Howto : GfxBoot ( Grub like suse )

[merlwiz79]

I have compiled another one.
It has an Ubuntu version as well.
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/GFXBoot+message.Snaiya++?content=71735
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2058/2111749660_a6cfa2c15c.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2058/2111749660_64a9125986_o.png)

[kryth]

Okay, I've had it. I admit it, I'm slightly ubuntu retarded and can't get this for the life of me. Can anymore personalize these parts for me. I've been trying and trying. And have read the first 20 or so pages and last 5 of this thread. But i'm giving in, and need some help.

sudo grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hdx,y) # this will be the output
grub> root (hdx,y)
grub> setup (hdx)


grub-install /dev/hda????

my fdisk -l


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 13 104391 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 14 673 5295104 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 1956 19457 140584815 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 674 1955 10297665 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 * 674 1700 8249346 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 1701 1955 2048256 82 Linux swap / Solaris

find /boot/grub/stage1 returns hd0,4...which seems wrong


give a poor sap a clue?

thanks

[kryth]

Never mind. I finally figured it out.

[fooman]

I have compiled another one.
It has an Ubuntu version as well.
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/GFXBoot+message.Snaiya++?content=71735
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2058/2111749660_a6cfa2c15c.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2058/2111749660_64a9125986_o.png)


sweet! ....thanks merlwiz. =D>

[merlwiz79]

sweet! ....thanks merlwiz. =D>
No problem.
If any one has suggestions for other gfxboot menus, post them here or at the link.

[jingo811]

OK I'm dyslectic so I can never follow any instructions correctly without doing something wrong in between the steps. Can somebody point out what exactly I'm doing wrong.
I've tested it on Debian Etch which failed so now I'm finally testing it on Ubuntu Feisty. Using this kernel version.
bill@gates:~$ uname -r
2.6.20-16-generic

These are the steps I've done, which doesn't work at all. Also in case there was something wrong with message.suse I also tried the same procedures with message.ububrown


1.)
I downloaded these files which was shown on the first page.
http://quasarfreak.googlepages.com/grub-gfxboot_0.97-5_i386.deb
http://quasarfreak.googlepages.com/message.suse

2.)
sudo apt-get remove grub

3.)
Then I navigated to the folder where the gfxboo_0.97*.deb file is located and did this.
dpkg -i grub-gfxboot_0.97-5_i386.deb

4.)
cp message.ububrown /boot/grub

5.)
cp /boot/grub/menu.lst menu.lst_backup

6.)
nano /boot/grub/menu.lst
And added this to the very top of the menu.lst file:

gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.ububrown

# menu.lst - See: grub('8'), info grub, update-grub('8')
# grub-install('8'), grub-floppy('8'),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
...
...



7.)
$ sudo grub

8.)
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hd0,1)

grub> root (hd0,1)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 17 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+17 p (hd0,1)/boot/grub/stage2
/boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

grub> quit


9.)
This didn't work!
bill@gates:~/src/GfxBoot$ sudo grub-install /dev/hd0
/dev/hd0: Not found or not a block device.

10.)
I also navigated to where the file was in /boot/grub and chmodded it. No difference!
sudo chmod 755 message.ububrown

11.)
$ sudo reboot

Nada, zilch, nein, no nothing GRUB remains unmodified :confused: help please.

[merlwiz79]

It should be sudo grub-install /dev/hda or sudo grub-install /dev/sda.
Everything else looks fine.

[jingo811]

Tnx merlwiz79 that solved it for me! The author of this thread should really put that in the first page tutorial so ppl don't have to read through 50 pages of threads before finding this out.

Next can someone link all the information needed to make your own customized GfxBoot. Reading this long technical document isn't really my tea of cup. Nor do I know how to read german.
usr/share/doc/gfxboot/gfxboot.html

sudo apt-get install gfxboot gfxboot-theme-ubuntu

then you'll find help and examples (to compile ;) ) in :
/usr/share/doc/gfxboot/
/usr/share/gfxboot/themes/

A tutorial :
http://www.andreas-loibl.de/content/linux/tutorials/grub-gfxboot/index.html

I like visual tutorials. Until then I guess I'll try swapping the images in the message.suse file the Footissimo way.

[CypherHackz]

Made a mod of the SuSE GFXBoot theme. Basically its a mash up of this SVG icon (http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=42245) by Sairitupac Vasquez and this wallpaper (http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=41588) by Paul Beyens.

I know nothing about QEMU, EMU or any flightless birds so I just took a screenie with me mobile. If some kind person fancies running it through a virtual PC thingy and doing a screenie then that would be much appreciated. (thanks Kno) There are two problems with it:

1) There is a slight artifact around the ubuntu icon - I've spent hours brushing to minimise JPG artifacts, but there's only so much I can do..it should be barely noticeable now. Its due to the complexity of the background - if people like this then I'll do another on a plainer background and get the logo 100%

2) The original SuSE theme screws up a little if you scroll down the kernel / OS options - seems to be because that panel needs to be shoved to the left a bit or made into 1024x768 rather than 800x600. Mine does the same...it doesn't effect functionality or anything, but if I do another, then I'll correct it (it was too late by the time I noticed it on this one).

Installing:

After doing all the GFXBoot palaver, just unzip the theme and copy it to /boot/grub/ then add gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.ubugrey to the top of the /boot/grub/menu.lst file. Presumably you should remove any other themes you have there (such as message.suse)


I really like your image mate. But it displays Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Professional Edition at the bottom. Can you remove that text? Is it possible? :D

-cypher.

[CypherHackz]

i have make my own theme for gfxboot, but the file size is too big. how to reduce it? anyone knows how?

Edit 1:
I think i know why the file size is large. After you package back the theme, try open your message.* with Archive Manager. There you will see file message.* in the package. I tried to delete that file but it doesn't allow me to delete it. So how to delete that file?

Edit 2:
Found out the solution. Create the archive into another directory. So it will not archive it self.

-cypher.

[bngguy]

Hello,
I was playing around with the gfxmenu message, i created a new one which is 166KB, i remember reading in this forum that it should be less than 170KB, so i edited my menu.lst file to load the new message, and when i rebooted i get a blank screen and it just stays there no menu no nothing, fortunately i have a copy of the LIVE CD, but to edit the menu.lst file i need to be root.

So my question is , how to get root privileges while running the LIVE CD??, is it possible or is there any other way to edit teh menu.lst file to point to a new message while runnning the LIVE CD.

I would really appreciate a response.

Happy Holidays
Av

[bngguy]

Never Mind i figured it out.


Hello,
I was playing around with the gfxmenu message, i created a new one which is 166KB, i remember reading in this forum that it should be less than 170KB, so i edited my menu.lst file to load the new message, and when i rebooted i get a blank screen and it just stays there no menu no nothing, fortunately i have a copy of the LIVE CD, but to edit the menu.lst file i need to be root.

So my question is , how to get root privileges while running the LIVE CD??, is it possible or is there any other way to edit teh menu.lst file to point to a new message while runnning the LIVE CD.

I would really appreciate a response.

Happy Holidays
Av

[CypherHackz]

Mind to share how you did it?

-cypher.

[Sonic Reducer]

i have make my own theme for gfxboot, but the file size is too big. how to reduce it? anyone knows how?

don't put as much crap on it? ;)

you could try saving the image in a lower resolution or quality. it won't look as clean but the same general image will be there, but smaller. try doing as little as possible each time and check the size after you resave it. once you hit the upper limit you'll have the best quality image you can get

[CypherHackz]

i have managed reduce the size. it was because i compile back the message in the same diectory. that is why the file gets bigger. but new problem found, the image does not display properly when boot. the image change into dots like my graphic is broken but it is not.

i think it is because i need to save the image using certain DPI but don't remember what is the DPI to be used for the image. but the size is still remains the same, 800x600.

-cypher.

[DuKe2112]

So, now I have a nice graphic Grub, but once I choose the kernel the graphics disappear and Grub makes some textoutput, before loading ubuntu.
Also bevore Grub actually starts it displays a message, Grub loading.

Is it possible to disable these message outputs?

What id like to have is a fluent transition from Bootsplash to Gfxboot menu to Ubuntu load screen. (I could life with black screens in between.

[merlwiz79]

I have made 2 new gfxboot menus with source code.
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/GFXBoot+message.blueAqua?content=72720
http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-pre2/72720-2.png

Has the info of what was changed from last message.red
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/gfxboot+ubuntu+red+mod?content=71668
http://www.gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-pre1/71668-1.png

[pavel989]

hi I'm having a big issue here.
I've followed the installation directions, grub still works, but i don't get a graphical screen

i think my partition might be messed up but grub install apparently doesn't like it
pavel@pavel-desktop:~$ sudo grub-install /dev/hd0
/dev/hd0: Not found or not a block device.
pavel@pavel-desktop:~$ sudo grub-install /dev/hd1
/dev/hd1: Not found or not a block device.

[erginemr]

hi I'm having a big issue here.
I've followed the installation directions, grub still works, but i don't get a graphical screen

i think my partition might be messed up but grub install apparently doesn't like it
pavel@pavel-desktop:~$ sudo grub-install /dev/hd0
/dev/hd0: Not found or not a block device.
pavel@pavel-desktop:~$ sudo grub-install /dev/hd1
/dev/hd1: Not found or not a block device.


Can you please post your "/etc/fstab" file here?

[chewearn]

I have made 2 new gfxboot menus with source code.
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/GFXBoot+message.blueAqua?content=72720


Has the info of what was changed from last message.red
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/gfxboot+ubuntu+red+mod?content=71668


That's very nice.:popcorn:

Would you mind giving some instructions how to compile the source codes (in the links), thanks.

[applegrew]

This thread is great but is this still applicable for Gusty Gibbon? I need to be sure before I continue. I am really confused about the gfx themes in Gusty's repo, e.g. the gfxboot-theme-suse package. Is the grub of Kubuntu Gusty Gibbon 7.10 already patched for gfx? If not then what these gfx theme packages doing in the repo? Pls, reply I want to get rid of the dull boot screen as soon as I can, but will can't continue unless I settle this doubt of mine.

[applegrew]

Anybody listening?

[Sonic Reducer]

Anybody listening?

well it worked for me

[pavel989]

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/hda1
UUID=78CB-9F80 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/hda5
UUID=c212304f-633c-4f1b-ad3e-0f69c3e118d7 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/ /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

[applegrew]

well it worked for me
Hi,

Thanks for replying. My actual doubt is grub installed by Gusty has gfx already patched or not?

[Morton's Red Stapler]

ok, i am having a problem creating the new message.whatever, when i run the command sudo ls . |cpio -o > /boot/grub/message.new it gets into the folder, but it is creating another archive, within the archive, so if i name message.new, it creates another inside of it with the same name, and doubls the file size. why???? and how the hell can i fix this?

[chewearn]

ok, i am having a problem creating the new message.whatever, when i run the command sudo ls . |cpio -o > /boot/grub/message.new it gets into the folder, but it is creating another archive, within the archive, so if i name message.new, it creates another inside of it with the same name, and doubls the file size. why???? and how the hell can i fix this?

When you extract the archive with:
cpio -i < message.old
did you delete message.old after that? Else, when you subsequently run the cpio -o part, the message.old got into message.new

[chewearn]

Hi,

Thanks for replying. My actual doubt is grub installed by Gusty has gfx already patched or not?

My guess is no.

But it's easy to confirm; just add line:
gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse

to first line of menu.lst; then copy message.suse to /boot/grub/

Skip the other steps to replace grub to gfxboot. See if you suddenly boot with a graphical menu.

[erginemr]

hi I'm having a big issue here.
I've followed the installation directions, grub still works, but i don't get a graphical screen

i think my partition might be messed up but grub install apparently doesn't like it
pavel@pavel-desktop:~$ sudo grub-install /dev/hd0
/dev/hd0: Not found or not a block device.
pavel@pavel-desktop:~$ sudo grub-install /dev/hd1
/dev/hd1: Not found or not a block device.


# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/hda1
UUID=78CB-9F80 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/hda5
UUID=c212304f-633c-4f1b-ad3e-0f69c3e118d7 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/ /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

Apparently, you are trying to re-install grub to /dev/hd0, but you need to install it to /dev/hda instead according to the following thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-56668.html

When installed, Windows will overwrite the MBR with its own information. Some users have experienced that Windows won't even boot after being installed (apparently the MBR can become corrupted when NTLDR is installed on top of Grub).

In any event, the solution is to have Grub write its information to the MBR again, after you have installed Windows (or you can back up the MBR, but that's probably more of an effort).

To make a boot disc (so you can boot Ubuntu after installing Windows), write:
sudo grub-install '(fd0)'
in the terminal (have a formated disc in the floppy drive -- and make sure it works before reinstalling Windows).

When Windows is reinstalled, boot Ubuntu with your boot disc, and then write
sudo grub-install /dev/hda
in the terminal (given your primary master is indeed hda). Everything should now be back to normal.

NB. Things can go wrong, so make backups of your important files before doing anything!

Edit: Forgot the sudo thing ...

But this is irrelevant anyway, as you are trying to install gfxboot, whereas the above technique is proposed to restore the original grub.

[erginemr]

With reference to the following HOWTO:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=208855

Howto : GfxBoot ( Grub like suse )
Gfxboot makes grub look nicer but with the same features
In this howto you will install gfxboot and a suse theme for it, soon I'll make an ubuntu one
Ok, let's start

Download the grub-gfxboot.deb
And the message.suse

First remove your old grub
sudo apt-get remove grub

Then Install the gfxboot-grub
sudo dpkg -i grub-gfxboot_0.97-5_i386.deb

then we're going to move the message
sudo cp message.suse /boot/grub/ # the suse can be replaced by the one you downloaded

Then edit your menu.lst
sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst_backup
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

and make it use gfxboot
gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse # the suse can be replaced

sudo grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hdx,y) # this will be the output
grub> root (hdx,y)
grub> setup (hdx)


I would recommend you to follow this method mot-à-mot, which was also the one I used, to reinstall gfxboot. Following the above steps, I first uninstalled grub, installed gfxboot, and then, found a nice, sleek GFXBoot menu:

http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/gulliver+Ubuntu+GFXBoot+Grub+Theme?content=57145

Then follow the above steps in order. I believe your final grub commands should be something like:

grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)

because your /etc/fstab file says that your Linux root (ext3) drive is "hda1", your primary (and only) harddisk, which corresponds to (hd0,0). In this respect, your master boot record (MBR) will be (hd0), where grub will be installed.

