How to return from grub prompt to the grub menu?

Question

If you press escape in grub menu you end up at the grub command prompt.

My question is, how can I go back to the menu, without rebooting?

So I finally got it working using escape. I have to be very careful though to stop hitting escape at just the right time otherwise it brings me to the grub terminal and there's no way to go back to the grub startup options screen. — obesechicken13, Jun 19 '18 at 20:48
Is there a way to get to the Grub menu via a command? None of the below answers are working for me. — semitones, Jul 14 '20 at 19:15
If nothing seems to work, try this: Shut down the computer/laptop Power it up again Press bios key to enter bios Change the boot priority order Done! ✅ — Rahul, Apr 21 '22 at 08:20

score 120 · Answer 1 · edited May 19 '21 at 15:43

120

Type normal, hit Enter, and then tap Esc until the menu is displayed. Hitting Esc at this point won't drop you to the grub command prompt (so don't worry about hitting Esc too many times).

edited May 19 '21 at 15:43

Pablo Bianchi

17,552

answered May 02 '18 at 13:28

Jake Magee

1,301

2

Unfortunately, hitting escape multiple times Doesn't take you to the grub menu -- it just boots into whatever grub was going to boot into. – semitones Jul 14 '20 at 19:14
It is FUCKING STUPID to have this confusion over getting into the grub menu. – Snowcrash Jan 06 '25 at 21:22

score 46 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 16 '16 at 17:53

46

Executing the normal command brought me back to the grub menu.

I found this command (and others) by pressing Tab in the grub CLI.

answered Jun 16 '16 at 17:53

Onderbetaald

611

21

it just boots normally, does not show the grub menu – dashesy Nov 08 '16 at 01:50
5

normal does nothing on my system. – James Moore Apr 07 '18 at 02:43
boots normaly, the answer above did the trick – Thundercoal Dec 31 '19 at 16:13

score 9 · Answer 3 · edited May 19 '21 at 15:46

9

Type exit and then press your Enter key twice. Or press Esc.

More info

edited May 19 '21 at 15:46

Pablo Bianchi

17,552

answered Nov 24 '13 at 16:02

Braiam

69,302

1

Esc does bring me next prompt, it's like Enter and exit does exit grub and bring me back to the bootloader, rEFInd in my case. That's booted in EFI mode and maybe that's changing grub behaviour. – sorin Nov 24 '13 at 16:09
Umm.. weird, it should allow you to go to the boot menu according to the manuals I've found... – Braiam Nov 24 '13 at 16:21
that starts network boot, it does not show the menu, it seems nothing does! – dashesy Nov 08 '16 at 01:49
2

This just launches me into some kind of hardware testing – Ben Farmer Feb 26 '18 at 14:13
@BenFarmer, does the testing ever end? What happens after? – obesechicken13 Jun 19 '18 at 19:08
All this does is get me to A bootable device has not been detected. Not useful. – Jeff Hammond Apr 07 '23 at 14:40

score 1 · Answer 4 · edited May 19 '21 at 15:47

1

Shift + Esc: What worked for me was holding down Shift and pressing Esc several times.

edited May 19 '21 at 15:47

Pablo Bianchi

17,552

answered Nov 16 '17 at 18:27

luca

119
3

on virtualbox this worked for me – Foad Dec 29 '17 at 02:08

score -1 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 16 '23 at 01:39

-1

Press the q button or type :q.

edited Oct 16 '23 at 01:39

sotirov

4,455

answered Jun 25 '23 at 06:23

Nghia Hoang

1

score -1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 05 '24 at 00:12

-1

for me only writing 'halt' worked

answered Mar 05 '24 at 00:12

Pablo Ruiz

196
2
4
15

This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post. - From Review – David DE May 13 '24 at 06:28
I don't get your comment, my answer is not a critic to the author, I was just sharing that the only way I could exit the grub terminal was by writing "halt". Which directly answers "how can i go back to the menu?" -> by typing halt – Pablo Ruiz May 13 '24 at 08:47
Can anyone explain the downvote? @David, I just tried to help, if is not working for everyone is ok, but seriously, sometimes I think is better to save my time. – Pablo Ruiz May 17 '24 at 08:23
As you wrote it I know it would not mean anything to me if I was new to Ubuntu. Write halt where and how? A good answer is a complete answer all steps not assuming any knowledge on the part of the OP- – David DE May 17 '24 at 16:29
Well the author ask within the context of a grub command prompt, The alternative answers, are also super concise and still valuable for some. You can always help to improve the answer if you judge is not enough instead of motivating the author to delete it in one or other way. – Pablo Ruiz May 18 '24 at 17:07
2

That switches off the computer, it does not return to the grub menu without a reboot – Gert van den Berg Sep 25 '24 at 16:11

How to return from grub prompt to the grub menu?

6 Answers6