How to: Create a Customized GRUB2 Screen that is Maintenance Free.

[tech-hero]

After I have done what you said; "Then click on Nautilus Settings and put a check mark beside Open Folder with root privileges." I keep on getting this...

andrey@andrey-desktop:~$ update-grub
/usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig: You must run this as root

Is there a fix? What happened that this occurred?

i think you must run it as SUDO

example:

sudo update-grub

[Cavsfan]

Yeah, I have the following in /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme

# this allows desktop-base to override our settings
f=/usr/share/desktop-base/grub_background.sh
if test -e ${f} ; then
  . ${f}
else
  WALLPAPER="/usr/share/images/grub/Grass_1280x1024.tga"
  COLOR_NORMAL="light-gray/black"
  COLOR_HIGHLIGHT="yellow/black"
fi 

and everything works fine. I have my custom background and and font color for the boot menu.

What I'm wondering though is, is there a way to change the background of the scrolling text of the verbose boot which follows the grub boot menu selection. I do not wish to display the splash, just the text boot, but would like to edit the background of the scrolling text.

This scrolling text is gray on a black background on my end, and wasn't sure which file to look into for that, or if it is at all possible by simply editing a configuration file.

Thanks for your reply though.

That question would probably be better suited for drs305 the GRUB2 guru around here.
Post the question in his GRUB2 Basics thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275
I am sure if there is an answer, drs305 will know what it is.

[Cavsfan]

After I have done what you said; "Then click on Nautilus Settings and put a check mark beside Open Folder with root privileges." I keep on getting this...

andrey@andrey-desktop:~$ update-grub
/usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig: You must run this as root

Is there a fix? What happened that this occurred?

i think you must run it as SUDO

example:

sudo update-grub

That question was answered in the subsequent post on August 2, 2010. But, thanks tech-hero.

[morbs_gt]

That question would probably be better suited for drs305 the GRUB2 guru around here.
Post the question in his GRUB2 Basics thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275
I am sure if there is an answer, drs305 will know what it is.

Thanks for that, I'll give it a shot

[drs305]

You could post it there but I can't answer it.

That process is somewhere after Grub2 passes control over to the kernel. The Grub devs are making strides with the gfxmode and retaining settings throughout the entire boot but I haven't seen anything about colors or backgrounds, just text size.

That's not to say it's not being worked on or that there isn't a way to do it, it's just not something I'm familiar with. If you find out, please share it with us.

[Cavsfan]

You could post it there but I can't answer it.

That process is somewhere after Grub2 passes control over to the kernel. The Grub devs are making strides with the gfxmode and retaining settings throughout the entire boot but I haven't seen anything about colors or backgrounds, just text size.

That's not to say it's not being worked on or that there isn't a way to do it, it's just not something I'm familiar with. If you find out, please share it with us.

Thanks for clarifying that drs305. I was lost at "scrolling text of the verbose boot which follows the grub boot menu selection."
But, I guess I should have recognized that it was after grub. I just knew you would have more of a clue as to what it was about.

And about that part I was right. I don't even know what "That process is somewhere after Grub2 passes control over to the kernel." is.
I'm still clueless! That's a bit over my head.

[morbs_gt]

Thanks for the replies, and sorry for the "reposts". If I stumble across anything I'll make sure to let you know.

*edit: Ok, so it looks like the messages displayed are due to decompress_kernel().
Also, upon further searching, I've found this old tutorial and will see it it works for me. It does involve patching and recompiling the kernel.

A little extra to this method seems to be: "One thing to note is if you login under console mode, you will see the verbose image in the background of your console. Kinda neat!"

However this is related to boot eyecandy, sorry for the threadjacking, as patching kernels isn't really a maintenance-free thing.

[von Stalhein]

OK Cavsfan my old fruit - an update came through this evening, and

uname -a

gives

Linux ubuntu 2.6.35-22-generic #35-Ubuntu SMP Sat Oct 16 20:36:48 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

as the running kernel at present.

However, it should be 2.6.35-24

What's the best way of ensuring that the updated kernel goodness is utilised?

[drs305]

What's the best way of ensuring that the updated kernel goodness is utilised?

I'm assuming your custom menu menuentry has "linux /vmlinuz ... " so the latest kernel is used.


Without posting your files, check these commands:

ls /boot | grep "vmlinuz-2.6.35"

Does the -24 kernel show up?

Next, look at your existing menuentries:

grep 'menuentry' /boot/grub/grub.cfg | nl --starting-line-number=0 && grep "GRUB_DEFAULT=" /etc/default/grub

Does the GRUB_DEFAULT number match the -24 menuentry number?

[Cavsfan]

Thanks drs305! I have also noticed that whatever kernel is installed last becomes the most recent kernel.

ls /boot | grep "vmlinuz-2.6.35"

Yields

vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic
vmlinuz-2.6.35-24-generic

I was having trouble with 23-generic. The coretemp driver for my 3rd CPU core temp was gone when 23-generic was installed.
So, I went through purging and re-installing some kernels. And noticed that if I manually installed 22 last, it became the
most "recent" kernel. Even though it was not numerically the highest number.

That doesn't sound like von Stalhein's problem though as it sounds like 24 should be the most recent.
And I appreciate your input as you know way more than I do about this stuff.