[Morton's Red Stapler]

When you extract the archive with:
cpio -i < message.old
did you delete message.old after that? Else, when you subsequently run the cpio -o part, the message.old got into message.new

i cd to the folder where i am making th new gfxboot, then i run the command, the only files there are the images, and the text/config files needed to run the boot. the problem is that it is creating the archive, and inside the archive, there is a second archive of the same name.:confused:

[Dropknee]

I follow everything but when I go to this step:

sudo grub

I got this

dropknee@Drop-Ubuntu-PC:~$ sudo grub
sudo: grub: command not found

Im doing something wrong???

I install the gfxboot from synaptic, is this the same to the package provide by the author of this thread???

Thanks

[Dropknee]

Never mind, I figurate out, I uninstall the gfxboot from synaptic and install the one provided by the author and now all work like a charm.

[sigot]

Hello, I have an 1 problem, all OK, but my grub is still black-white. I think that I dont know where must be gfxmenu ...........messag.suse written to menu.lst. Everything I was installed propertly, but.... I dont know.:confused:

[erginemr]

Hello, I have an 1 problem, all OK, but my grub is still black-white. I think that I dont know where must be gfxmenu ...........messag.suse written to menu.lst. Everything I was installed propertly, but.... I dont know.:confused:

And you have copied the corresponding message.* file to /boot/grub/ as shown in the attachment??

[DuKe2112]

Does anyone know how to create themes directly with gfxboot?

Just repacking with cpio gives me a black background with white dots.

[Dark Star]

gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse

Where to add this line /

[mrfuzzemz]

For anyone still trying to get gfxboot working, I would recommend trying out startupmanager instead. You can use any image as a grub background.

To install:

sudo apt-get install startupmanager

[Dark Star]

For anyone still trying to get gfxboot working, I would recommend trying out startupmanager instead. You can use any image as a grub background.

To install:

sudo apt-get install startupmanager
Thanks but where to add that line ?

[mrfuzzemz]

Thanks but where to add that line ?

Just enter it as a command in a terminal.

[Dark Star]

Just enter it as a command in a terminal.
shashwat@shashwat-desktop:~$ sudo gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.blusplash
sudo: gfxmenu: command not found
shashwat@shashwat-desktop:~$

[mrfuzzemz]

shashwat@shashwat-desktop:~$ sudo gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.blusplash
sudo: gfxmenu: command not found
shashwat@shashwat-desktop:~$


Umm... That's not quite what I meant. The command above (sudo apt-get install startupmanager) is to install Startup Manager. Then you run it by going to System >> Administration >> Startup Manager.

[Dark Star]

Umm... That's not quite what I meant. The command above (sudo apt-get install startupmanager) is to install Startup Manager. Then you run it by going to System >> Administration >> Startup Manager.
I know that but that doesn't enable gfx boot :x

[mrfuzzemz]

I know that but that doesn't enable gfx boot :x

That's because it isn't gfxboot. I never said it would enable the package or configuration gfxboot. It is an alternative. With startup manager you can create a background image for grub just like is doable with gfxboot.

[Dark Star]

Repeating my question

gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse

Where to add this line /

[mrfuzzemz]

Repeating my question



Where to add this line /

That should be added to the top of:

/boot/grub/menu.lst

[jw5801]

Where to add this line /

You need to add it to the start of the file /boot/grub/menu.lst

Open the file for editing withgksu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lstthen copy and paste into the first line:gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suseThen save and exit and continue with the HowTo.

[jw5801]

That's because it isn't gfxboot. I never said it would enable the package or configuration gfxboot. It is an alternative. With startup manager you can create a background image for grub just like is doable with gfxboot.

Gfxboot is a bit more than just a background image. So this isn't really a viable alternative.

[Dark Star]

Done everything but not showing GFX Grub :( What to do now ?

[chewearn]

Done everything but not showing GFX Grub :( What to do now ?

Have you done:
sudo grub-install /dev/X

Where /dev/X is MBR of your boot disk?

[Dark Star]

Thanks it did the trick :D

[DuKe2112]

Sine I didn't get an answer I like to ask again:

Does anyone now how to create your own theme with gfxboot?
Although they seem to be cpio archives just repacking doesn't work. The grafiks get messed up.

And secondly, is it possible to disable Grub's textoutput?
At least the quiet option doesn't disable all of them.

[pepsi_max2k]

using gutsy and just gone through the whole guide (uninstall grub, install grub-gfx.., copy message.X to /boot/gurb, edit menu.lst for correct message, grub find root setup) but still have the basic black n white default grub screen.

only things that differed from the guide were find /boot/grub/stage1 spat out:
(hd0,2)
(hd0,4)
which isn't too suprising as partition 5 contains my old ubuntu install with a few grub files so i guess it's just seeing them, anyway....

> root (hd0,2)
Filesystem type is jfs, partition type 0x83

> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/jfs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/jfs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 18 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+18 p (hd0,2)/boot/grub/stage2
/boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.


which also looks good, so i don't get why it's not working. do i actually have to use "sudo grub-install /dev/hda" (hd0)? or any other commands after setup (like "quit")?


EDIT: ohh you've gotta love half complete howtos... :(

here's the full, correct and working version for gutsy, no wonder so many are having trouble with the original. after downloading files,

First remove your old grub
sudo apt-get remove grub

Then Install the gfxboot-grub
sudo dpkg -i grub-gfxboot_0.97-5_i386.deb

then we're going to move the message
sudo cp message.suse /boot/grub/
replace .suse with the .whatever you downloaded.

THE MESSAGE FILE MUST BE OWNED BY ROOT USER/GROUP WITH CORRECT PERMISSIONS
sudo chown root:root /boot/grub/message.suse
sudo chmod 644 /boot/grub/message.suse
replace .suse with the .whatever you downloaded.

Then edit your menu.lst
sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst_backup
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

and make it use gfxboot, write this as the very first line of the file and save it.
gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse
replace .suse with the .whatever you downloaded.

Then do :
sudo grub
find /boot/grub/stage1

it'll print out (hdx,y), so following that type:

root (hdx,y)
setup (hdx)
quit
if you have multiple (hdx,y) entries, work out which one is your current OS partition and use that (note: grub counts from 0 onwards, eg. hd0,0 is first harddrive, first partition, and it includes extended partitions in it's count).


NOW REBOOT. technically the above should have installed grub correctly, if so then you can stop here. but for whatever reason for quite a few people here it's not, so on we go...


find out your hard drive names:
sudo fdisk -l
this helps with both the above and below. if you don't know if your OS's partition is on hda, hdb, sda or anything else, then find out using the above.

Install grub to MBR but CHANGE HDA to your OS's drive, so if it's on hdb use /dev/hdb:
sudo grub-install /dev/hda
DO NOT use any numbering in this, using hda1 will install grub to the first partition not the mbr. if you do this, follow this guide tellingly titled Oh crap, I just typed 'grub-install /dev/hda1' (http://www.josephhall.org/grub_install_hda1.html).
you could use grub-install hd0 as with the grub setup command but this is bios dependent and i dunno if you could mess it up by altering bios settings inbetween things (and i don't wanna find out either...).


and that should be it. restart and pray you didn't mess up :popcorn:

more on grub-install at: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/Installing-GRUB-using-grub_002dinstall.html

and thanks to kvonb for the tips.

[Philio]

In order to get gfxboot working on my laptop I had to run grub-install as setup (hd0) despite indicating that it had worked had no effect.

I'm now trying to get gfxboot working on my desktop, however I have a dmraid setup, again grub output suggests that it has worked:

grub> device (hd0) /dev/mapper/nvidia_dbibefbi
device (hd0) /dev/mapper/nvidia_dbibefbi
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
find /boot/grub/stage1
(hd0,1)
grub> root (hd0,1)
root (hd0,1)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> setup (hd0)
setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 17 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+17 p (hd0,1)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.


However as with my laptop this had no effect.

Anyone know how to fix this?

[Philio]

I've fixed it, had to copy the /usr/lib/grub/ARCH/* files over to /boot/grub again as I had done the first time round installing Grub.

Noticed as this is a Debian package, not modified by Ubuntu that update-grub creates menu items as 'Debian GNU/Linux' not as 'Ubuntu x.xx'. I fixed this by extracting the Ubuntu grub package and comparing the contents of the two update-grub files, can be fixed by doing the following:

sudo gedit /usr/sbin/update-grub.real

Seach for: title="Debian GNU/`uname -s | sed -e s,GNU/,,g`"
Replace with: title=$(lsb_release --short --description 2>/dev/null) || title="Ubuntu"

[leeon182]

helow. i am new to ubuntu and i hope you can help me. i want to install bootspalsh, so i followed all the steps written above. i came to the point where it says:

Then do :
Code:

sudo grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hdx,y) # this will be the output
grub> root (hdx,y)
grub> setup (hdx)

i don`t know where to write this.in terminal?in menu.lst that opens up before this action? please help.
tnx

[chewearn]

helow. i am new to ubuntu and i hope you can help me. i want to install bootspalsh, so i followed all the steps written above. i came to the point where it says:

Then do :
Code:

sudo grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hdx,y) # this will be the output
grub> root (hdx,y)
grub> setup (hdx)

i don`t know where to write this.in terminal?in menu.lst that opens up before this action? please help.
tnx

In terminal.

[muunleit]

I figured out what was the problem with my system!
On my HDD I have several partitions and for the boot I have a separate partition, hda1.
This partition is mounted to the /boot directory of the Dapper system.
On this partition there isn't /boot directory, just /grub.
If in the menu.lst file I change the first line from
"gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.gobo" to "gfxmenu /grub/message.gobo" then grub finds the graphics file message.gobo....
fantan

Thx, fantan, for this post, it helped me alot (had the same problem)

[alison.santiago]

Has there been an update to the grub-gfxboot package? I have installed Gutsy and every time I try to update the kernel and the initrdimage file, it fails. I would have to install the current grub, update and then switch back to grub-gfxboot. This has become too much of a hassle.

Any information on this will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[ingo]

Is there a howto for doing your own theme? The instructions in the first post of this thread were a little scant for me...

[autocrosser]

Has there been an update to the grub-gfxboot package? I have installed Gutsy and every time I try to update the kernel and the initrdimage file, it fails. I would have to install the current grub, update and then switch back to grub-gfxboot. This has become too much of a hassle.

Any information on this will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.


The /sbin/update-grub script supplied with GFXBoot is wrong--the first line is #!/bin/sh ----- it should be #!/bin/bash

Edit the file in a text editor with root permissions.....and check it with the next kernel update :)

NOTE: I'm still looking for a good tutorial for theme creation--anyone knowing one please PM me...I've got several good ideas waiting!!!!!

[ingo]

The most comprehensive howto I have come across is this

#Make a directory test as root:
mkdir /boot/grub/test

# Copy as root /boot/grub/message to /boot/grub/test
cp /boot/grub/message /boot/grub/test

# Change to directory test
cd /boot/grub/test

# Extract the archive 'message'
cpio -i < message

# Replace the file background.pcx with your own design (you'll probably have to conform to the same format/size/name). In order to get the proper archive move the existing message elsewhere, make a text file "name-list" with all filenames in that directory in it (ls>name-list). Then:

# Copy files named in name-list to the archive
cpio -o < name-list > message

Reboot.from here
http://mepislovers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1879&highlight=gfxboot

[tastatur]

Many thanks to PingunZ for this useful guide. But after i did every steps in your guide, it shows only "normal"-text Grub Menu.

Thanks to Bohboh, his post is still here. I tried to make 2 steps more and hope.

sudo fdisk -l
OK, my Ubuntu's partition locates at sda2

also:
grub-install /dev/sda

Restart and everything is perfect :lolflag:
------
Hope if this post can help someone else :P
@PingunZ: it would very nice if you can check it and correct your first post

[Robert2k]

I only have a question, i have Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon, and i want to use graphic grub loader, the package can be installed automatically :confused: or i have to do something previous or during installation :confused:

Thanks for your answer

[spikenick]

So how would i be able to go about this on hardy heron ubuntu 8.04, i got this to work on gutsy, O and i switched from 32bit ot 64bit

[Ubumby]

I installed GFX boot before fine with 7.04 and 7.10. This time after installation it let me log into ubuntu fine but wouldn't boot into windows. It quickly showed:
root hd0,1
Filesystem Type unknown, partition....
save default
...
...
than it just reverted right back to GFXgrub home screen.
When I tried to boot to windows drive, after I disabled my other drive it just shows the word grub in the top left corner, not letting me do anything. I also tried to use my fix boot disk and selected my windows hard drive but after it was complete nothing helped. It almost has to be that the windows hard drive boot was somehow screwed up when i installed gfxgrub. I then should of just left it alone, but i tried to reinstall ubuntu on my 2nd harddrive again, but this made it worse. It didn't recognize my windows partition after install since it wasn't in the final menu.lst. I tried to use my super grub disk again and fix windows partition and after reboot now I get instead of windows booting, a grub command line.

Grub> (I typed in boot) and it says:
Error 8: kernel must be loaded before booting

Another side note: I'm reinstalled ubuntu 8.04 right now and it cant see either of the two partition on my 1st hard disk. But when I use an ubuntu 7.04 live cd it can see both of them and can read the first partiton: (DellUtility) fat32 (I think), but not the NTFS drive. I gives me an error.

$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password

Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe4651a0a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 4 32098+ de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 5 7294 58556925 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000ed44c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 30119 241930836 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 30120 30401 2265165 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 30120 30401 2265133+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

anyways now when i boot up i get a GRUB loading stage 1.5 then it waits 5 seconds and boots to ubuntu right away. It dosen't show the grub selection screen, so it never recognized my windows after I reinstalled like it should of. Is this a major problem. I don't know how installing gfxgrub could of killed the windows boot so bad.:confused:

[ingo]

ubumby,

I'm sure others can shed more light on this shortened grub explanation, but basically grub ought to be in the mbr (master boot record - the part of the disc that the BIOS addresses). It then opens the partition table and looks for /boot.

In /boot it opens up /boot/grub/menu.lst - at the bottom of this file you will see listed all the operating systems and entries which you see on the grub screen shortly after booting.

You will find entries for all your systems.

For Linux OSs you have the title, the root partition, the kernel and the initram. There may also be frame buffer or screen mode instructions.

For M$ you just see the title and some chainloader instruction (maybe more? I don't know). The chainloader points to the partition only - you may want to google it. Grub then looks for the kernel itself.

