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)

If this quick tip helped you, feel free to share it or subscribe to The Self Hosting Art. Thanks for reading!