How to Remove Grub Timeout

Overview

Grub will often pause for a number of seconds at the boot menu to allow for selection of options. If only one distro is installed and there is no need to access the boot options, the Grub timeout can be set to zero to allow for a faster boot.

NOTE: This will make the Grub menu almost inaccessible. Holding "Shift" on boot should allow access to the menu, but this is not well tested. If access to the Grub menu is needed after this, the changes may need to be reverted.

This guide was written for Ubuntu-based distributions of at least version 18.04. Other distros or older versions may have different commands, package names, and file locations.

Directions

1. Create a script to modify the Grub config.

   sudo su -c 'install -o root -g root -m 755 <(cat <<'"'"'FILE'"'"'
   #!/bin/sh
   cat <<GTO
   set timeout_style=hidden
   set timeout=0
   if keystatus; then
   if keystatus --shift; then
       set timeout_style=menu
       set timeout=-1
   else
       set timeout_style=hidden
       set timeout=0
   fi
   fi
   GTO
   FILE
   ) /etc/grub.d/50_hidemenu'

2. Disable the OS prober in the Grub config.

   echo 'GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true' | sudo tee -a /etc/default/grub >/dev/null

3. Apply the script and the changed settings.

   sudo update-grub

4. On the next reboot, the Grub menu should be skipped with the first option being booted without delay.