Armed with that info you should be able to make some headway:)

[mario2409]

Then do : sudo grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hdx,y) # this will be the output
grub> root (hdx,y)
grub> setup (hdx)



When I do the first line "find /boot/grub/stage1" I get Error 15: File not found... what am I doing wrong?

[Ubumby]

Thanks for the reply ingo,
I don't understand how grub or ubuntu can't recognize my windows partition anymore. My /boot/grub/menu.lst doesn't even have windows recognized anymore after I reinstalled ubuntu.

[ingo]

Well, the quick way out here would be to download the super grub disk (http://www.supergrubdisk.org/index.php?pid=4) from one of the mirrors listed, burn, boot and let it do its magic - if that does not find your M$ it is because your M$ is not there.

[pabl0]

When I do the first line "find /boot/grub/stage1" I get Error 15: File not found... what am I doing wrong?

Try with "find /grub/stage1"

[hartland08]

Alright I just tried the latest super grub disk and tried to fix it. Anyways when I tried, fix boot of windows, it said it succeeded. However I still only get the WORD grub when I reboot snd it won't let me do anything. I also tried to manually fix it and it could see both partitions:

hda1 sda1 00 0s1 fat- windows
hda2 sda2 01 0s2 NTFS- windows (Not Exact)

whenever I picked one it would read cannot mount selected partition. I'm using a live cd right now and opened gparted. I get a caution sign by my sda2 partition (Not by my sda1), It says Failed to start up volume. Failed to mount: Invalid argument, The device /dev/sda2 doesn't have a valid NTFS!!!:confused: (Is that normal for NTFS drives?)

I don't know how my installation of gfxgrub killed (maybe) this drive:(

[adrian15]

Alright I just tried the latest super grub disk and tried to fix it. Anyways when I tried, fix boot of windows, it said it succeeded.

hda1 sda1 00 0s1 fat- windows
hda2 sda2 01 0s2 NTFS- windows (Not Exact)



Choose Language & Help -> Boot & Tools -> Boot Partition -> hda2
Does your Windows boot?

If it boots:
Choose Language & Help -> Boot & Tools -> Activate Partition -> hda2
and when rebooting it should boot.

If when running: Choose Language & Help -> Boot & Tools -> Boot Partition -> hda2 you get GRUB then it means that you have somewhere run a: setup (hd0,1) and your ntfs partition has a severe problem (I am sorry I do not know how to solve it).

adrian15

[jw5801]

Choose Language & Help -> Boot & Tools -> Boot Partition -> hda2
Does your Windows boot?

If it boots:
Choose Language & Help -> Boot & Tools -> Activate Partition -> hda2
and when rebooting it should boot.

If when running: Choose Language & Help -> Boot & Tools -> Boot Partition -> hda2 you get GRUB then it means that you have somewhere run a: setup (hd0,1) and your ntfs partition has a severe problem (I am sorry I do not know how to solve it).

adrian15

You can solve that with a Windows repair disk I believe. I think SGD has the ability to restore the Windows MBR as well.

[_Stevie_]

i really wonder why ubuntu doesnt use the gfxboot screen from the install cd? it looks much better than that ugly grub screen.

[rognas]

Hi!

A big thankyou for this excellent how-to and the patience for all us n00bs..;-)

[jingo811]

i really wonder why ubuntu doesnt use the gfxboot screen from the install cd? it looks much better than that ugly grub screen.

I don't think you can md5 encrypt GRUB globally or for each specific partition with background graphics on. Unless there's some programmers who can rewrite how GRUB works maybe coding bootloaders has become a lost art, I don't know. But without a globally encrypted GRUB your root password is practically useless when someone gets their hand on your PC physically.
But then having encrypted GRUB globally or for each specific partition doesn't make you 100% protected either. See md5 GRUB encrypt as 30% added armour no more no less :-)

Even my former SUSE instructor told us to turn off the background image for the SUSE distro in order to protect our PC so I'd think that many SUSE users turn back to the darkside of GRUB in the end anyways :-)

[ingo]

Hear, hear!

Well, grub 2 is already an option on Lenny, so don't hold your breath ;)

[figos]

So basicaly I was installing GFX Grub in my laptop and when I came to this step:


The last thing you have to do is to install Grub MBR .

sudo fdisk -l

You will get an output like this

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0×0dd6c6bd

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3187 25599546 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3188 8287 40965750 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda3 8288 9607 10602900 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 9608 9729 979965 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 3188 5737 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 5738 8287 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Look for the bold Entry and finally install MBR in Filesystem

sudo grub-install /dev/sdaX
Note : Replace sda by hda if it is in fdisk -l output
Instead of grub-installing on my "Linux" partition I was dumb enough to install it in my "sda1-HPFS/NTFS" equivalent which is my Windows Vista partition. So now everytime I boot to that partition a new GFXGrub selection menu logically comes up and I'm stuck in an infinite loop. I checked to see if there was a grub-uninstall equivalent but to no avail. How can I uninstall grub from this partition?

Sorry if this has already been posted but I searched and found nothing.

[jingo811]

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around how GRUB behaves when multi-boot partitioning doesn't go as abc123....
There seems to be over 10 bad scenarios when GRUB goes wrong and I've only stumbled upon and understood 1,5 of those bad scenarios.

Try out Super Grub Disk it should help you understand and learn how to solve your specific case.
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/SuperGrubDiskPage.html

Or you could try and re-install GRUB to your Linux partition and then modify your /boot/grub/menu.lst so that it points to your Vista partition correctly. My Windows XP partition is in the same position like yours so just study how I made my menu.lst and then you can just modify your own Vista part. Also note that I'm using hdx you should still use sdx like before. Hope it helps.

# Which entry should boot by default?
default 0

# Countdown (seconds)
timeout 10

# Menu colors
color dark-gray/black white/red

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

################################################## #####################################



# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

....
....
....

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST




##################### { Entry 0 } ###############################
#
# Partition: /dev/hda5
title Ubuntu Feisty
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=0042284c-4547-41ef-9314-99824cfcf67c ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic
savedefault
boot

##################### { Entry 1 } ###############################
#
# Partition: /dev/hda5
title recovery mode
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=0042284c-4547-41ef-9314-99824cfcf67c ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic
savedefault
boot

##################### { Entry 2 } ###############################
#
# Partition: /dev/hda5
#title memtest86+
#root (hd0,4)
#kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
#savedefault
#boot





################################################## #####################################
title .................................................. ...................
root
################################################## #####################################



##################### { Entry 3 } ###############################
#
# Partition: /dev/hda6
title Debian Etch
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-486 root=/dev/hda6 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-5-486
savedefault
boot

##################### { Entry 4 } ###############################
#
# Partition: /dev/hda6
title single-user mode
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-486 root=/dev/hda6 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-5-486
savedefault
boot

##################### { Entry 5 } ###############################
#
# Partition: /dev/hda1
title Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

##################### { Entry 6 } ###############################
#
# Partition: /dev/hda8
title openSUSE 10.3
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_Maxtor_6E040L0_E118SYPN-part8 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/sdb2 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default

[figos]

Thanks for your help I fixed the problem with the Vista dvd.

[_Stevie_]

I don't think you can md5 encrypt GRUB globally or for each specific partition with background graphics on. Unless there's some programmers who can rewrite how GRUB works maybe coding bootloaders has become a lost art, I don't know. But without a globally encrypted GRUB your root password is practically useless when someone gets their hand on your PC physically.
But then having encrypted GRUB globally or for each specific partition doesn't make you 100% protected either. See md5 GRUB encrypt as 30% added armour no more no less :-)

Even my former SUSE instructor told us to turn off the background image for the SUSE distro in order to protect our PC so I'd think that many SUSE users turn back to the darkside of GRUB in the end anyways :-)

i didnt know that stuff with md5 and that it is a "security hole".
good to know! ill leave it as ugly as is then and wait for grub 2 :)

[jingo811]

Make your /boot/grub/menu.lst like this it's much sexier. Being pretty(gfxboot) and unsecured is not sexy. :)

# Menu colors
color dark-gray/black white/red

[_Stevie_]

let me check this........ ;)

[Skeet]

Does this work even if you're not dual booting? When I reboot, it says "Press ESC to enter menu", when I do, just the normal grub appears.

[jingo811]

Does what work? Please specify your question.

[Skeet]

GFXBoot. I tried installing it and it just came up with the usual grub menu each time.

[jw5801]

GFXBoot. I tried installing it and it just came up with the usual grub menu each time.

You need to reinstall grub after you install gfxboot. If you read the comments on the first couple of pages this is mentioned.

sudo grub-install [your hardrive in (hdX) format]

[evil_m0nkey]

Hi, I am pretty much a complete newbie, and i am interested in changing, but i just wanna know,

just in case something messes up, as in the installation of the theme and by my removal of grub, what would happen then??

would i be bale to use my laptop, as i have only one laptop, and cannot afford to NOT live with it.

Thank you in advance :)

[jingo811]

Doing this in terminal is your first measure against future GRUB problems.
sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst_backup_01
Then you should make sure you have a bootable Linux CD handy (second measure). My Debian Etch 4.01 Install CD has always rescued me when I messed up my GRUB. Somehow my main OS Ubuntu Feisty's LiveCD hasn't worked at all so you should wait for a second opinion before going any further with this business. If you intend on using Ubuntu LiveCDs for rescueing!

Otherwise you could be sitting there with a crippled laptop for 1-2 weeks.
All your personal data and system files including Windows if you have it will remain unharmed. GRUB is just a program that manages which of your operating systems to boot. It doesn't do anything to the files in your partitions except maybe read and write to your /boot/grub files.

So messing up GRUB is not really dangerous I've seen "Error 15 - File not found" around 5 times these past 2 months. :)

[focojoaco]

it worked for me
thanx!

[Houli]

Can someone post the first couple of lines from their menu.lst as an example for me as a working one.

[Stefanie]

there is an ubuntu theme in the repositories: gfxboot-theme-ubuntu . how do you use this theme? i installed the package but there doesn't seem to be a message-file...

[mrandersonmd]

Well I got how to modify the images and create a new message.xxxx, but how can I manage where the text is shown and the color code of the text...

I will thank if anyone can write some tutorial about that. Thanks in advance.

[magikasheep]

i fallowed this, but somehow it came to be that the resolution is wrong or something, and it doesnt show all the background, and the text goes off the screen. does anyone know how to fix this?

[obsrv]

Where do I find grub-gfxboot 64bit package?

[jw5801]

Where do I find grub-gfxboot 64bit package?

Can't remember where I got it from, but it's attached here.

[pavel989]

i found a few kewl splash's for grub online, starting to mess with this, maybe get around to making my own. but i can't get this to work. my grub menu is just fine, but i followed the steps and its still the old black and white boringness.

also:
pavel@pavel-desktop:~$ sudo echo gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse > /boot/grub/menu.lst
bash: /boot/grub/menu.lst: Permission denied
pavel@pavel-desktop:~$ su echo gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse > /boot/grub/menu.lst
bash: /boot/grub/menu.lst: Permission denied

does that matter?

and what could i be doing wrong?

[pavel989]

I too followed the following steps to install GfxBoot:

1. Downloaded the files
2. Uninstalled grub
3. Installed debs
4. Copied file to /boot/grub
5. Added line to menu.lst (added it at the very top, i.e. line 1)
6. Entered the Grub commands
7. Rebooted

Still the text grub page on reboot.

To get the thing to finally work I did the following at step 6:

sudo grub-install /dev/hdx #put your drive values in

sudo grub

grub< setup (hdx,y) #put your values in here

grub< root (hdx,y) #put your values in

grub< quit

reboot

When I rebooted I got the grub prompt instead of the nice graphical log in screen. At the grub prompt I did the following again:

grub< setup (hdx,y) #put your values in here

grub< root (hdx,y) #put your values in

Grub would not allow me to quit so I did a Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot.

On reboot the nice graphical interface was there.

I have performed the above on two computers to get the program to work.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! using ur method and messing around with it long enough, i got it running.
turns out, i had to use sda instead of hd0 and it grub kept giving me errors after, so i reboot and it worked. however, now as soon as i choose a linux boot, it gives me a little bit of text, idk y, dont really care, but it wasn't there before.

also, i change boot flags in gparted

so essentially, i have no idea what i did, but i did it with ur help, ty!

[jw5801]

i found a few kewl splash's for grub online, starting to mess with this, maybe get around to making my own. but i can't get this to work. my grub menu is just fine, but i followed the steps and its still the old black and white boringness.

also:
pavel@pavel-desktop:~$ sudo echo gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse > /boot/grub/menu.lst
bash: /boot/grub/menu.lst: Permission denied
pavel@pavel-desktop:~$ su echo gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse > /boot/grub/menu.lst
bash: /boot/grub/menu.lst: Permission denied

does that matter?

and what could i be doing wrong?

Try:
echo gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse | sudo tee -a /boot/grub/menu.lst

It's a very good thing you got permission denied for that command, as it would have erased your menu.lst. So you would have had rather severe issues at next boot.

The command it actually wanted was "echo gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse >> /boot/grub/menu.lst" as that will append. It won't work with sudo however, you have to actually be root. The reason is that sudo will only give root permissions to the part before the pipe (>, >> or |), so the part of the command that actually needed to be done as root doesn't receive the root permissions.

If you've already added the "gfxmenu" line to /boot/grub/menu.lst then you don't need to do this though, as that's all it does.

[pavel989]

ooo i get it now.

Also, are there any really good guides as to how to make a custom theme? like down to the font. i found the instructions with the gxboot-theme--ubuntu package, but it isn't very detailed.

[shinji257]

Can't remember where I got it from, but it's attached here.

Thanks for the file. I used it on my 64-bit install and it works great. It worked once I remembered to type grub-install. :oops:

P.S. - I notice the 64-bit install runs noticeably faster than than the 32-bit one. All modules loaded too so I don't think anything is missing. Nothing substantial anyways.

[shinji257]

I've fixed it, had to copy the /usr/lib/grub/ARCH/* files over to /boot/grub again as I had done the first time round installing Grub.

