Why do I need 'Ubuntu' and 'Advanced option for Ubuntu' and 'memory test' on grub?

Question

I'm new to the Ubuntu world. But I have googled this issue and did not find any good answers.
On startup of my machine, I see grub (I am planning to install multiple OSs) and I see that there are four options:

1. 'Ubuntu'
2. 'Advanced option for Ubuntu'
3. 'memory test'
4. 'memory test ( with serial console ) '

Can someone please explain why I need all of these options and how I can hide the 'memory test' and the 'Advanced option for Ubuntu' ?

Solution 1

Why you have these options:
Ubuntu is hopefully the only thing you will have to boot into, but the others will become more useful if somethings breaks. For example, if the newest kernel has issues with your machine, then you can try booting with the old one under advanced options. Memtest is useful for looking for memory errors and stress-testing your RAM.

How to hide the other options:
I recommend using Grub Customizer to edit your grub options and instead of deleting the options having a menu folder labeled "other stuff" or something like that in case you need these in the future.

You can install Grub Customizer with these commands:

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

Solution 2

If Ubuntu is the only OS installed, you can hide this menu. Run

sudo -H gedit /etc/default/grub

and put # in front of GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT. Save the file and run

sudo update-grub

This menu can be useful if your system does not boot for some reason. But you can always get into it by pressing Shift, or ESC on boot.

Comments

[Pilot6]

You do not need to install any software to change one option.

[Yanshof]

10x - but when i need to use the 'Advanced option for Ubuntu' ?

[Pilot6]

See my answer..

[ridderhoff]

Yes you can edit a config file, but seeing as the OP is new to Ubuntu I would assume that they don't want to do that.

[ridderhoff]

I guess this becomes opinion to an extent

[ridderhoff]

the question is tagged with "dual-boot", I don't think this is their only OS