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Thread: A Beginner's Guide to Theming GRUB2

  1. #11
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    Re: A Beginner's Guide to Theming GRUB2

    Quote Originally Posted by dcstar View Post
    Gee, it looks a bit like BURG but with a lot more stuffing around to achieve the same outcome.
    http://askubuntu.com/questions/11863...ub/20187#20187

    Besides, some of us enjoy learning how to do things the hard way.

  2. #12
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    Re: A Beginner's Guide to Theming GRUB2

    Quote Originally Posted by Anomandaris View Post
    Besides, some of us enjoy learning how to do things the hard way.
    +1

    What fun is there in life if you always take the easy route!

  3. #13
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    Re: A Beginner's Guide to Theming GRUB2

    OK, so approximate steps I have needed to take to get the basic theme in your guide running: (pretty much as for 1.98+20100804)

    1. Copy 08_gfxmenu to /etc/grub.d/

    More info/Oddities:

    5. sudo update-grub
    prints Found theme: path/to/theme.txt twice - maybe something to do with the new submenu?
    That's because you copied 08_gfxmenu to /etc/grub.d. You only need this for GRUB2 prior to 1.98+20100804. Remove 08_gfxmenu from /etc/grub.d.

    2. The console area replaces parts of the background and menu items once a menu item has been selected. This looks horrible. Is there any way around this?
    Could you post a screenshot. This sounds like the terminal window.

    3. The "Previous Linux Versions" option is indeed not themed (default white on black) if you descend into it. Is there a way to get this themed too?
    I'll look at this in the 3rd Edition. I'm not sure if it's GRUB2 or Ubuntu's release of GRUB2. Certainly GRUB 1.99-14 from Debian does not generate a Sub-menu (Previous Linux Version) menu item. This is done in /etc/grub.d/10_linux. You may remove the lines of code that produces it in the meantime if you wish. I recommend you comment out the lines instead of deleting them.

    4. Neither the memtestx86+ options nor the "Previous Linux Versions" options have a --class by default
    As I said in my previous post, have a look at this thread:
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1846754

    6. Plymouth seems to have only sometimes work. Not necessarily anything to do with GRUB or themes, but I am a sucker for eyecandy.
    What video card are you using? Do you have GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX set in your /etc/default/grub file?

    8. Parts of your "Customising The Menu Items" section seem like they might not be the same for the 1.99 config files - I'll investigate this later.
    Some of GRUB2 env vars have changed between 1.98 and 1.99 so some of that section may not necessarily work with 1.99.

    ....but I am a sucker for eyecandy.
    Then you may also like the 'Customizing GDM' section in my other tutorial:
    http://www.mediafire.com/file/2yimyo...ization.tar.gz
    The Definitive Guide to Theming GRUB2 is here.

  4. #14
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    Re: A Beginner's Guide to Theming GRUB2

    Quote Originally Posted by towheedm View Post
    That's because you copied 08_gfxmenu to /etc/grub.d. You only need this for GRUB2 prior to 1.98+20100804. Remove 08_gfxmenu from /etc/grub.d.
    Ah. Oops. Thanks for pointing that out.

    Quote Originally Posted by towheedm View Post
    Could you post a screenshot. This sounds like the terminal window.
    OK, so it is definitely the terminal window. It's a black box if I don't theme the terminal window, otherwise it has the appropriate borders etc. It's still pretty undesirable. Unfortunately I only worked that out after my previous post. I can still post a screenshot if you want, but it'll have to wait a few hours (I'm not at home right now.) Any way around it that you know of? Have I missed something obvious again?

    Quote Originally Posted by towheedm View Post
    As I said in my previous post, have a look at this thread:
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1846754
    Sorry, I should have made it clear that that was purely informative - I did look at that thread the first time and had no problems sorting it out.

    Quote Originally Posted by towheedm View Post
    What video card are you using? Do you have GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX set in your /etc/default/grub file?
    The machine in question is a laptop with a Mobility Radeon HD5450. I am not using the FGLRX drivers, although I was at one point. GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX is not set. GRUB_GFXMODE is set to 1366x768.

    Quote Originally Posted by towheedm View Post
    Some of GRUB2 env vars have changed between 1.98 and 1.99 so some of that section may not necessarily work with 1.99.
    Sorry, I still haven't had a chance to test that out yet.

    Quote Originally Posted by towheedm View Post
    Then you may also like the 'Customizing GDM' section in my other tutorial:
    http://www.mediafire.com/file/2yimyo...ization.tar.gz
    Thanks! I'll check it out.
    Last edited by Anomandaris; December 5th, 2011 at 09:33 AM. Reason: removed a bogus link

  5. #15
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    Re: A Beginner's Guide to Theming GRUB2

    You cannot get rid of the terminal window. You'll always get a black box if it's not themed. The terminal window is used to show any messages from GRUB. It also provides the command-line area.

    I have never used the fglrx drivers. I use the proprietary nVidia drivers. I also never got Plymouth to display properly at all times. But with Debian, no Plymouth....woo hoo !

    Oh...you're not using the fglrx drivers. I installed Natty on my sister's desktop with an on-board ATI Radeon but also never got Plymouth to display properly with the proprietary drivers. It only works with the fglrx drivers.

