For those who have multiple Linux Kernels, or multi-boot Linux with other operating systems, there’s now a simple new graphical app to choose which entry to boot as default.
Most Linux Distributions by default use Grub boot-loader for loading systems on your computer. It has configuration file and command line tool allowing user to choose which entry to boot by default. And, there’s a popular Grub Customizer app offers graphical UI to configure the boot menu.
However, it’s always good to have more choices! And, BootSelector is a new free open-source application to set default boot entry for Grub.
The app is written in Python programming language. It’s very small, that has only 8KB file size in .deb and takes 41KB disk space after installation.
As the screenshot above shows you, it provides a stupid simple interface that shows all current boot entries. Just choose one then click “Set as Default“, then your computer will automatically boot that entry in next boots.
Or, you may choose one entry and click “Reboot into Selected“. It will ask for confirmation, if “yes” then immediately reboot your computer and choose that entry as default in next boot.
The app does the jobs by editing the Grub configuration file (/etc/default/grub) and update changes silently in the background. If you’re interested in doing it by yourself, then this tutorial may help.
How to Get BootSelector
The app so far only provides official .deb package for Debian, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint based systems. Though, the developer planned to also release .rpm package for Fedora based systems.
The package is tested and working good in my case in Ubuntu 24.04 and Ubuntu 24.10. You may download it in Github releases page via the link below
To install the package, either double-click the .deb in file manager to open & install with system package manager, or open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:
sudo apt install drag-and-drop-deb-into-terminal
Finally, search and launch the application from start menu (or GNOME Overview depends on your desktop) and enjoy!
Uninstall BootSelector
For any reason, you may easily remove the package by running command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):
sudo apt remove bootselector