Noticed as this is a Debian package, not modified by Ubuntu that update-grub creates menu items as 'Debian GNU/Linux' not as 'Ubuntu x.xx'. I fixed this by extracting the Ubuntu grub package and comparing the contents of the two update-grub files, can be fixed by doing the following:

sudo gedit /usr/sbin/update-grub.real

Seach for: title="Debian GNU/`uname -s | sed -e s,GNU/,,g`"
Replace with: title=$(lsb_release --short --description 2>/dev/null) || title="Ubuntu"

Thanks for the tip. I also found that update-grub may not run since /bin/sh is symlinked to dash. Edit the first line of /usr/sbin/update-grub and change #!/bin/sh with #!/bin/bash. Oh and your line gives something like the following:

Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic

The original from the main grub package doesn't have the ".1" part so I created a slightly modified version of your line. This one will do it exactly like the old update-grub file formatted it. :)


title="$(lsb_release --short --id 2>/dev/null) $(lsb_release --short --release 2>/dev/null)" || title="Ubuntu"


Attached are updated versions of update-grub and update-grub.real that mimic the original version. In this version update-grub will use bash directly and update-grub.real has been updated to use the above line instead of the original one. Backup the ones you have then extract these into /usr/sbin if you wish to use them and yes they have been tested.

EDIT: I'll mention now that these files were tested for the 0.97-11 version on the amd64 build. Can't guarantee that it will work fine for newer versions.

[Muhammad]

So what I should be doing is removing Grub and installing gfxboot?

[master_kernel]

So what I should be doing is removing Grub and installing gfxboot?
Yes. Updated packages are here: http://sidux.com/debian/pool/main/g/grub-gfxboot/

[shinji257]

Did the message file format change between -11 and -29? In -11 I am able to use the message.suse file on the first post but now it give me an invalid format error with -29.

EDIT: I using the 64-bit version.

[rossinio]

Did the message file format change between -11 and -29? In -11 I am able to use the message.suse file on the first post but now it give me an invalid format error with -29.

I have the same problem, although I am starting from scratch with -29..

[Xgamer]

I have problem I install gfx boot and do everything as in the tutorial bad the grub says:gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse invalid file format
Would you help me with that?thx

[shinji257]

I have problem I install gfx boot and do everything as in the tutorial bad the grub says:gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse invalid file format
Would you help me with that?thx

Are you installing the 32-bit or 64-bit version? If you are using 32-bit then I'd recommend using the version on the first post (I know it works). If you are using the 64-bit one then use the copy attached to this post (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5224880&postcount=597).

Both will work. As mentioned above for some reason -29 changed the image format.

[Xgamer]

I install 64bit version because I run 64bit ubuntu

[mb7]

Hi,
When I try to install the .deb from the first post it complains about a unmet dependency grub-common which is not available in any repo I have enabled.

any suggestions?

[Jan Olieboer]

Hi,

Well .. it works .. just following the procedure as given. Just one thing. Grub sort of echoes all it's commands to screen. So when it starts, it displays a message, stating that it starts grub stage 1.5, followed by a message that it's going to start gfxboot. Then the graphical boot menu comes up, and after I've made a choice, it nicely echoes all the internal grub commands to screen/terminal, like chainloader +1 .. and what have you.
Can't imagine it's supposed to do that. I tried command 'terminal --no-echo' but that was obviously not it. I also tried different versions of the grub gfxboot, like the 5-version as mentioned in the first post, but also tried an 11 version I found somewhere else. Didn't make a difference. I have seen a post here stating the same issue, but no answer. Does anyone know how to switch of these terminal messages?

Jan.

[sankz]

The easiest method is available here:
http://fasterthanlight.wordpress.com/2008/07/18/beef-up-your-grub-loader/
and here:
http://fasterthanlight.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/create-your-own-grub-splash-image/

[erginemr]

@sankz,

This refers to Grub splash images, which are 640x480 size, 14 color deep, low quality background pictures, which are applicable to the existing default b/w Grub screen.

But GFXBoot is a completely different system, with backgrounds far more advanced screens with a higher resolution and color depth background and a ticking timer.

http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/gulliver+Ubuntu+GFXBoot+Grub+Theme?content=57145
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/GFXBoot+message.Snaiya++?content=71735

[DocZayus]

fdisk -l
returns nothing for me
(unless I have my 1gb sd card in the reader, then it returns the info for the card.)

grub > find /boot/grub/stage1
Error 15: file not found

Now, I've looked and it's there.
Last time I tried anything funny, I hosed my Vista partition.
I really don't want to relive these past 3 days of repartitioning/reformatting/reinstalling.

How else can I find out my ext2 /boot partition's whereabouts?

I manually partitioned it to be:
/boot (100mb - ext2)
/home/vista (100gb - ntfs)
/ (45gb - ext3)
swap (2gb)
/home/share (150gb - fat32)

[DocZayus]

Maybe menu.lst will help:

gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=633fcc98-7e74-4887-ae86-3a0cd7e21001 ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,0)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=633fcc98-7e74-4887-ae86-3a0cd7e21001 ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=633fcc98-7e74-4887-ae86-3a0cd7e21001 ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=633fcc98-7e74-4887-ae86-3a0cd7e21001 ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=633fcc98-7e74-4887-ae86-3a0cd7e21001 ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, memtest86+
root (hd0,0)
kernel /memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

[DocZayus]

grub> root (hd0,0)

Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

[Les_Caesars]

I've followed the instructions, have tried other people's solutions, and have a matching menu.lst file, but I'm not having any luck.

Now whenever I boot up, I get an "Invalid file format" error. None of the themes I've thrown at it have seemed to work. I heard somewhere that it had to be patched, and found some opensuse, archlinux, and gentoo-specific patches. Does someone know how we can get some patches for ubuntu, or have any other ideas for the "invalid file format" problem?

[Sam Lars]

FYI, gfxboot is available in the repositories, at least for Hardy...
But the package needed is grub-gfxboot...

[Les_Caesars]

Here we are. I found something that works for me. This should help people with 64-bit.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=526605

[Sam Lars]

Thanks for that link. I installed that, but when I do an update-grub (not related to gfxboot install), I get this error:
[: 25: ==: unexpected operator
exec: 25: -a: not found
I had to remove grub-gfxboot and install grub again to get the -20 version of the kernel to be set up correctly, because dpkg was running this update-grub as part of its process and failing because of this error.

[jw5801]

Thanks for that link. I installed that, but when I do an update-grub (not related to gfxboot install), I get this error:
[: 25: ==: unexpected operator
exec: 25: -a: not found
I had to remove grub-gfxboot and install grub again to get the -20 version of the kernel to be set up correctly, because dpkg was running this update-grub as part of its process and failing because of this error.

Open /usr/sbin/update-grub and change the first line from #!/bin/sh to #!/bin/bash.

[Les_Caesars]

Try only following the directions for the first post. Even though you may run 64 bit, use the 32 bit package that he has in the link anyway (that's what I did, it works, and I run 64 bit). Don't overlook the fact that the 64-bit package mentioned in that thread is an older version than the 32-bit one mentioned in the thread. The one in the link is 0.97-5, while the non-working 64-bit one is 0.97-11. A 32-bit grub probably isn't going to affect your whole OS' performance. As long as it works (and doesn't crash), it's as good as any other working solution.

[adam_kimber]

GFX boot is very nice but I seem to have a problem with it. I have a widescreen monitor and all the themes seem to have this split with the countdown on the left and the options on the right. My Countdown is near enough in the middle of the screen with the text going off the screen to the right.

Is there any way of getting the countdown to sit further left? I might need to edit the message files?

Second point, is there a way of removing the version number in the list? So all I get is "Ubuntu Linux, Memtest86 and Windows". it would look neater (and the text would not go off the screen ;)

Found a theme that is totally different! http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/Blue+Rays+Gfxboot+Theme?content=75674

[Sam Lars]

You can edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst to change what those titles are. They're at the bottom.

[Sam Lars]

Open /usr/sbin/update-grub and change the first line from #!/bin/sh to #!/bin/bash.

I did that, but I noticed I'm getting the same error now, whether it says sh or bash.

I followed the advice of Les_Caesars and it works now. Thanks.

[legolas_w]

I have startupmanager installed and when I tried to remove the grub it shows a message like:


Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
grub startupmanager
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 1892kB disk space will be freed.


should I continue or startup manager do the same job?

Thanks

[Malac]

I have startupmanager installed and when I tried to remove the grub it shows a message like:


Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
grub startupmanager
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 1892kB disk space will be freed.


should I continue or startup manager do the same job?

Thanks
Continue then install grub-gfxboot deb then sudo apt-get install startupmanager

Hope this helps.

[wesswei]

I don't know how to send a thanks on this forum, but Thank you for the howto PingunZ! Makes grub look so much more interesting. Looks like Suse knows a little something about linux too! :p

[A_Porcupine]

Hmmm.. i followed that exactaly and it is still not working, i even tried it again and it is still not working.

its just showing the old boot menu :S

the first time i went to remove grub it worked but if i try it now it removes nothing???

i am quite confused

:S

[Visible Spirit]

@merlwiz79,

Thanks for posting this GFXBoot message file! Nicely done good looking graphic. ;)

Visible Spirit

[sayantandas]

Hi, I am using Ubuntu 8.10. I cant get the gfxboot menu working in intrepid. everything installs fine but still the old grub comes up .

[Visible Spirit]

Hi sayantandas,


Don't know anything about Intrepid since I run Hardy 8.04, but throughout this thread the common theme seems to be a step that I don't think was included in the original how-to, considering it was started two years ago.

nbayiha's post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=2827955&postcount=395 (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=395) show's the entire install process that seems to have worked for most. The key that worked for me was re-installing grub all said and done as described at the end, if all other procedures were followed.

Back at Normal Prompt do this. (Step #9 above. Ignore the comment referring to Feisty Fawn... worked for me and a few others.)
sudo grub-install /dev/hdx,y

The option to this is if you have a serial drive vs IDE. In that case it would be...
sudo grub-install /dev/sdx,yAs stated, this step seems to be what's worked for most and was missing in the original how-to. Another post related to this issue was made by Malic here -> http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1835110&postcount=207 (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=207) .

HTH... ;)


Regards,
Visible Spirit

[crowly0]

Hi, I am using Ubuntu 8.10. I cant get the gfxboot menu working in intrepid. everything installs fine but still the old grub comes up .
Im running 8.10 x64, and manage to get it working after downloading and compiling gfxboot-theme-suse package. Figured i give it a try after reading this post (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5862591&postcount=6) (thread (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=886281)):
I've had similar problem with 64 bit gfxboot ( I couldn't `run 32 bit one) Themes provided on sites like gnome-look or kde -look are unusable for me, on boot I had message about invalid file, so I compiled few themes myself (suse, zen from ubuntu repos) and these are working.

And i have grub-gfxboot 0.97-33 from here http://sidux.com/debian/pool/main/g/grub-gfxboot/


For me it looks like 64bit grub can't read some of 32 bit binary files in not working themes.

What i did:
1) I followed this guide (http://tuxenclave.wordpress.com/2008/01/18/how-to-install-gfx-grub-in-ubuntu/) (basicly the same as the first post), and instead of the 32bit package, i downloaded/used the 0.97-33_amd64.deb from the link in the quote above. Then just followed the rest of the guide.

2) Installed gfxboot (is this needed?) and gfxboot-theme-suse packages. (Or choose another theme package)

3) In the terminal go to /usr/share/gfxboot-theme-suse
a) Compile the theme: (not really sure if both of these are required, im a newbie at compiling stuff)
i) sudo make
ii) sudo make install
b) cd install
c) sudo su
d) ls . |cpio -o > /boot/grub/message.suse

4) Edited /boot/grub/menu.lst and set the gfxmenu parameter as shown in the guide to the newly compiled file.

Heres the working suse theme that i got:

[bLaCkMeTaLL]

Hi crowly0, I have updated Hardy64 to Intrepid64 and tried to apply the changes you suggested, but none worked.
I followed the steps from the linked blog post, doing the steps correctly (unistalling grub - installing grub-gfxboot64 0.97-33, and setting it up); next I tried a gnome-look gfxboot, but it hasn't worked, so I installed through synaptic gfxboot & themes (suse,zen & ubuntu), also trying compiling stuff (suse and zen got compiled correctly but ubuntu given me errors).
I copied the message.suse and the message.zen on the /boot/grub but still it hasn't worked.
I finally tried your attachment and it also hasn't worked too!
WTF?!? :confused:

[aniruddha]

Hi. I am having the same problem as the previous poster. Just bought a new computer (lenovo Ideapad y530, core 2 duo) so I installed Ubuntu 8.10 (64 bit). Everything else worked fine, except for gfxboot. I had a theme from gnome-look which I had been using on my 32 bit Hardy system. Now no themes work. Is it possible to:

a) get themes designed specifically for 64 bit systems from anywhere
b) get some help for recompiling 32 bit themes for 64 bit systems (i tried crowly0's method, but it didnt work). The older cp and then editing pictures method (i forget who first posted it) didn't work as well.

I miss my old bootloader. Any help would be appreciated.

[LnksWolf]

Why not just use a GFXMenu? I can cope *sigh*. At least a GFXMenu doesn't make my Kubuntu Latty D400's GRUB as ugly as the naked one. :KS

-- LnksWolf --

[LnksWolf]

I made a Kubuntu gfxboot :)

Screenshot (http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload5/gfxboot.jpg)

12476

Thx a lot.:guitar:

[Ubumby]

After a "clean" install of Ubuntu Ibex ....I tried to reinstall gfxboot and of course it didn't work... After investigation my "menu lst" shows my partitions being this(even in my backup file):

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic
uuid 8cd0b0d3-9788-431b-855a-aeb932875080
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=8cd0b0d3-9788-431b-855a-aeb932875080 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 8cd0b0d3-9788-431b-855a-aeb932875080
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=8cd0b0d3-9788-431b-855a-aeb932875080 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic

title Ubuntu 8.10, memtest86+
uuid 8cd0b0d3-9788-431b-855a-aeb932875080
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
And heres my fdisk.....Here in lies my question:


sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe4651a0a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 4 32098+ de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 5 7294 58556925 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000ed44c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 30119 241930836 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 30120 30401 2265165 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 30120 30401 2265133+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00008dfb

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 60801 488384001 7 HPFS/NTFS


.................................................. ..............

Can someone please explain why my Linux hard drive lists the partition "as uuid" and shows no root (hdx,x) like my windows drive does......and why is my Linux partition not showing that its boot on my f-disk. Are these related?

For better understanding I think all this shows that my MBR is on my IDE drive (hd0,1) partition.....Even though grub command now lists...

