[PebblesHD]

While these are cool, I honestly wish GRUB was silent unless you’re holding a key during boot. The 5 seconds it takes to go away and just boot the OS by default is really unnecessary.

[kej]

I think you can get that by setting `GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden` and `GRUB_TIMEOUT=0`. Then you can hold `Shift` to see the GRUB menu, otherwise it will boot the default option immediately.

[homebrewer]

Make sure this works on your system before you really need it, as some keyboard/USB-controller combinations take a few seconds to wake up from whatever slumber they're in and start working. I ran into this several times.

[dustbunny]

Good tip. I've always felt like I'd like to be able to boot directly into the Second Option via a key, etc. like Shift + 2 etc

[voidfunc]

Why would you actually want this? Such a weird desire to hide this kind of stuff because it's so inconsequential in my mind.

[Fnoord]

Because sane OSes have sane defaults, and this is one of them. Hide information by default, unless called for. Want verbose boot log? Ask for it. Want boot menu? Ask for it. Need Bluetooth enabled at boot? Aak for it. Don't overburden the user with irrelevant info. When my 7 y.o. daughter fires up the Steam Decj, she doesn't need to see the boot menu.

[JoshTriplett]

On a modern laptop running Linux, the three slowest things in the boot are:

- The firmware

- The bootloader timeout

- Waiting for the user to type the encryption passphrase

Everything else takes almost no time at all. So, if you can eliminate 5 seconds from the boot process in the normal case, without eliminating your ability to debug the system in the unusual case, that's a win.

[treyd]

I'm pretty sure there is an option for this, holding shift makes it show the menu.

[arp242]

What if you don't remember the key you need to press?

[necovek]

You RTFM (which can be a quick search or LLM chat away on another device like your phone).