. What are the five choices you're seeing now? BTW, is there a disc in the CD-ROM drive?
posted by 14580 at 3:42 AM on June 13, 2008

This is all in the bootloader, grub. You haven't listed the options, so I can only assume that there are 4 Ubuntu options: one kernel, kernel safemode, new kernel, new kernel safe mode. I don't have an Ubuntu box in front of me, so it's all assumption.

I imagine that you received a new kernel via an update and that's why you have the extra options.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 3:42 AM on June 13, 2008

(should have previewed - what MiG said)
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 3:43 AM on June 13, 2008

cheers guys, will try that later. For clarity, the five options are all the same, follwoed by the usual recovery stuff and windows and "other operating systems"
posted by sliderjc at 3:45 AM on June 13, 2008

There have been quite a few kernel updates to Ubuntu recently causing the behaviour as described above. You can follow the instructions MiG gave. Note though that next time the kernel is updated it will detect that your menu.lst file has been changed and ask you if you want to keep the old version or have it replaced with the new one. You should accept the new one although you will have to repeat the above steps again.

Apart from removing the extra entries you can also clean up the descriptive text that is there if you like (the line that starts with title). You should be careful editing this file though, and make a backup.

On a related note, you can also change the background of the startup screen to make it more attractive. The easiest way is detailed here but there are other ways to have a custom image.
posted by Gomez_in_the_South at 4:44 AM on June 13, 2008