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hd1,0)

So do I need to install gfxboot on Hd0,1 (MBR?/windows) or Hd1,0 (like the last output suggest).....(sudo grub-install hd0,1)...right?...

[ingo]

You have some reading to do, Ubumby ;)

For UUID - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_Unique_Identifier

For Grub have a look here - http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub-legacy-faq.en.html - I think no.5 is of particular interest to you.

HTH

[Ubumby]

Ok....I was impatient and screwed up again...My Windows drive is now no longer even readable (mountable) let alone boot able for my comp...ugh....I tried super-grub disk along with windows repair disk (fixboot and fixmbr). I think I have to reinstall windows again. Does anyone know a good recovery program to retrieve files off my hard drive. Or are they lost forever?

[ingo]

Well, I don't know whether knoppix can read ntfs (but I reckon so). Boot that and see whether you can mount it...

[bLaCkMeTaLL]

:lolflag: poor guy...I's the baptism of fire we all almost had; makes me remember how easy it is to screw things off!

Seems sudo in fact wasn't so "perfect", since today we all use it so lightly! (BUT _still_ IMHO it's one of the greatest killer-apps).

Hey, Ubumby, you may also try UltimateBootCD and see if it helps: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

[Ubumby]

hey guys, thanks for the replies....After spending hours of time I can't believe I fixed it....still no Gfxboot though....don't want to try because of the uuid thing yet. Knoppix wouldn't mount it, and Windows repair disk must have pointed all the commands to another drive (e.g. chkdisk output was "The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverabe problems ---and fixboot wouldn't help)I guess when I ran fixboot it was pointing to my G: drive so by adding "fixboot C:" solved it...All that time for something so simple:D (P.S. Ultimate boot looks awesome by the way)

[martinbc]

I tried, this is what happened:


sudo grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

Error 15: File not found

grub>




But I have double checked and the file is there...

[jw5801]

I tried, this is what happened:


sudo grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

Error 15: File not found

grub>




But I have double checked and the file is there...

Do you have a separate boot partition?

[martinbc]

Do you have a separate boot partition?

No I have not.

[samp3ri]

To all you who are so impatient that they can't do some googling around, here (http://en.opensuse.org/Gfxboot) is the tutorial: http://en.opensuse.org/Gfxboot (http://en.opensuse.org/Gfxboot)

I found it pretty good and am currently making a new theme.

[Neobuntu]

Are their any short instructions that work and does this cause problems with the auto kernel upgrades?

[a-linan]

I followed the how-to, but when I restart it does nothing. I have installed 8.04 Hardy Heron, also tried out with other themes, with the same result... where GFXBoot gets installed?

** edited **

I found the directory, but still I can't get the grub screen to work, I need heelp!

Thanks for your sugestions

[zinc.tw]

I tried, this is what happened:
sudo grub
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
Error 15: File not found
grub>

But I have double checked and the file is there...

well,well.....
I have the same problem,
and solve it by 3 hours..
finally,
the answers is
grub-gfxboot_0.97-11_i386.deb or elder is in conflict with ubuntu8.10..
and grub-gfxboot_0.97-35_i386.deb is available.

enjoy it!

and then, you may touch the problem "invalid file format!":lolflag:

[tstack77]

I don't get the lol, zinc!

I got the invalid file format but read nothing of it in this thread...simple fix?

[send4m3]

hi zinc, i found out in launch pad gfxboot version is 0.6.10, and you said that older than 0.6.11 can not be installed in intrepid ? have u try it in your system zinc ? Is the step still the same with have been told in forum ?

Please let me know cause i would like to install gfxboot in my PC, is it possible to have beautiful 1280x800 resolution with this gfxboot ? any suggestion theme that fix with intrepid ibex and my resolution screen ?

please let me know ASAP via my email send4m3@yahoo.com... thank you...

[Quarkrad]

I'm new to Ubuntu and enter codes in terminal (6to do things) with my fingers crossed all the time. I tried to have this grub screen (with ubugrey) but messed up and had to re-install. Having come across this post perhaps my problem was I'm running 8.10. Any chance of someone who has this working on 8.10 writing up a definitive list of commands for 8.10. Reading through past threads it gets a little confusing for a newbie on what the correct list of commands are. There are little changes over many many pages to try and keep up with.

Many thanks.

[polymath]

Hey, can someone post a build of those message.red and message.red2 files from a while back for intrepid? I'm trying to get them to work but most of the packages i find either look bad, don't work (invalid file format) or don't build because of "Unidentified words: fadein, fade \n make [error 10]"

[mhkxio]

any news about this working on the new ubuntu,intrepid?

[Sam Lars]

I've been using this for a while now, and it's been working fine. It survived the upgrade to Intrepid. I'm using the message.blusplash from the first post on 64-bit.

[Quarkrad]

Ok - I've had another go but the more I look into this the more confusing it gets. Many people say there is a bug(?) in Intrepid that will not allow the grub screen to be changed. As a newbie I think I'm reading messages/posts wrong - this is my problem. A key clue appears to be:

have the same problem,
and solve it by 3 hours..
finally,
the answers is
grub-gfxboot_0.97-11_i386.deb or elder is in conflict with ubuntu8.10..
and grub-gfxboot_0.97-35_i386.deb is available.

enjoy it!

and then, you may touch the problem "invalid file format!"

but I'm not sure where (lines of code) this fits in. message.ubugrey looks really nice (could this not be the default Ubuntu splash screen?) but I am really struggling. Has anybody got this working on 8.10? How?

[ryukent]

I got it working in a fresh install of Intrepid.

Problems I got were due to -
* Old version of grub
* Original tutorial doesn't say to do grub-install
* message file needed to be recompiled

This is what I did

Went to:

http://www.sidux.com/debian/pool/main/g/grub-gfxboot/

Downloaded the latest version for my architecture

sudo apt-get remove grub

sudo dpkg -i grub-gfxboot_0.97-35_i386.deb

Note you need to be in the right dir (obviously) and change it to the one for your arch.

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Added: gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse

sudo grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hdx,y) # this will be the output
grub> root (hdx,y)
grub> setup (hdx)

Obviously you need to change the X and Ys.

sudo grub-install /dev/sdaX

This was very important. Didn't work without it. Note the X is not the same number as the x or y in the previous section as grub uses different numbers. You need to look up the correct hard disk to use. It should be the one are booting to.

Then installed the gfxboot-theme-suse package from synaptic...

Note: the Ubuntu one didn't work.

cd /usr/share/gfxboot-theme-suse/
sudo make
sudo make install
cd install
sudo su
ls . |cpio -o > /boot/grub/message.suse

Note: I got errors when compiling the message, but I ignored them and it worked anyway.

This might no work for everyone, but it should give you a newer version than the original deb and also compile the suse message which also didn't work for me from the original. Plus.... remember grub-install

[ryukent]

OK, after a bit of playing around I've realised the compiling part was unnecessary. The message file is basically just a archive with stuff in it. It's easy to update. KDE look site has some others

[lowtolerance]

To all you who are so impatient that they can't do some googling around, here (http://en.opensuse.org/Gfxboot) is the tutorial: http://en.opensuse.org/Gfxboot (http://en.opensuse.org/Gfxboot)

I found it pretty good and am currently making a new theme.

Exactly what I've been looking for. Thanks for this!

[Glubbdubdribian]

I followed the steps in the first posts exactly but nothing has changed about grub.. any ideas why this might be?
I've run grub-install and tried version 5 and 36. still no luck
I'm running Ibex 32-bit.

thanks.

[Intrepid Ibex]

I got it working in a fresh install of Intrepid.

Problems I got were due to -
* Old version of grub ....
.... and also compile the suse message which also didn't work for me from the original. Plus.... remember grub-install
Oh no :O!
I did those, but I accidentally selected Windows C: partition at sudo grub: grub> root
and sudo grub-install /dev/sda!

How do I undo those changes ?
- currently I can't boot to Windows (Vista)

ps. I need to fix this as quick as possible:
Thanks forehand for the helpers! Thank you really much!

[Intrepid Ibex]

Bump! Anyone :)?

I did this:
cd ~/Desktop && wget 'http://home.comcast.net/~ubuntu_grub/boot_info_script.txt' && sudo bash boot_info_script.txt

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> Grub is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in
partition #3 for its boot files.

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system:
Boot sector type: Grub
Mounting failed:
mount: you must specify the filesystem type

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system:
Boot sector type: Grub
Mounting failed:
mount: you must specify the filesystem type

sda3: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext3
Boot sector type: No Boot Loader
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 8.10
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/menu.lst /etc/fstab /boot /boot/grub

sda4: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: Extended Partition

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext3
Boot sector type: No Boot Loader
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive sda: __________________________________________________ ___________________

fdisk -lu /dev/sda:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3ffb046e

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 181984319 90992128+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 299162430 312576704 6707137+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 181984320 221247179 19631430 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 221247180 299162429 38957625 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 221247243 299162429 38957593+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

sfdisk -V /dev/sda:

/dev/sda: OK

blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

/dev/sda3: UUID="dcfa8068-b3a8-4645-bfcf-cc8dcffedac8" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda5: UUID="16a57d37-35a7-41b6-bf8f-bc376b65311e" TYPE="ext3"

=============================== "mount" output: ===============================

/dev/sda3 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
/proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw,mode=755)
/dev/sda5 on /home type ext3 (rw,relatime)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/linuxpro/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=linuxpro)

=========================== sda3/boot/grub/menu.lst: ===========================

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
.................
................
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-11-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic root=UUID=dcfa8068-b3a8-4645-bfcf-cc8dcffedac8 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-11-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-11-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic root=UUID=dcfa8068-b3a8-4645-bfcf-cc8dcffedac8 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-11-generic

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-9-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-9-generic root=UUID=dcfa8068-b3a8-4645-bfcf-cc8dcffedac8 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-9-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-9-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-9-generic root=UUID=dcfa8068-b3a8-4645-bfcf-cc8dcffedac8 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-9-generic

title Ubuntu 8.10, memtest86+
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


=============================== sda3/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda3
UUID=dcfa8068-b3a8-4645-bfcf-cc8dcffedac8 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=16a57d37-35a7-41b6-bf8f-bc376b65311e /home ext3 relatime 0 2
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

================================== sda3/boot: ==================================

total 24640
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2008-12-29 10:26 .
drwxr-xr-x 20 root root 4096 2008-12-29 19:27 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 508385 2008-12-19 19:57 abi-2.6.27-11-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 507665 2008-11-21 01:46 abi-2.6.27-9-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 91358 2008-12-19 19:57 config-2.6.27-11-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 91364 2008-11-21 01:46 config-2.6.27-9-generic
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2008-12-31 21:50 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8621630 2008-12-24 18:09 initrd.img-2.6.27-11-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8619552 2008-12-15 14:31 initrd.img-2.6.27-9-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 124152 2008-09-11 23:11 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1031799 2008-12-19 19:57 System.map-2.6.27-11-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1029585 2008-11-21 01:46 System.map-2.6.27-9-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1074 2008-12-19 19:58 vmcoreinfo-2.6.27-11-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1073 2008-11-21 01:48 vmcoreinfo-2.6.27-9-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2248912 2008-12-19 19:57 vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2244304 2008-11-21 01:46 vmlinuz-2.6.27-9-generic

=============================== sda3/boot/grub: ===============================

total 252
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2008-12-31 21:50 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2008-12-29 10:26 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 197 2008-12-31 21:35 default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15 2008-10-04 23:10 device.map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8108 2008-12-31 21:35 e2fs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7856 2008-12-31 21:35 fat_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16 2008-12-31 21:35 installed-version
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8712 2008-12-31 21:35 jfs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5012 2008-10-04 18:30 menu (copy).lst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5117 2008-12-31 21:50 menu.lst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5143 2008-12-31 21:50 menu.lst~
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5259 2008-12-31 21:25 menu.lst.backup
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5259 2008-12-31 21:20 menu.lst.backup~
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7352 2008-12-31 21:35 minix_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9756 2008-12-31 21:35 reiserfs_stage1_5
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-11-13 14:04 splashimages
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 2008-12-31 21:35 stage1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 121460 2008-12-31 21:35 stage2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9556 2008-12-31 21:35 xfs_stage1_5

=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

/dev/sda1: unknown volume type
/dev/sda2: unknown volume type

[looi76]

Hi, I'm having a problem getting GFX GRUB to work.

Here is how I installed it:

First I downloaded the files required. I have used grub-gfxboot_0.97-36_amd64.deb since I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 64-bit.
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/6505/upload01pz8.th.png (http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=upload01pz8.png)

Then I have removed GRUB:
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/3223/upload02so3.th.png (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=upload02so3.png)

The I have installed GFX GRUB:
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/9369/upload2nn7.th.png (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=upload2nn7.png)

Then I have copied message.suse to /boot/grub:
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/9762/screenshot3qs9.th.png (http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot3qs9.png)

Then I have backup /boot/grub/menu.lst and edited it:
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/3715/screenshot4pb6.th.png (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot4pb6.png)http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/7362/screenshot5iy4.th.png (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot5iy4.png)

Then I have configured grub:
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/4172/screenshot6yj5.th.png (http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot6yj5.png)

After I did the following steps, when I switch on my computer nothing has changed to GRUB! Can someone help?

[subever]

I installed the package grub-gfxboot_0.97-36_amd64.deb under ubuntu 8.10 (64bit) i followed all the steps but when i restart i get this message: "gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse invalid file format"
anyone figured out this problem.. i already spent hours on different themes.. Help me plz

[RJQ]

Finally I got it working... hopefully this can help some one there with similar situation.

the problem:
I had three os in one hd in my computer kubuntu intrepid and two ubuntu hardy, one of this is my booting system, grub-gfxboot worked well on hardy but it could not see the intrepid partition, installing latest grub-gfxboot let me boot any of my three os but no image no themed menu but the invalid file format error. googling around I read about sidux using different path and that was the answer for me, but instead of changing the files I just change the path in menu.lst...

the solution:
installing the grub-gfxboot from sidux and one of the themes I use gaia, in the theme .deb you can see where this files are going to be placed.
once both .debs were installed I just change the path in the menu.lst like this

gfxboot /boot/message

the message is a link to the real file in the same directory (message.hd) an voila! working like a charm also I change the background image for a more suitable look

[yzhang12]

Hi, I'm having a problem getting GFX GRUB to work.

