HOWTO: Grub Menu Kernel Display Options

[drs305]

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst | grep "title" | grep -v "#\|recovery\|memtest"
sudo grub-set-default <number>

I suggest to remove "grep -v "#\|recovery\|memtest". One needs to count all titles, including memtest and recovery.

Also "grub-set-default" will only have an effect if one uses "default saved"

Thanks, you are correct and I'll fix the search line. I experimented with the grub-set-default and achieved mixed results. Given the vagaries of using CLI for updating this, and how few people would probably ever use it and need guidance, I've decided to just remove that section.

[u18b]

Thank you.

This is just the info I needed.

Not only did I need to trim kernel entries (and thus the safe way was good)...


but I wanted to actually edit the Grub menu because I dual boot to Vista. And Ubuntu describes it as
Windows Vista (Longhorn) loader

Since I have a laptop, I also have a recovery partition. Thus I have still another Grub entry that reads the same!
Windows Vista (Longhorn) loader

So NOW, thanks to your help, my menu reads:

Windows Vista
Windows Vista RECOVERY


Thank you for this great explanation.

I'm a newbie. And it is work like this that makes switching to Linux more bearable.

[VMC]

This how-to enabled me to finally get a splash screen. I have a limited integrated video, and I keep getting that "you have passed undocumented video mode". I have never been able to get beyond 640x480 before.

Startup Manager took care of that! Wow. Now I boot up using my full 1024x768 and, I see a boot up splash screen along with the orange ribbon. The text that follows is very clear. Before they were huge and wriped around several lines.
Also it appears to boot faster.

What's nice about Startup Manager is that it takes care of backing up grub automatically. Great program.

The How-to guide is top notch!

Thanks you.

[the_good_senator]

Thank you.

This is just the info I needed.

Not only did I need to trim kernel entries (and thus the safe way was good)...


but I wanted to actually edit the Grub menu because I dual boot to Vista. And Ubuntu describes it as
Windows Vista (Longhorn) loader

This is what I came here to ask about. GRUB lists too many options on boot, and some of those entries are ambiguous. I wanted to make it error-proof in case someone else tried to boot up my machine (family, gf, whatever) and accidentally try to boot into the recovery partition.

[drs305]

This is what I came here to ask about. GRUB lists too many options on boot, and some of those entries are ambiguous. I wanted to make it error-proof in case someone else tried to boot up my machine (family, gf, whatever) and accidentally try to boot into the recovery partition.

Did you find the answers to your questions from the tutorial?

The number of kernels displayed is controlled by the "Limit the number of kernels displayed" in the Advanced section. You can reduce it to one or two. A better option is to remove them from the system via synaptic but SUM can at least hide them until you remove them completely.

The ability to see or hide the 'Recovery Mode' option is contained in the 'Create boot option for recovery mode'. If not selected you won't see it.

The timeout setting can be used so novice users wouldn't even see the menu should you choose to do that. If you don't select a timeout remember that if you have problems you can access the menu by hitting ESC during boot.

[Nabanna]

Thanks.....

really a very good HOW-TO....

i am new to Ubuntu(and Linux) and i always wanted to increase time-out without messing up with menu.lst, this HOW-TO helped me a lot...and showed me to use a safer method by using 'start-up manager' instead.....

[raynedanser]

If you want completely uninstall the kernels that you no longer need:
1. Open System -> Admin -> Synaptic
2. Search for linux-image
3. Select the kernels you no longer need and Mark for complete removal. Click Apply.

Your GRUB menu will be automatically updated.

How do you know which kernels are no longer needed, though?

[drs305]

raynedanser,

Run this to see which kernel you are using:

uname -r

You can safely remove any other kernel on your machine. However, most users recommend keeping one previous kernel that worked for you in case you develop problems.

For example, if you run the command and get the result:
2.6.24-21-generic

The previous kernel was: 2.6.24-19-generic.

Keep -19 for at least a while. Go to synaptic and look at the listings for linux-image-2.6.24-*

If you see you still have linux-image-2.6.24-18-generic and linux-image-2.6.24-16-generic installed, you could safely remove them. By removing them from your computer via synaptic, grub's menu list would be altered automatically as well if these kernels were displayed on your boot menu.

[von Stalhein]

Tahnks for the tute.

If startupmanager won't start though - what is the workaround/fix?

Mine still finds GRUB2, and I think that's what borks it, as there is no grub.cfg file - see below

gksu startupmanager
/home/stephen/.gtkrc-2.0:2: error: scanner: unterminated string constant - e.g. `style'
/usr/share/startupmanager/gtk_frontend.py:159: GtkWarning: GtkSpinButton: setting an adjustment with non-zero page size is deprecated  self.glade_xml = gtk.glade.XML(GLADE_FILE, None ,APP_NAME)
kSpinButton: setting an adjustment with non-zero page size is deprecatedSearching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... found: /boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-10-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-8-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-21-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic
Found GRUB 2: /boot/grub/core.img
Found kernel: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done

Grub2 detected
Usplash detected
Splashy not detected
File /boot/grub/grub.cfg does not exist.

TIA

[drs305]

Grub2 is supposed to be supported since SUM version 1.9, according to it's creator. I haven't used Grub2 so I don't have the .cfg file either. I notice it also mentions a "default, which also doesn't exist in my grub folder. It appears to have found a /boot/grub/menu.lst You could try adding a comment or two on the title line of menu.lst and rebooting to see if the added comment is displayed during boot.

If that is the case, there is always manual editing of /boot/grub/menu.lst if startupmanager won't run. If you post your menu.lst and tell us what you want to do someone here will certainly be able to help if you aren't sure how to go about it.