Introduction

GRUB Menu Not Showing → Windows Not Appearing on Boot

Just installed Xubuntu (or Ubuntu) 23.10 alongside Windows and now it boots straight into Linux without showing the GRUB menu? Don’t worry — this is the new default behavior. Starting with recent Ubuntu versions, GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE is set to hidden and the timeout is 0 seconds, so the menu is completely skipped unless you hold Shift during boot.

Here’s the permanent two-line fix.

The Fix (Takes 30 Seconds)

Open a terminal and edit the GRUB config:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Make sure these lines are present and exactly like this (add them if missing):

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10

Optional but recommended — make the menu look nicer and be 100% reliable:

GRUB_TERMINAL=console

Full example of the relevant section:

# Show the GRUB menu every time
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10        # seconds to wait before auto-booting the default entry
GRUB_TERMINAL=console

Save (Ctrl+O → Enter → Ctrl+X) and update GRUB:

sudo update-grub

Reboot and you’ll now see the full GRUB menu with both Ubuntu/Xubuntu and Windows listed. You can change the 10 to any number you like (or even -1 to wait indefinitely until you pick an entry).

Why This Happens

Canonical decided to hide the menu by default for a “cleaner” boot experience on single-OS machines. For dual-boot users it’s just annoying — this fix restores the classic behavior permanently.

That’s it — enjoy easy access to both operating systems again!

(Original solution via AskUbuntu community)

Thanks for reading!