Here is how I installed it:

First I downloaded the files required. I have used grub-gfxboot_0.97-36_amd64.deb since I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 64-bit.
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/6505/upload01pz8.th.png (http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=upload01pz8.png)

Then I have removed GRUB:
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/3223/upload02so3.th.png (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=upload02so3.png)

The I have installed GFX GRUB:
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/9369/upload2nn7.th.png (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=upload2nn7.png)

Then I have copied message.suse to /boot/grub:
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/9762/screenshot3qs9.th.png (http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot3qs9.png)

Then I have backup /boot/grub/menu.lst and edited it:
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/3715/screenshot4pb6.th.png (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot4pb6.png)http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/7362/screenshot5iy4.th.png (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot5iy4.png)

Then I have configured grub:
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/4172/screenshot6yj5.th.png (http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot6yj5.png)

After I did the following steps, when I switch on my computer nothing has changed to GRUB! Can someone help?

is hiddenmenu commented out?

[Uji-Wu]

Hé! Whatsup :)

I thought about making my own splash screen with a fat pingoin and a fat butterfly with both a list of instances of linux/windows under them, and with some lighting effect..

Like i'd boot my pc then select the pingoin or butterfly with left and right then up and down to select the instance....


But yet, thats just projects...

Currently, i messed grub by installing a third windows (i was bored to delete windows at each times i had spies) (so i make windows, windows.0 and windows.1 sharing the same program files with some realy non-technical ways:P

I'd like to install gfxboot as it is currently, mayby with a nice sweet beautiful theme as i found elsewere.... But i would have to do it like from an usb drive or from a lan connection installation or such... I had a friend installing gnome from lan by "dos" (dos is the only name i can find to name what isnt dos) XD

Mayby i could also do that from the live cd... :P Couldnt quite guess how:P

I know that there might be tutorials to install classic grub in many diferant ways.. i even found one meant to be used on ntfs ( http://www.geocities.com/lode_leroy/grubinstall/ ) But i realy would bounce if i had gfxboot :P


Thanx for any further help :)

[Uji-Wu]

http://fc17.deviantart.com/fs40/f/2009/019/1/3/GFXBOOT_grub_idea_by_dijimucks.png

Thats nearly what i had in mind:P

The idea is more to have some arcade alure than realy splitting osses... :P

Even thought.. That'd be cool to be able to change boot order from this menu so if i feel like using fedora for a while i put it on default directly from the boot loader:P :)

[Siracide]

I am just tired of this!... never got it working followed the steps mentioned above since the very beginning...
now looking at the last post that Mr. Penguin or Mrs. Penguin not ofense! OK!...
I did download the gfxboot files and everything he/she mentioned... WWW.SIDIUX.COM to be exact!... MR/Mrs "RJQ"
Anyways... doing everything that I've seen so far... and by the way, I am using Ubuntu 8.10 Ultimate edition 2.0... which I honestly though it was better than suse...
I could never have my customize GRUB, after a lot of errors, installs and uninstalls... now finally, ERROR 11: UNRECOGNIZED DEVICE STRING!... #$^%*+!..@.... (^_^) ... SORRY...
But it freaks me out!... LOL...

By the way, any help... thanks for the 670 replies... and for the people that got lucky setting up their GRUB...


:s ... i give up!...

[Uji-Wu]

lol:P

The best way i'd like to learn about installing grub/gfxboot would be to do it via booting... To nearly have grub/gfxboot as an installable exploitation system.... Detecting all instances of installed operation sytems.... I'd even imagine virtualbox to be loadable from this point in standalone without the need of loading neither win or lin. Like..... a setup loadable from an usb key on boot.... (i feel like repeating:P)

The wierdest is that when i installed gfxboot a while ago, and that it didnt work, the grub i reinstalled was generic grub with the blue-white-black screen:P

Mayby a good way of installing gfxboot would be to install OpenSuse aside of ubuntu and windows? Then modifying the skin and all? Or installing suse's boot loader without installing suse totaly? (if there is some way of keeping the loader without endin the setup?)

[ov7a]

Hi! I've everything, but I've got the same error zinc.tw told about:
and then, you may touch the problem "invalid file format!
Anybody solved that? How can I update message, for example message.blusplash?
P.s. ubuntu 8.10 32bit.

[DeltaFee]

Hi, I followed the instructions and I still can't seem to get it to work

[RJQ]

I see there is some frustration on this set up, I know it because I also did give up for a wile before getting things working again, for me the point in getting this working is that when either my wife or son get into the computer they do not think they just broke it when the classic old grub dialog appears, therefore making the selection more appealing is a must for me.

In the original how to, the gfxboot theme was installed or placed in /boot/grub/ (along with the menu.lst per say) but now at least for me that would not do it, I have to actually install one of the sidux themes (suse ones didn't work) with a .deb file and that placed three files in /boot/ not in /boot/grub/ one of this been just a link to the second installed file the actual message, in menu.lst the file to point with the gfxboot line is /boot/message (this is the link) otherwise pointing to the actual message file will give me an error (this is using gfxboot /boot/messege.hd line in menu.lst) once the theme worked I was able to change the background.

In resume install latest gfxboot (either for hardy or intrepid) as described in the first post > install the message.deb > (check that the files mentioned above exist in /boot/) > change the menu.lst and place in the beginning of it gfxboot /boot/message > experiment with the message.hd to fit your likeness > remember that even one letter wrong and you will get an error.

And of course eye candy without a purpose is just fanciness.

[DeltaFee]

I am still not entirely sure: heres my menu.lst

gfxmenu /boot/messages.blue

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 3

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

#A splash image for the menu
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splashimages/68224-tux_splash.xpm.gz

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
## password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=0b224239-ac94-4721-99f8-46a7e4bb2fcc ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,1)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery mode) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.04
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-23-generic root=UUID=0b224239-ac94-4721-99f8-46a7e4bb2fcc ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-23-generic
boot

#title Microsoft XP Pro
#root (hd0,1)
#kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-23-generic root=UUID=0b224239-ac94-4721-99f8-46a7e4bb2fcc ro single
#initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-23-generic
#boot

title Ubuntu 8.04(recovery mode)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-23-generic root=UUID=0b224239-ac94-4721-99f8-46a7e4bb2fcc ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-23-generic
boot

title memtest86+
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

[jw5801]

I am still not entirely sure: heres my menu.lst

It should be message.blue not messages.blue. Unless you've renamed the file.

[DeltaFee]

heres my /boot directory:

abi-2.6.24-19-generic initrd.img-2.6.24-23-generic.bak
abi-2.6.24-23-generic memtest86+.bin
config-2.6.24-19-generic messages.blue
config-2.6.24-23-generic System.map-2.6.24-19-generic
grub System.map-2.6.24-23-generic
initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic
initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic.bak vmlinuz-2.6.24-23-generic
initrd.img-2.6.24-23-generic

[RJQ]

heres my /boot directory:

I do not like to sound "pushy" but why don't give a try to the theme I mention, although it may not work either you do not have any thing to loose, try this link (http://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/sidux/debian/pool/main/g/gfxboot-theme-sidux/) there just download any theme and install the .deb, that will give a least two files in your /boot/ directory (not just one) the message itself and a link to it, I have no idea why does not work without the link a least for me, if you get it to work then you can replace the theme but live the link along. again suse or ubuntu themes didn't work for me.

[DeltaFee]

I do not like to sound "pushy" but why don't give a try to the theme I mention, although it may not work either you do not have any thing to loose, try this link (http://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/sidux/debian/pool/main/g/gfxboot-theme-sidux/) there just download any theme and install the .deb, that will give a least two files in your /boot/ directory (not just one) the message itself and a link to it, I have no idea why does not work without the link a least for me, if you get it to work then you can replace the theme but live the link along. again suse or ubuntu themes didn't work for me.

I try to install one of your themes, but it gave me an error on sidux. I didn't notice any installer of sidux. This may seem Newbe but am I suppose to compile the source code that you give?

[RJQ]

I try to install one of your themes, but it gave me an error on sidux. I didn't notice any installer of sidux. This may seem Newbe but am I suppose to compile the source code that you give?

Use the link (http://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/sidux/debian/pool/main/g/gfxboot-theme-sidux/) I give to you, it is not "my" theme this sidux is a distro (like ubuntu) based on the unstable debian, there download any theme, that is a .deb package ready to install, no compilation need it, just like any other package click on it and it will tell you if a dependency is required, then the installation will happen. after installation you will find the messages files in the /boot/ directory, I have no idea why the error but there is no need of anything else but installing the .deb package. try that first then we can go for the next step if you like so.

[DeltaFee]

I tried installing the chaos theme but I get This is error.

Error: can't install /boot/message


Not quite sure whats wrong.

[Clint000]

Hi RJQ,
thanks to your guidance I eventually managed to have a working screen in Intrepid with gfx-boot_0.97-40 (had to install grub-common package as well).
Could you please explain how you did to change the background image to a customized one? You mentioned it was done by playing with message.hd but I haven´t been able to get it working.

Thanks

[UbNewbie]

Hi RJQ,
thanks to your guidance I eventually managed to have a working screen in Intrepid with gfx-boot_0.97-40 (had to install grub-common package as well).
Could you please explain how you did to change the background image to a customized one? You mentioned it was done by playing with message.hd but I haven´t been able to get it working.

Thanks

Yes true. I have also mentioned yesterday that you need a new grub-gfxboot version with Intrepid.
But now all other standard message.* from e.g. art-gnome doesn't work at all.
You get error message "invalid file format".

I get manage to install gfxboot-theme-zen and compile it for use. I works fine but I want to change the background etc..
Somebody that can point me to the right direction?
E.G. changing the background, font type, size etc...
It is hardly to find any document regarding the gfxboot theme.....

Any help will be appreciated..

H2T

[rmflagg]

Hi everyone,

This seems to be a common problem that many people are having with the older gfxboot themes and the newer versions of gfxboot.
I would *really* like to use some of the older themes with Intrepid. Can anyone out there(like, maybe the people who MADE the original themes) tell us how to change the themes so that we don't get the "invalid file format" error? How about some of the folks who made the new themes? What is the wizardry involved in getting these really nice themes converted?

Thanks,
RM Flagg

[traceurST]

Hi!
I tried to configure gfxgrub on ubuntu 8.10 following first post, but when I reach grub> find /boot/grub/stage1, it allways returns "Error 15: File not found"
Please, help me, I don't know what I did wrong...

[UbNewbie]

Hi!
I tried to configure gfxgrub on ubuntu 8.10 following first post, but when I reach grub> find /boot/grub/stage1, it allways returns "Error 15: File not found"
Please, help me, I don't know what I did wrong...

Hi traceST,

Which version of grub-gfxboot are you using?
You need definitely the version 0.97-40. You can download it from http://www.sidux.com/debian/pool/main/g/grub-gfxboot/
Another things that you need to install extra is grub-common from ubuntu repository.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

H2T

[RJQ]

Sorry I was not around, my fault.

to every one, my recommendation is (and for those with 8.10 system is a must) to use the method at the beginning but with the latest packages, I remember that just for the sake of been "clean" I used the grub-gfxboot, the grub-common and the theme from sidux (rather than using one from here another from there...) and the rest of the story is all ready posted.

Now for changing JUST the background I use a tutorial from the suse website which only knowledge needed was compressing the folder. now I remember that there is several tutorials on how to make your own theme but that is beyond any thing I know for now. You can extract the message contents then play with the picture trying to keep the dimensions and the size about the same then in that folder directory just doing with the terminal a compression "sudo ls . |cpio -o > /boot/message.yours" will do the trick.

I have not a hand any link for those tutorials but I am sure saint google will provide some paths... try suse gfxboot how to, or something like so.

[Tom_T]

http://fc17.deviantart.com/fs40/f/2009/019/1/3/GFXBOOT_grub_idea_by_dijimucks.png

Thats nearly what i had in mind:P

The idea is more to have some arcade alure than realy splitting osses... :P

Even thought.. That'd be cool to be able to change boot order from this menu so if i feel like using fedora for a while i put it on default directly from the boot loader:P :)

Hi
Only just started reading this thread.. but is that image possible ?

It would make it much easier for the wife and kids if it is !!
If so HOW ? Thanks :)

[wsonar]

trying to get this to work after doing

:/boot/grub$ sudo grub-install /dev/sda
The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.


/boot/grub$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x916e916e

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 2550 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 2551 4463 15360000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 6083 9729 29294527+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 4464 4866 3237097+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 4464 4866 3237066 82 Linux swap / Solaris

[wsonar]

Now I boot directly to the grub SETUP screen.

Everthing was working fine fresh install today of XP, then Vista, Then Ubuntu,

Tested booting to all then tried to install GFXboot thats when I ran into problems

need help getting things back in order and getting gfxboot to work would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you...

[wsonar]

Gfxboot makes grub look nicer but with the same features
In this howto you will install gfxboot and a suse theme for it, soon I'll make an ubuntu one ;)
Ok, let's start

Download the grub-gfxboot.deb (http://quasarfreak.googlepages.com/grub-gfxboot_0.97-5_i386.deb)
And the message.suse (http://quasarfreak.googlepages.com/message.suse)

First remove your old grub
sudo apt-get remove grub

Then Install the gfxboot-grub
sudo dpkg -i grub-gfxboot_0.97-5_i386.deb

then we're going to move the message
sudo cp message.suse /boot/grub/ # the suse can be replaced by the one you downloaded

Then edit your menu.lst


sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst_backup
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
and make it use gfxboot
gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse # the suse can be replaced


Then do : sudo grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hdx,y) # this will be the output
grub> root (hdx,y)
grub> setup (hdx)

-- Howto make you own theme --


mkdir /home/name/whatever
cpio -i < /boot/grub/message.suse # replace it by the name of you message
edit the pictures
sudo ls . |cpio -o > /boot/grub/message.new

Reboot and enjoy ;)
Thanks to Quasar_freak and kno

here are some themes posted in this thread ;) ( ty :KS )

Light Green generic theme [message.gobo] | Link (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1214274&postcount=12) | Screenshot (http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=12251&d=1152089288)
Dark Brown (Dapper look) generic theme [message.new] | Link (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1239724&postcount=55) | Screenshot (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=12549&d=1152600544)
Medium blue kubuntu theme [message.kubuntu] | Link (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1234300&postcount=54) | Screenshot (http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload5/gfxboot.jpg)
Dark grey ubuntu theme [message.ubugrey] | Link (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1251236&postcount=61) | Screenshot (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=12875&d=1153129717)
Medium brown ubuntu theme [message.ububrown] | Link (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1252317&postcount=63) | Screenshot (http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=12874&d=1153129657)
Light orange ubuntu theme [message.ubu] | Link (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1254642&postcount=64) | Screenshot (http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=12873&d=1153128852)
Red ubuntu theme [message.new] | Link (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1265601&postcount=65) | Screenshot (http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=12870&d=1153128852)
Fuzzy blue and black ubuntu theme [message.bluspash] | Link (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1272301&postcount=71) | Screenshot (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=12947&d=1153265746)
White / Grey Snowish generic theme [message.snow] | Link (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1292317&postcount=84) | Screenshot (http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=13161&d=1153730506)
Linspire-style blue kubuntu theme [message.kubu] | Link (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1294120&postcount=86) | Screenshot (http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=13176&d=1153757390)
Old- Grub style dark blue and light blue [message.kubu] | Link (http://mitglied.lycos.de/atoth/ubuntuusers/message.napo) | Screenshot (http://mitglied.lycos.de/atoth/ubuntuusers/screenshot_message_napo.png)
Light blue / grey Xubuntu theme [message.xubu] | Link (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1297486&postcount=97) | Screenshot (http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=13211&d=1153828350)


Grtz PingunZ[/QUOTE]





I try this exactly and at the point I get to grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

get error

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

Error 15: File not found

grub>

[wsonar]

I don't want to shut down because then I can't boot up any suggestions on how to make this work on 8.10

[wsonar]

I restored my old grub but would like to still figure out why gfx will not work...