    You can try setting GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep in /etc/default/grub and see if that works. Note, when I did this it caused the system to hang between Plymouth and GDM unless I set my GRUB timeout to > 30secs and let the time expire. I worked around this by using the now deprecated vga=VGAMODE kernel command line option. If you decide to try either, verify that the Linux framebuffer will work with the selected mode.
    Last edited by towheedm; December 6th, 2011 at 03:40 AM.
    The Definitive Guide to Theming GRUB2 is here.

  6. #16
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    Re: A Beginner's Guide to Theming GRUB2

    I've been saving this for the 3rd Edition, but here it is not fully tested:

    You may have a background image in the terminal box. There are two possible ways:

    1. Set the center slice of the terminal to whatever image you want to use as the background. It should be scaled accordingly. If you do this, make sure that update-grub does not show 'Found Background Image...'

    2. Set a background image manually by adding:
    Code:
    GRUB_BACKGROUND=/path/to/image
    to /etc/default/grub. Make sure the image is readable by GRUB. This image is not scaled.

    Well it seems that the first method does not work. The terminal window is always rendered with a black background. However, the second method works but the image appears to be scaled to the resolution set for GRUB and then cropped to fit the dimensions of the terminal window with the origin being the upper-left corner of the image.
    Last edited by towheedm; December 7th, 2011 at 01:43 AM.
    The Definitive Guide to Theming GRUB2 is here.

  7. #17
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    Re: A Beginner's Guide to Theming GRUB2

    Quote Originally Posted by towheedm View Post
    You can try setting GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep in /etc/default/grub and see if that works. Note, when I did this it caused the system to hang between Plymouth and GDM unless I set my GRUB timeout to > 30secs and let the time expire. I worked around this by using the now deprecated vga=VGAMODE kernel command line option. If you decide to try either, verify that the Linux framebuffer will work with the selected mode.
    No luck. I guess I'll have to try the FGLRX drivers.

    Quote Originally Posted by towheedm View Post
    I've been saving this for the 3rd Edition, but here it is not fully tested:

    You may have a background image in the terminal box. There are two possible ways:

    1. Set the center slice of the terminal to whatever image you want to use as the background. It should be scaled accordingly. If you do this, make sure that update-grub does not show 'Found Background Image...'

    2. Set a background image manually by adding:
    Code:
    GRUB_BACKGROUND=/path/to/image
    to /etc/default/grub. Make sure the image is readable by GRUB. This image is not scaled.

    Well it seems that the first method does not work. The terminal window is always rendered with a black background. However, the second method works but the image appears to be scaled to the resolution set for GRUB and then cropped to fit the dimensions of the terminal window with the origin being the upper-left corner of the image.
    Thanks - that's certainly something I can work with (in my quest for less of a visual clash once the option is selected). Is there any way to change the size of the terminal box? Or reposition it?
    Last edited by Anomandaris; December 9th, 2011 at 09:25 PM.

  8. #18
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    Re: A Beginner's Guide to Theming GRUB2

    Quote Originally Posted by Anomandaris View Post
    No luck. I guess I'll have to try the FGLRX drivers.


    Thanks - that's certainly something I can work with (in my quest for less of a visual clash once the option is selected). Is there any way to change the size of the terminal box? Or reposition it?
    Not unless you wamt to modify the source code. As it is, the size of the terminal box is set to 70% of the screen's size set by GRUB_GFXMODE and it's position is centered on the screen.
    The Definitive Guide to Theming GRUB2 is here.

  9. #19
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    Re: A Beginner's Guide to Theming GRUB2

    Quote Originally Posted by towheedm View Post
    Not unless you want to modify the source code. As it is, the size of the terminal box is set to 70% of the screen's size set by GRUB_GFXMODE and it's position is centered on the screen.
    I think I'll make do with taking the centre 70% of the theme background image, putting it into the top left corner of the full-sized background image used by GRUB_BACKGROUND, and then arranging the menu icons and text so that nothing is partially cut off by the terminal box (i.e. either an entry is fully visible or not at all when the terminal box plasters itself on top).

    It's a rather crude "solution", inflexible and hardly portable, but it'll do for now.

  10. #20
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    Re: A Beginner's Guide to Theming GRUB2

    Hi towheedm,
    Thanks for such a great theming tutorial. I'm just starting to experiment with this, and have a couple of questions before I start changing things.

    It's tough to find good theme examples (besides yours). I did find several at kde-look.org, including this very nice one. However, it's packaged up in a cpio archive called "message," which includes all of the theme elements. I didn't see anything like this in your guide or in the Theme File Format doc -- is this an alternative mechanism, or is this old/obsolete? Seems like a nice way to go, as the setup is very simple, as noted at the above link:

    Simple installation guide: Place the "message" file in your /boot/grub/ directory and change your grub config file to contain "gfxmenu /boot/grub/message" at the top of the file.
    Second question: I notice in the first screen shot at the above link that there is a separation in the menu, but I don't see the way to make this work. Is this easy to do? Haven't figured out how to do this in the standard Grub2 menu either, and it drives me nuts not to have some control over the spacing.
    Thanks again,
    The difference between theory and reality is that, in theory, there should be no difference but, in reality, there always is.

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