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How To Disable or Enable OS Prober From the Grub?

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Linux has an OS Prober feature that allows us to choose other operating systems installed in the system using Grub. By default, on the latest version of Linux, it’s disabled and will remain disable, but on the earlier versions it’s enabled.

Linux

In this article, I’ll show you how to disable or enable OS Prober from the Grub in Linux distributions like Debian and Debian-based distros like Ubuntu.

What Is OS Prober? What Is the Issue With New Release?

OS Prober is a feature in Grub that shows selection screen while booting the computer and laptop system. This is actually useful feature if you install multiple OS in same system.

If you are multi-booting with other Linux distributions, and dual booting with Windows, you might find an issue; when you update or upgrade Debian/Ubuntu (with other Linux distros too), it would stop seeing or showing other installed distros and Windows.

The issue here is in the GRUB 2.06; it is disabled for OS-detecting feature security.

What Files To Edit?

You need to edit the Grub configuration file which is located on:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Make sure that you are a root or root privileged user who can edit.

What To Edit?

To disable the OS Prober, use the following command.

GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true

To enable the OS Prober, use the following command.

GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

Once you have set the instruction you can save and exit the file.

Note: In specific GRUB version 2.06, the instruction was mistakenly accepted opposite. Later it has been fixed, so this article has been updated also, otherwise it was other way around for v2.06.

Now just update the Grub so it can take effects.

sudo update-grub

This is it, just reboot (restart) the system and check it.

Special thanks to donjoe and Chris Turner for the updates.

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Post Author

Atul Kumar Pandey

Atul Kumar Pandey, the creator of the AtulHost website, is a business management graduate with a strong talent for business writing. He is also deeply passionate about technology, regularly exploring the latest trends and innovations. As an avid reader and techies, he enjoys trying out new ideas and staying ahead of the curve.

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Responses to “How To Disable or Enable OS Prober From the Grub?”

  1. Kenneth Avatar
    Kenneth

    I think you got the GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER commands the wrong way round.

    Reply
    1. Lorenzo Avatar
      Lorenzo

      Exactly, it’s the other way around… a simple article that gets the interesting part completely wrong…

      Reply
    2. donjoe Avatar
      donjoe

      No, the values are functionally-correct because there was a bug in GRUB at the time this article was posted (January 2022). The bug was solved around June 2022, so for newer versions of GRUB you should reverse the values and use disable=true if you want to actually disable the OS Prober. :)

      Reply
      1. Atul Kumar Pandey Avatar
        Atul Kumar Pandey

        Thanks for the update donjoe, I have updated the article with new updates.

        Reply
  2. Chris Turner Avatar
    Chris Turner

    You have the following the wrong way around

    “What to edit?

    To disable the OS Prober, use the following command.

    GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

    To enable the OS Prober, use the following command.

    GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true”

    It should be

    What to edit?

    To disable the OS Prober, use the following command.

    GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true

    To enable the OS Prober, use the following command.

    GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

    Reply
    1. Atul Kumar Pandey Avatar
      Atul Kumar Pandey

      Thanks Chris Turner, I have updated article with the new updates. I wrote for the bug what seen initially, but they have fixed the wordings now.

      Reply