[traceurST]

I finally succeded to instal new gfxboot, and common-grub, without any errors, but there is stil old fu**** grub.. I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, and all new files for gfxboot, except message.something... Can ANYONE please tel me which message. I can use on Intrepid?
Thx

[wsonar]

I got my gfxboot wroking :P

So I ended up just coping over the little data I had to the ntfs part this was a pretty fresh install of all os's it apears it was ext3 after all

I then booted to the ubuntu 8.04 cd deleted the linux and swap made the sawp 2 gig and the rest for the linux which was ext 3 and primary


after the install grub was back and booted into ubuntu 8.04

before getting any update

I followed the how to for the gfxboot here

http://abhay-techzone.blogspot.com/2007/10/howto-have-grub-like-suse-on-ubuntu.html

rebooted and wolla I had my cool themed bootloader

I tested booting into each os

I then got all critical security updates

after testing was still good then got recomended updates

[wsonar]

I finally succeded to instal new gfxboot, and common-grub, without any errors, but there is stil old fu**** grub.. I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, and all new files for gfxboot, except message.something... Can ANYONE please tel me which message. I can use on Intrepid?
Thx

you can go here and search for gfxboot and there is about 4 pages of them you can get....not to mention alot of other cool gnome stuff



http://www.gnome-look.org

I like the message.linuxhack

[rmflagg]

Ok...which of the gfxboot themes on gnome-look.org will work under the newest version of gfxboot?

[pantelis20]

Check this out http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Debian+Orange+-+GRUB+gfxboot?content=93581
If you like additional themes then go to http://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/sidux/debian/pool/main/g/gfxboot-theme-sidux/
These are deb packages and what they do is that they extract the message.xxx to /boot/.If you like you can right click to the deb packages and select extract here.Then open the extracted folder and do the same to the data.tar.gz and then you will be able to find the message.hd and place it manually to /boot/grub.This stuff worked for me on ubuntu 8.10 and grub gfx grub-gfxboot_0.97-40_amd64.deb package which i downloaded from http://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/sidux/debian/pool/main/g/grub-gfxboot/.Warning.Everything worked fine until an update of kernel, then it gave to me error 11.I still cannot figure out what went wrong.After the update of kernel I was not able to boot to my ubuntu desktop since I got error 11.Try at your risk.All the other time it was working perfect.

[pantelis20]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[aniruddha]

Would it be possible to find out:

a) how to create (or edit) our own gfxboot themes?
b) which of the older themes are compatible with 8.10?

the opensuse tutorial is a bit unhelpful and the methods in various threads around this forum are rather confusing (to a relatively new ubuntu user).

thanks.

[Gerinych]

I have GFXboot on a separate partition, and I can't use it to boot Ubuntu. It gives me "Error 2: Bad file or directory type" when it tried to load the kernel. Here's my menu.lst:
gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.snow
default saved
timeout 10

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=b626a3ea-fa85-4454-9b72-94520b0296a7 ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=b626a3ea-fa85-4454-9b72-94520b0296a7

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash vga=795

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery mode) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.10
kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic root=/dev/sdb1 ro quiet splash vga=795
initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-11-generic
boot

title Ubuntu 8.10 (recovery mode)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic root=UUID=b626a3ea-fa85-4454-9b72-94520b0296a7 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-11-generic
boot

title Ubuntu 8.10 memtest86+
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

title Other operating systems:
root

title Windows Vista Ultimate
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1 /vstaldr
savedefault
makeactive

[pantelis20]

About how to edit your own theme you can change the pictures of it and put any picture you want.To do this extract the folder and then replace the picture.The picture should be 800x600.Name it as the original picture of the theme and delete the original one.Then you have to compress the folder with the containing stuff of the theme.To do this open a terminal and type something like cd /home/yourname/Desktop/files (if you have the files needed to the Desktop to the folder files) and then type ls | cpio -ov > message.This command will compress the files needed inside to the /home/yourname/Desktop/files/ with the name message.After that you can rename message to message.xyz if you want and place it manually to the /boot/grub or whatever you may want.If you see black screen then the picture would be not suitable due to depth of colour.Unfortunately I don't know the suitable value of it so you have to test some pictures yourself.If you download a theme from http://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/sidux/debian/pool/main/g/gfxboot-theme-sidux/ then another option is to have a theme with some penguins walking.You can do this by extracting the theme and edit the gfxboot.cfg by deleting the line "welcome=0" and editing line penguin=0 to penguin=x where x is the percentage of how often the penguin randomly appear.The penguin=0 is never, the penguin=50 means half of boots likely and the penguin=100 means always.Then you have to compress the folder as previous.If you use the theme with the penguin do not delete or rename any other of stuff even the original picture.The only thing needs to be changed is the gfxboot.cfg.If you don"t know how to find the theme of the link which I give read the second from the bottom post from here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=208855&highlight=gfx+grub&page=70 where I explain how to.

[hienfy]

I followed the steps until

sudo grub-install hd0
The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.

Anyone has any ideas? It seems that grub is worknig find, i could do a $find /boot/grub/stage1 . But, when i install the grub-gfxboot package, my grub fails to find stage1 and gives a error 15 File not found.

[bmhm]

I followed the steps until

sudo grub-install hd0
The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.

Anyone has any ideas? It seems that grub is worknig find, i could do a $find /boot/grub/stage1 . But, when i install the grub-gfxboot package, my grub fails to find stage1 and gives a error 15 File not found.

I got it working by installing grub-common.

[sirko]

I'm gettting this error:
GNU GRUB version 0.97 (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB
lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename. ]

grub>

grub> grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

Error 27: Unrecognized command

grub>
Can anyone help please, I done all steps in first page but still old grub

[bmhm]

I'm gettting this error:

grub> grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

Error 27: Unrecognized command

Can anyone help please, I done all steps in first page but still old grub

Either you were in a hurry or you shouldn't be changing your grub yet. You pasted the prompt.
If you don't know what you're doing, DO NOT just copy-paste commands here. Really. If anything messes up, you cannot boot anymore.


Another issue: Can some1 tell me where to get themes for the NEW version? It's got another message file format.

[jw5801]

I'm gettting this error:
GNU GRUB version 0.97 (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB
lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename. ]

grub>

grub> grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

Error 27: Unrecognized command

grub>
Can anyone help please, I done all steps in first page but still old grub

Ok, 'grub>' is the command prompt you get when you enter the grub shell. 'find /boot/grub/stage1' is the command you want to run at this prompt. You've copied and pasted the 'grub>' in as part of the command, hence the shell can't find the command you gave it.

[hienfy]

What exactly is grub-common? I was fiddling with grub-gfxboot but, somehow installing results in failing to find /boot/grub/stage1 despite it being there. However, when i restore the original grub via sudo apt-get install grub, i'm able to perform find /boot/grub/stage1.

Hence, does grub-gfxboot works with ubuntu 8.1 or..? It seems like i started with a clean ubuntu install and followed the tutorial completely, but grub-gfxboot just stubbornly dont work.

[har02052]

I followed the tutorial but I am running into a problem towards the last steps. if I:

sudo grub

then

find /boot/grub/stage1

but I get a file not found error.

Somebody help me out here. Thanks

[bmhm]

find /boot/grub/stage1

but I get a file not found error.

As some1 said before, the tutorial was not written for 8.10 (and not for amd64).
I made it work by installing grub-common.
Be sure to install grub-gfxboot version -11, not the more recent -40, or your bootsplashes won't work anymore.

[Jordanwb]

Then do : sudo grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hdx,y) # this will be the output
grub> root (hdx,y)
grub> setup (hdx)

bash: grub: command not found

I'm running 9.04 amd64 beta

[Yathi]

Bro dont just keep sayin install grub-common. Grub-common was already installed so i removed and installed it again and still it gives me the same thing.

yathi@Zangetsu:~$ sudo grub-install /dev/sda
The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.

[Yathi]

Does anyone see this post now???

[markitoxs]

I did. Thanks for the guide, required a little bit of tweaking but wirked fine.

[Malac]

I downloaded this deb file from sidux.com:
grub-gfxboot_0.97-40_i386.deb (http://sidux.com/debian/pool/main/g/grub-gfxboot/grub-gfxboot_0.97-40_i386.deb)

Uninstalled GRUB then installed the deb using GDebI (just double-clicked on it)
Then altered the gfxboot-theme-zen(installed via synaptic) using the jaunty GDM background and GIMP then compiled it to this one.
111185

Hope this helps

[camper365]

sudo grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hdx,y) # this will be the output
grub> root (hdx,y)
grub> setup (hdx)


When I run grub, it can never find /boot/grub/stage1
I have /boot on a separate partition, so I tried /grub/stage1 but it still didn't work.
I did apt-get install grub and it worked just fine.
The problem with that is that it removed gfx-boot.

[Kor-Skarn]

Finally got my gfxboot working on 64-bit system with ext4 root partition. Not much proper info out there. For those who were wondering why the instructions from the Howto don't work on their 64-bit architecture, particularly why they get error "grub> Error 15: file not found" for their "find /boot/grub/stage1" command (even when it's positively there), here's the answer:

GRUB-gfxboot can't read your filesystem, because it doesn't support it. Especially true and confusing for ext4, when it detects the FS as ext2fs (seemingly correctly) with "root (hdx,y)" command, but can't read it (or search in it).

This was valid for versions < -40, so version -11 doesn't work with ext4! Version -40 from sidux works fine though, I tried it with Debian Orange theme from KDE-Look.org. But maybe recompile for some themes is needed?

(P.S. Big thanks to Malac for pointing out the new -40 package from sidux!)

[camper365]

That explains my problem. I didn't know that ext4 had anything to do with it.
I thought that ext4 was supposed to be backwards compatible with ext2 and ext3

[Malac]

(P.S. Big thanks to Malac for pointing out the new -40 package from sidux!)
You're Welcome. Glad I could help. :D

[Andreas_H]

@Malac

I tried your message.new, but grub complains it is too large on boot.

Any Ideas?

bye,
Andreas

[Malac]

@Malac

I tried your message.new, but grub complains it is too large on boot.

Any Ideas?

bye,
Andreas
Did you install the 40 .deb file from sidux.com?
It works fine on my main machine and on a couple of other test machines too (intrepid and jaunty).
And a few people have downloaded it and it works on their machines.
Do you have a separate /boot partition?
Only other thing I can think of is memory but it works on a 512MB machine of mine so unless yours is really low on memory, I don't know. Sorry.

[zero7404]

Finally got my gfxboot working on 64-bit system with ext4 root partition. Not much proper info out there. For those who were wondering why the instructions from the Howto don't work on their 64-bit architecture, particularly why they get error "grub> Error 15: file not found" for their "find /boot/grub/stage1" command (even when it's positively there), here's the answer:

GRUB-gfxboot can't read your filesystem, because it doesn't support it. Especially true and confusing for ext4, when it detects the FS as ext2fs (seemingly correctly) with "root (hdx,y)" command, but can't read it (or search in it).

This was valid for versions < -40, so version -11 doesn't work with ext4! Version -40 from sidux works fine though, I tried it with Debian Orange theme from KDE-Look.org. But maybe recompile for some themes is needed?

(P.S. Big thanks to Malac for pointing out the new -40 package from sidux!)

i want to install gfxboot, but i'm running 8.10 x64, can you give some guidance or maybe start a howto on getting gfxboot installed properly on x64 flavors ?

i am confident in doing this without much concern, i've made complete backups using clonezilla (including grub), so if anything goes wrong i can revert in a matter of minutes....

[Andreas_H]

Did you install the 40 .deb file from sidux.com?
It works fine on my main machine and on a couple of other test machines too (intrepid and jaunty).
And a few people have downloaded it and it works on their machines.
Do you have a separate /boot partition?
Only other thing I can think of is memory but it works on a 512MB machine of mine so unless yours is really low on memory, I don't know. Sorry.

I used the 40 .deb, but forgot to run grub-install afterwards. Now it works, thanks!

[nsfnd]

Thx everyone for your informative posts, i learned alot :)

I have a problem about grub-gfx, whatever file i put after gfxmenu command in menu.lst, grub says "invalid file format". I think im missing something.

I have 32-bit jaunty. Installed on nvidia fakeraid.
My root is ext4 and i have a boot partition which is ext3, my menu.lst looks like "gfxmenu /grub/message.suse".
Im using -40 version of grub-gfx.
Any thoughts?

[zero7404]

Thx everyone for your informative posts, i learned alot :)

I have a problem about grub-gfx, whatever file i put after gfxmenu command in menu.lst, grub says "invalid file format". I think im missing something.

I have 32-bit jaunty. Installed on nvidia fakeraid.
My root is ext4 and i have a boot partition which is ext3, my menu.lst looks like "gfxmenu /grub/message.suse".
Im using -40 version of grub-gfx.
Any thoughts?

after looking at numerous howto's, and getting the latest 64-bit deb package for gfxboot (-40 as well), i also have the same issue, invalid file format. i've tried various other message files/themes and it still gives the same message. also tried changing the path from /boot/grub/ to just /grub/, didn't work....

