Grub 2 - 5 Common Tasks

[ranch hand]

LucianoP
What is the path to the image that you want to use? What type of image is it (.png, jpg, etc)? What is the resolution of the image?

[LucianoP]

LucianoP
What is the path to the image that you want to use? What type of image is it (.png, jpg, etc)? What is the resolution of the image?

hey Ranch
this is the image I want to use /usr/share/images/grub/Plasma-lamp.tga
a standard 640x480 pic
I have reviewed the /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme but everything looks ok

[ranch hand]

Try putting it is /usr/share/images/desktop-base and change the path to that folder. I would change the type to .png too. If you do that after putting it in the folder you will have both there and as long as debian-theme is calling for either you should pick it up.

Run both "update-grub" and "grub-mkconfig" after doing those things.

I have had a couple installs that didn't seem to like the "grub" images folder. The other is the default.

[LucianoP]

Try putting it is /usr/share/images/desktop-base and change the path to that folder. I would change the type to .png too. If you do that after putting it in the folder you will have both there and as long as debian-theme is calling for either you should pick it up.

None worked
I also tried to reinstall both grub-pc and grub2-splashimages via Synaptic.

is_path_readable_by_grub: not found is really strange

[ranch hand]

None worked
I also tried to reinstall both grub-pc and grub2-splashimages via Synaptic.

is_path_readable_by_grub: not found is really strange

I have only gone that route once as I do not like their images. When you have Gimp you can size and edit just about any image you want to put in there.

Just for fun copy the file below and paste it to gedit. Save the sucker in your /etc/grub.d directory as 05_debian-theme.new. That is what it is in my box from some upgrade lately.

#!/bin/bash -e

source /usr/lib/grub/grub-mkconfig_lib

# this allows desktop-base to override our settings
f=/usr/share/desktop-base/grub_background.sh
if test -e ${f} ; then
source ${f}
else
WALLPAPER="/usr/share/images/desktop-base/menu.png"
COLOR_NORMAL="white/black"
COLOR_HIGHLIGHT="red/black"
fi

set_mono_theme()
{
cat << EOF
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/white
EOF
}

# check for usable backgrounds
use_bg=false
if [ "$GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT" = "gfxterm" ] ; then
for i in /boot/grub/`basename ${WALLPAPER}` ${WALLPAPER} ; do
if is_path_readable_by_grub $i ; then
bg=$i
case ${bg} in
*.png) reader=png ;;
*.tga) reader=tga ;;
*.jpg|*.jpeg) reader=jpeg ;;
esac
if test -e /boot/grub/${reader}.mod ; then
echo "Found background image: `basename ${bg}`" >&2
use_bg=true
break
fi
fi
done
fi

# set the background if possible
if ${use_bg} ; then
prepare_grub_to_access_device `${grub_probe} --target=device ${bg}`
cat << EOF
insmod ${reader}
if background_image `make_system_path_relative_to_its_root ${bg}` ; then
set color_normal=${COLOR_NORMAL}
set color_highlight=${COLOR_HIGHLIGHT}
else
EOF
fi

# otherwise, set a monochromatic theme for Ubuntu
if ${use_bg} ; then
set_mono_theme | sed -e "s/^/ /g"
echo "fi"
else
set_mono_theme
fi

Make sure that it is executable and disable all other 005_debian-theme files no matter how they are labeled.

You will have to edit the image name.

Update your grub.

Try that.

[LucianoP]

Hi Ranch,
Thanks for the tip!
Now it worked fine


I noticed these lines were missing in my original 05_debian_theme

if test -e ${f} ; then
source ${f}
else
WALLPAPER="/usr/share/images/desktop-base/menu.png"
COLOR_NORMAL="white/black"
COLOR_HIGHLIGHT="red/black"

[ranch hand]

Every once in a while grub-common does things like that. Probably because it is supporting both grub and grub-pc (grub-legacy and grub1.9x - I have grub1.96, 1.97beta4, 1.98 and 0.97 on this box).

The images that you can download are fine but they install another folder in /etc/share/images (grub) and as you can see the default folder is already there.

With gimp it is easy to resize any image to fit the menu so I just do it that way. The default colors are actually;
Normal="black/black"
Highlight="magenta/black"
but that does not work well for my background on whichever of my installs I swiped that from. I think it is nice to be able to read the menu.

It is really neat that the image is that easy to change and can be a good image too. Grub0.97 is kind of a pain to put a back ground into and is also limited to 8(!) colors so the image must be pretty simple to render at all.

[uid313]

But I want the menu to normally not appear.

So I have;
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT="10"

But I want the menu to appear if I hold down Esc or Shift or something.

How?

[drs305]

But I want the menu to normally not appear.

So I have;
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT="10"

But I want the menu to appear if I hold down Esc or Shift or something.

How?

Holding down the SHIFT key should bring up the menu for you.

[Macamba]

I edited my grub.cfg and changed my grub_default to

GRUB_DEFAULT="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition"

(Note that this was the same entry I got from the grep "menuentry" /boot/grub/grub.cfg) Next I executed a sudo update-grub and restarted my machine. When the menu appeared my first entry with 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic' was highlighted. So nothing changed.

Next I tried to change my default OS by executing a

sudo grub-set-default 4

followed again with a sudo update-grub and a restart. Again with the same result. What am I doing wrong?

Edit: I performed another reboot, and now XP was highlighted. So I was a tad to early with my question.

However, might it be possible to change the order in which the different choices are displayed? Like XP first?