Changing GRUB timeout in Kali Linux

I use Kali Linux alongside my Windows in my Laptop (yes I do use Windows and No thanks for the incoming sarcasms)! So when I start my Laptop, I get Kali Linux, Windows and Linux Mint as the 3 options. Kali Linux being the GRUB 1st choice it counts down to 5 seconds if I don’t do anything. However, I also got Kali Linux on one of my old Desktop and and another old i386 Laptop. Those two runs Kali only and nothing else. So when I start those two devices, I have to press Enter or wait 5 seconds. Now 5 seconds means nothing, but me being somewhat impatient, I wanted to change GRUB timeout in Kali Linux and set it to ZERO (0). It can also be done in VirtualBox (which I run in my G5 which got 120GB RAM). Either way, this is a small tut on changing GRUB timeout in Kali Linux (or any Linux as GRUB options are same everywhere).

Editing GRUB defaults

First of all, edit the file /etc/default/grub

root@kali:~# leafpad /etc/default/grub 
root@kali:~#

• Change GRUB_TIMEOUT value to 0.
• Add GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 and
• GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true

See updated config below:

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
#   info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="initrd=/install/gtk/initrd.gz"

Save the file and issue the update-grub command.

root@kali:~# update-grub
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found background image: /usr/share/images/desktop-base/desktop-grub.png
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.0.0-kali1-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.0.0-kali1-amd64
  No volume groups found
done
root@kali:~#

Now reboot and Kali Linux will not wait for 5 second count, it will simply boot straight into Kali.

Rollback changes

If you want to rollback change, simply do the opposite, i.e.

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true

Run update-grub command and you’re back with that 5 second countdown.

Pretty simple but this is a good start for your start changing GRUB timeout or general GRUB configurations. Thanks for reading, do share.