[Malac]

Thx everyone for your informative posts, i learned alot :)

I have a problem about grub-gfx, whatever file i put after gfxmenu command in menu.lst, grub says "invalid file format". I think im missing something.

I have 32-bit jaunty. Installed on nvidia fakeraid.
My root is ext4 and i have a boot partition which is ext3, my menu.lst looks like "gfxmenu /grub/message.suse".
Im using -40 version of grub-gfx.
Any thoughts?

after looking at numerous howto's, and getting the latest 64-bit deb package for gfxboot (-40 as well), i also have the same issue, invalid file format. i've tried various other message files/themes and it still gives the same message. also tried changing the path from /boot/grub/ to just /grub/, didn't work....

Did you re-compile the message files on your system?
Also you must run the grub-install command as well or you run the risk of still having the old grub in your mbr or partition.
This could possibly throw up this invalid file format error.

[ascendotuum]

Did you re-compile the message files on your system?
Also you must run the grub-install command as well or you run the risk of still having the old grub in your mbr or partition.
This could possibly throw up this invalid file format error.

I am also having the same problem as those two, the invalid file format error. I used the -40 version, and did run grub-install at the end.

I'm a linux noob so can you explain what re-compiling the message files means? I'm using the message.ububrown theme that I found on the first page of this thread, and I haven't modified it

oh and I'm running 32-bit jaunty on a dell xps1530, if that makes any difference

[nsfnd]

Did you re-compile the message files on your system?
Also you must run the grub-install command as well or you run the risk of still having the old grub in your mbr or partition.
This could possibly throw up this invalid file format error.

Thx for the reply.
Until now i thought just installing the grub-gfx and copying message.x to /grub folder was enough to make it work.

I dunno howto compile the message.

So what i just did was,

sudo apt-get remove grub (grub package is not installed, so not removed)
Then i reinstalled grub-gfxboot_0.97-40_i386.deb by double clicking on it.
Checked message.suse if it was in the right place. (/boot/grub/message.suse)
sudo grub
device (hd0) /dev/mapper/nvidia_bhiaefdi
find /grub/stage1
(hd0,0)
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)

Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 18 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+18 p (hd0,0)/grub/stage2 /grub/menu
.lst"... succeeded
Done.

quit

sudo grub-install /dev/mapper/nvidia_bhiaefdi
error: out of disk
error: no signature
error: out of disk
error: no signature
error: out of disk
error: no signature
error: out of disk
error: no signature
error: out of disk
error: no signature
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
error: out of disk
error: no signature
grub-probe: error: no mapping exists for `nvidia_bhiaefdi1'
[: 378: =: unexpected operator

At this point when i tried to boot (with VirtualBox physical disk) it threw me to "grub>" console.

So i had to reinstall the grub back to mbr by "sudo grub" ..
Thats about it ye :)

[zero7404]

Did you re-compile the message files on your system?
Also you must run the grub-install command as well or you run the risk of still having the old grub in your mbr or partition.
This could possibly throw up this invalid file format error.

i followed the proceedure in the first post, but also looked at this thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=481957&highlight=gfxboot

one of the things i dislike about forums like this one is the 'missing' information from howto's that many ppl use, no admins out there taking a look or checking these howto's to be sure something is not missing, nor are any other posters doing the same. ESPECIALLY when it comes to things like grub.

if i knew i had to re-compile the theme, i would have done it, but no one mentioned this on any other thread i've looked at, this is the first time i am hearing about it. the themes i am looking to use i am getting from GNOME-look.org and even they don't give any specific information on recompiling the theme for use.

and how do i recompile a theme ? when i click on it in nautilus, an extractor shows me some contents - mainly image files and some other stuff.....

UPDATE: i found out how to compile the themes, but only the themes downloaded from synaptic. additionally, the ubuntu theme in synaptic does not compile, it's size is much smaller than the other themes, perhaps it is incomplete.

i found that after downloading the package from synaptic, i need to navigate to the package's folder (/usr/share/gfxboot-theme-xxxx), then:

sudo make
sudo make install
cd install
sudo -s
ls . |cpio -o > /boot/grub/message.xxxx #### theme file name

the above is per post #634. also note that when i tried this with the ubuntu theme from synaptic, the make command just returned an error and nothing compiled.

when compiling any theme except the ubuntu one, setting up menu.lst, the themes work fine. but those themes aren't what i want. when trying to use the themes from gnome-look art, they don't make sense as to what they are and how i should compile them. simply using the filename message.xxxx in menu.lst and placing the file in /boot/grub/ does not work.

[ascendotuum]

So did anyone find a solution for the "file format invalid" error during boot?

I see alot of threads of people complaining about it, but no one seems to have found a fix for it.

[rubioxtu]

So did anyone find a solution for the "file format invalid" error during boot?

I see alot of threads of people complaining about it, but no one seems to have found a fix for it.

I haven't tried yet, but I think you have to edit/compile from source
or get a theme compiled with new gfxboot installed (or make your own theme).

Some themes with source included:

http://gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/76032-gfxboot-theme-ubuntumsk-1280x1024.tar.gz
http://gnome-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/76029-gfxboot-theme-ubuntumsk-1024x768.tar.gz
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/gfxboot+ubuntu+red+mod?content=71668
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/GFXBoot+message.blueAqua?content=72720
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/GFXBoot+message.Snaiya++?content=71735

[Malac]

So did anyone find a solution for the "file format invalid" error during boot?

I see alot of threads of people complaining about it, but no one seems to have found a fix for it.
I haven't tried yet, but I think you have to edit/compile from source
or get a theme compiled with new gfxboot installed (or make your own theme).

+1 to rubioxtu's suggestion.
I think the message file format changed.
A lot of the themes on gnomelook.org are old format so will have config files missing or bad install files.
The older formats work with versions upto 0.97-11 you probably will need to re-compile themes if you are running the latest 0.97-40 grub-gfxboot.

This can be done for the themes in synaptic as follows:
Navigate to the package's folder (/usr/share/gfxboot-theme-xxxx), then:

sudo make
sudo make install
cd install
sudo -s
ls . |cpio -o > /boot/grub/message.xxxx #### theme file name

The gfxboot-theme-ubuntu will not work with this method as it is really out of date now.
What I did to create my theme was to copy the /usr/share/gfxboot-theme-zen folder to /usr/share/gfxboot-theme-malac
then edited the files in /usr/share/gfxboot-theme-malac changed pictures, etc.
then used the compile commands in that folder.
This worked fine.

Hope this helps.

[piratelv]

Hi i followed your guide and at first i got nothing, just the standard, then i continued with some solution found on this forum but now i get a grub error 2. And can not boot. I still really want this nice menu but because i need my pc i'm recovering the vista mbr till i can get this to work. So if any one has a solution i would love to try it.

I reinstalled ubuntu 9.04 so i have a fresh system now, i still would like to have this neat boot menu.

[mahsom]

hi

What is Picture information of gfxboot ?
after change picture i recived error Frame_Buffer ; What is this ?
my resolation of monitor is 1440x900 .

[hernandito]

Hello,


I have tried and tried for days and while I made some progress, I have hit a wall. I have Ubuntu 9.04 running on a hard drive. My goal is to install the GRUB bootloader to a USB thumb drive so I can boot several utilities. I have tried many processes, and per Ryukent (a big THANK YOU!!!) post below, I have been able to have gfxboot working from the Ubuntu drive. But the gfxboot does NOT work when booting from USB drive. I get the bootloader, but no graphical menu.

I got it working in a fresh install of Intrepid.

Problems I got were due to -
* Old version of grub
* Original tutorial doesn't say to do grub-install
* message file needed to be recompiled

This is what I did

Went to:

http://www.sidux.com/debian/pool/main/g/grub-gfxboot/

Downloaded the latest version for my architecture

sudo apt-get remove grub

sudo dpkg -i grub-gfxboot_0.97-35_i386.deb

Note you need to be in the right dir (obviously) and change it to the one for your arch.

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Added: gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.suse

sudo grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hdx,y) # this will be the output
grub> root (hdx,y)
grub> setup (hdx)

Obviously you need to change the X and Ys.

sudo grub-install /dev/sdaX

This was very important. Didn't work without it. Note the X is not the same number as the x or y in the previous section as grub uses different numbers. You need to look up the correct hard disk to use. It should be the one are booting to.



The trouble I believe is in the final step. After doing the find /boot/grub/stage1 I was able to install this step:
grub> root (hd1,1)
grub> setup (hd1)

My trouble was in the last step using the sudo grub-install to get it to the thumb drive. I have tried the following without luck:

sudo grub-install /dev/sdb1 - tried
sudo grub-install /dev/sdb2 - tried
sudo grub-install /dev/sda5 - tried
sudo grub-install /dev/sda1 - tried

The thumb drive boots, but I don't get the graphic bootloader. All the abobe show an "installation finished" result, but no graphic.

This is the result of my sudo fdisk -l


Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00007096

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 18662 149902483+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 18663 19457 6385837+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 18663 19457 6385806 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 8086 MB, 8086618112 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 983 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0fa005eb

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 13 104391 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdb2 14 983 7791525 83 Linux


I have the message.blue message file loaded in the thumb drive's /boot/grub folder. This is the first line in the /boot/grub/menu.lst on the thumb drive:

gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.blue

One thing is did, and I don't know if this is the culprit:

sudo chmod -R 777 /media/TheNameofVolumeUSBDrive

I did this in order to easily copy files to the thumb drive. I did all these operations booted from Ubuntu on the standard hard drive. I am not sure how to reset this to the default, I am a Ubuntu newbie.

Can somebody please help!

Thank you!!
Hernando

[hernandito]

Anyone.....

[R3N3GAD3]

I managed to get this solution working on ubuntu 9.04 64-bit.

The following site seems to have the most recent downloads for grub-gfxboot. There are also versions for both architectures (i386 and amd64).
http://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/sidux/debian/pool/main/g/grub-gfxboot/

Unfortunately, I wasted a lot of time trying different things to get it to work.

Three of the four gfx samples with source (given in this thread) do not compile in 9.04, and one compiles but craps itself at runtime. The background image is displayed, so I know if I spent some time with it would eventually work.

I found a compiled version that works with 9.04 (and apparently 8.10 as well, but I only tested it on 9.04).
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Ubuntu+Brown+Gfx+Grub+Theme?content=102595

This was a headache. It only took me half a day to get it working, but it was annoying. I wasted a lot of time reading through the hundreds of posts.

Does anyone have the source (or even a binary) for a working gfx sample in 9.04? I would rather not waste my time trying to debug the gfx samples if someone has a working revision.

[Elv13]

For those who managed to build a new theme, can you make a small step by step guide?

I tried cpio on the (working) theme then cpio in the two subarchive, but I did not work once recompiled.

[sfranzyshen]

Anyone.....

sudo grub-install /dev/sdb1 - tried

how about just sdb ... not the begining of the partition but rather the mbr ...

sudo grub-install /dev/sdb


If that don't work you may want to checkout the syslinux project ... for booting from USB with gfxboot support.

http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/The_Syslinux_Project

sfranzyshen

[lookinggoodson]

See this link for updated Howto:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1221839&highlight=GfxBoot+Grub+suse+Updated

[600WPMPO]

When i boot, the message says "invalid file format"

A lot of the themes on gnomelook.org are old format so will have config files missing or bad install files. The message file format has changed. The older formats work with versions upto 0.97-11 you probably will need to re-compile themes if you are running the latest 0.97-40 grub-gfxboot.

This can be done for the themes in synaptic as follows:
Extract the theme to “/usr/share/gfxboot-theme-xxxx” then:

Code:
cd /usr/share/gfxboot-theme-xxxx/
sudo make
sudo make install
cd install
sudo -s
ls . |cpio -o > /boot/grub/message.xxxx #### theme file name

However, even this doesn't work.

Tried the themes gfxboot-theme-blueAqua-ubuntu & gfxboot-theme-ubuntumsk-1280x1024 with the above method, but get the same error at boot : invalid file format

Please help... :confused:

[kevinguillorytraining]

I am facing problem after following your instructions :(. My boot menu disappears and my computer is no more booting :( Should I reinstall OS?

[Oneiros90]

Hello guys
So... last versions of gfxboot don't support old themes right? Couldn't we just use old gfxboot versions? Is gfxboot 0.97-11 still available on internet?

Or... where could we find new themes? only on synaptic?

[okmijn22]

Does this work with the latest version?

[ahmad598]

hi
there's a problem here: I don't have any menu.lst! instead of that, there is grub.cfg. is it OK?

[Chiapo]

*buntu 9.10 uses the new "GRUB 2" which is quite different from the old GRUB (legacy) in that one does not directly edit the /boot/grub//grub.cfg file (although it's is possible) rather we edit other files in order to configure GRUB appearance & behavior.

GRUB2 how to:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275

Link to images of my GRUB2 menu:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8466700&postcount=577

[archeryguru2000]

I managed to get this solution working on ubuntu 9.04 64-bit.

The following site seems to have the most recent downloads for grub-gfxboot. There are also versions for both architectures (i386 and amd64).
http://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/sidux/debian/pool/main/g/grub-gfxboot/

Unfortunately, I wasted a lot of time trying different things to get it to work.


Thanks alot for the link. I was finally able to get gfxboot running properly. However, with the new version (0.97-48), older versions of gfxboot do not work. I plan on extracting everything and then recompiling them with something like
ls . |cpio -o > /path/to/message.whatever
to see if that works.

~~archery~~

[Malac]

I plan on extracting everything and then recompiling them with something like
ls . |cpio -o > /path/to/message.whatever
to see if that works.

~~archery~~I posted a few pages back that this will work with some themes but not others due to some missing files or configuration differences. What I did was find one that did work then extract it to a new folder make any changes to the pictures, wording, etc. and then use that command to "recompile" it.

Hope this helps.

[archeryguru2000]

Malac, I'm with you. That's exactly what I plan on doing. However, I have at least a couple dozen of the old style gfxboot themes (from my Hardy days) that I will have to alter now. The only problem with that is I'm worried about the placement of text/words/timer-icon/etc. I wish somebody (much techier than I) would create a gfxboot configuration tool that would allow me (and everyone else) to completely create their own themes. But I'm sure that's only a matter of time. Thank God there are OS's like Linux!

~~archery~~