How to Install Grub Customizer on Linux Mint (22, 21)

When Linux Mint hides the boot menu or keeps booting the wrong entry, editing GRUB by hand gets old fast. To install Grub Customizer on Linux Mint, add the Daniel Richter PPA and use the app to change boot order, unhide the menu, and tweak the look of GRUB without digging through config files every time.

Grub Customizer is not in Linux Mint’s default repositories, and there is no separate Mint-specific installer to hunt down. Linux Mint 22.x and 21.x both install it through the Daniel Richter PPA, and the rest of this guide covers the setup, the most useful boot-menu changes, troubleshooting, updates, and clean removal.

Install Grub Customizer on Linux Mint

Update Linux Mint Packages Before Installing Grub Customizer

Refresh package metadata and install pending updates before adding the PPA. This reduces dependency conflicts during the installation.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

This guide uses sudo for commands that need administrative privileges. If your account is not configured for sudo yet, use the root account or follow our guide on creating and adding sudo users on Linux Mint.

Add the Grub Customizer PPA on Linux Mint

Grub Customizer is not available in Linux Mint’s default repositories, so install it from the Daniel Richter PPA.

These steps work on Linux Mint 22.x and 21.x. The PPA publishes both noble and jammy builds, and add-apt-repository picks the right Ubuntu base automatically.

Linux Mint 20 is out of scope here because this repository no longer provides supported builds for it.

Add the PPA with the standard Mint command below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer -y

The -y flag automatically confirms the repository prompt. If you want to review the PPA details first, leave the flag off and confirm manually.

Refresh APT so Linux Mint can read the new package list:

sudo apt update

On Mint 22, the new source appears like this:

Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease
Get:2 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/danielrichter2007/grub-customizer/ubuntu noble InRelease [18.1 kB]
Get:3 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/danielrichter2007/grub-customizer/ubuntu noble/main amd64 Packages [692 B]
Reading package lists...

Verify that the PPA provides the grub-customizer package:

apt-cache policy grub-customizer

Mint 22 returns:

grub-customizer:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 5.2.5-0ubuntu1~ppa1n
  Version table:
     5.2.5-0ubuntu1~ppa1n 500
        500 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/danielrichter2007/grub-customizer/ubuntu noble/main amd64 Packages

Mint 21 shows the same 5.2.5 release with a ppa1j suffix from the jammy branch. The build identifier changes with the Ubuntu base, but the application version stays the same.

Install Grub Customizer from the PPA on Linux Mint

Install the package with APT:

sudo apt install grub-customizer

Check the installed version:

grub-customizer -v

The version command should return:

Grub Customizer, version 5.2.5

Launch Grub Customizer on Linux Mint

Grub Customizer needs a graphical Linux Mint session. The package-management commands in this guide work over SSH, but the application itself will not open in a plain terminal-only session.

Launch Grub Customizer from Terminal

Start Grub Customizer from a terminal as your normal user. When the application needs to load or save privileged GRUB settings, Linux Mint prompts for administrative authentication through the desktop session.

grub-customizer

Launch Grub Customizer from the Applications Menu

You can also open it from the desktop menu:

1. Open the application menu from your panel.
2. Search for Grub Customizer.
3. Open the matching result.

Edit GRUB Settings with Grub Customizer on Linux Mint

Once the window opens, you can handle the most common GRUB tasks from one place instead of editing files by hand. The table below highlights the options most Linux Mint users reach for first.

Task	Where to Find It	When to Use It
Change boot order	Main entry list and toolbar arrows	Dual-boot systems where you want a different default OS or kernel
Change timeout	General Settings	Show the boot menu longer, or stop Mint from hiding it immediately
Check OS detection	Main entry list after saving	Confirm Windows or another Linux install appears in the menu
Apply themes	Appearance Settings	Set background images, colors, fonts, and menu layout

GRUB changes affect how your system starts. Make one change at a time, save it, then reboot and confirm the result before you stack more edits on top.

Back Up GRUB Defaults Before Using Grub Customizer on Linux Mint

Back up your current GRUB defaults before changing boot order, timeouts, or themes. That gives you a quick rollback if a change behaves badly.

sudo cp /etc/default/grub /etc/default/grub.backup

If you need to restore the original defaults later, copy the backup back into place and rebuild the menu:

sudo cp /etc/default/grub.backup /etc/default/grub
sudo update-grub

Change Boot Order and the Default Entry in Grub Customizer on Linux Mint

Select the operating system or kernel entry you want, then move it with the toolbar arrows until it sits where you want it in the list. The top entry usually becomes the default boot target unless you choose a saved entry in General Settings. This is also the section you will use most if Linux Mint has multiple kernels installed, such as when you install XanMod kernel on Linux Mint. Click Save when the order looks right so GRUB can rebuild the menu.

Show the GRUB Menu and Change the Timeout in Grub Customizer on Linux Mint

On the verified Mint 22 and Mint 21 systems, Linux Mint hid the menu by default with GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden and GRUB_TIMEOUT=0. Open General Settings, increase the timeout to a few seconds, and save the change if you want more time to pick another kernel or operating system during boot.

Apply GRUB Themes and Background Images in Grub Customizer on Linux Mint

Open Appearance Settings to swap the background image, adjust menu colors, tweak font size, or move the menu on screen. Theme changes are easy to overdo, so save one visual adjustment at a time and reboot to confirm the result before you keep styling the boot menu.

Update Grub Customizer on Linux Mint

The Daniel Richter PPA delivers updates through APT, so you can refresh Grub Customizer without upgrading every package on the system.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install --only-upgrade grub-customizer

Confirm the installed version afterward:

grub-customizer -v

You should still see the current release string:

Grub Customizer, version 5.2.5

Troubleshoot Grub Customizer on Linux Mint

The add-apt-repository Command Is Missing on Linux Mint

If Linux Mint says add-apt-repository is missing, the software-properties-common package is not installed on your system.

add-apt-repository: command not found

Install the missing package, then confirm the command path before retrying the PPA step:

sudo apt install software-properties-common
command -v add-apt-repository

Linux Mint should return:

/usr/bin/add-apt-repository

Linux Mint Reports Unable to Locate the grub-customizer Package

If Linux Mint returns E: Unable to locate package grub-customizer, the PPA was not added correctly, APT was not refreshed, or you removed the repository earlier.

E: Unable to locate package grub-customizer

Check the package policy and confirm that Mint created the PPA source file:

apt-cache policy grub-customizer
ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d | grep grub-customizer

The policy command shows whether APT can see the package at all. The ls | grep check confirms that Mint actually created the PPA source file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/.

On Mint 22, a healthy result looks like this:

grub-customizer:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 5.2.5-0ubuntu1~ppa1n
  Version table:
     5.2.5-0ubuntu1~ppa1n 500
        500 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/danielrichter2007/grub-customizer/ubuntu noble/main amd64 Packages
danielrichter2007-grub-customizer-noble.list

If the policy block is empty and the .list file is missing, add the PPA again and refresh APT:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer -y
sudo apt update

GRUB Changes Do Not Apply After Saving in Grub Customizer on Linux Mint

If the menu order, timeout, or theme does not change after you save, regenerate the GRUB configuration manually. This confirms whether the update step completed successfully.

sudo update-grub

Mint 22 produced this output during testing:

Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/50_linuxmint.cfg'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.17.0-14-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.14.0-37-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.14.0-37-generic
Warning: os-prober will be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...
done

Mint 21 shows the same pattern with older kernel versions and may include one extra sourced file, /etc/default/grub.d/init-select.cfg. Reboot after the command finishes so the regenerated menu can load.

Other Operating Systems Do Not Appear in Grub Customizer on Linux Mint

Linux Mint normally keeps OS detection enabled through its own GRUB drop-in, so missing Windows or secondary Linux entries usually point to a broken os-prober install or a stale GRUB menu.

dpkg -s os-prober | grep -E '^(Status|Version):'
grep -R --line-number GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER /etc/default/grub /etc/default/grub.d

The first command checks whether os-prober is installed. The second searches both the main GRUB defaults file and Mint’s drop-in directory for the switch that can disable operating-system detection.

On Mint 22, the diagnostic output looked like this:

Status: install ok installed
Version: 1.81ubuntu4
/etc/default/grub:18:#GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false
/etc/default/grub.d/50_linuxmint.cfg:26:GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

If os-prober is missing or damaged, reinstall it and rebuild the boot menu:

sudo apt install --reinstall os-prober
sudo update-grub

On a working dual-boot system, the second command should add new Found ... lines for the missing operating system before it finishes.

Remove Grub Customizer from Linux Mint

Remove the Grub Customizer Package from Linux Mint

If you no longer need the application, remove the package first, then clean up the extra dependencies that came with it.

sudo apt remove grub-customizer
sudo apt autoremove

On the verified Mint 22 and Mint 21 systems, apt autoremove also removes hwinfo, libx86emu3, and the matching libhd21 package that APT pulled in for Grub Customizer.

Verify that the package is gone:

dpkg -s grub-customizer

After removal, Mint reports:

dpkg-query: package 'grub-customizer' is not installed and no information is available
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files.

Removing Grub Customizer does not undo the GRUB changes you already saved. The package has no conffiles of its own, so remove and purge behave the same here. If you want the old boot behavior back, restore your backup of /etc/default/grub and run sudo update-grub.

Remove the Grub Customizer PPA from Linux Mint

After uninstalling the package, remove the PPA so APT stops checking an unused repository.

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer -y
sudo apt update

Now confirm that APT can no longer see the package from that repository:

apt-cache show grub-customizer

APT should return:

E: No package found

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Grub Customizer on Linux Mint turns boot-order fixes, hidden-menu cleanup, and kernel testing back into a quick GUI job instead of another round of hand-editing GRUB files. Keep a backup of /etc/default/grub, change one thing at a time, and rebuild the menu when needed.