10

How do i change the names of the boot entries and the background of the boot menu?

8 Answers 8

12

Install Grub Customizer.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

Run it.

This program allows you to edit just about every aspect of Grub.
Have fun with it, but be careful! :)

2
  • 'Twas my pleasure (:
    – SirCharlo
    Mar 24, 2012 at 19:04
  • 3
    This is possible to do in the OS without the use of an untrusted PPA.
    – drkokandy
    Mar 19, 2015 at 2:58
11

To change the GRUB2 background image, you should first get the splash image package:

sudo apt-get install grub2-splashimages

For 10.04, edit the 05_debian_theme file in /etc/grub.d:

gksu -b gedit /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme

Look for the lines that identify the WALLPAPER and COLORS:

WALLPAPER="/usr/share/images/grub/Lake_mapourika_NZ.tga"
COLOR_NORMAL="white/black"
COLOR_HIGHLIGHT="black/cyan"

For 10.10 and up, edit the grub file in /etc/default:

gksu -b gedit /etc/default/grub

Look for the lines that identify the GRUB_BACKGROUND:

GRUB_BACKGROUND=/path_to_image/filename

As for modifying the menu colors on 10.10 and up; from what I can tell (GRUB2 wiki) it seems to be the same as I have listed above (/etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme). You might have to experiment with it. If someone knows for sure, please add a comment.

There are 16 colors available: Black, Blue, Brown, Cyan, Dark-Gray, Green, Light-Cyan, Light-Blue, Light-Green, Light-Gray, Light-Magenta, Light-Red, Magenta, Red, White, and Yellow. Just be careful with the combinations, because it's really easy to make your GRUB menu difficult/impossible to read.

Once you're done, be sure to update grub:

sudo update-grub

Also, I should add that I gleaned most of this information out of the GRUB2 wiki. Check that out if you have any questions.

3
  • Just realized my answer was based-on 10.04. I'll put in some edits for more-recent versions.
    – Aaron
    Mar 23, 2012 at 18:34
  • Ok, I answered this question almost year ago and got nothing but good feedback on it. Why the downvote?
    – Aaron
    Feb 4, 2013 at 20:42
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    On top of this if you want to change the names of the entries follow the instructions from this blog post (basically is the same idea of this answer but with the focus on the entry displays): ubuntu-install.blogspot.com/2009/11/grub2-title-tweaks.html
    – Ajadex
    Sep 6, 2015 at 2:29
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Grub customizer is a untested buggy and dangerous program. It simply duplicates entries and does not seem to work. Maintainers were wise enough to keep it out of the os, so beware. Just copy image to boot/grub and update-grub.

3

To put a picture to the GRUB background,

1- Make sure you know your screen resolution.

2- Edit your picture (GIMP is very good for this) to the same resolution as the screen.

3- With root privilege, copy the picture to /usr/share/images/desktop-base/ which, on my system, is empty.

4- In terminal, update grub by execution of a command "sudo update-grub".

The new background will show on next startup.

3

For edit the name.... open terminal and execute this command

gksu gedit /boot/grub/grub.cfg

And edit the names there.... At my config, it starts at line 93 with:

menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.0.0-16-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {

Example of name change:

menuentry 'Ubuntu' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {

To change grub background, I don't know how exactly, but I now that is on this file too!

3
  • I already new that method, but anyways thanks for your help :)
    – user51447
    Mar 23, 2012 at 18:19
  • 2
    Wrong method. Each update-grub execution rewrites the menuentry fields. Aug 23, 2015 at 21:34
  • This is still an excellent method, if you don't have a full linux install on the drive and just use grub to boot (a live USB, or just a HD with live ISO's for example)
    – Xen2050
    Dec 24, 2023 at 4:45
2

I'm new to linux but I used this site to change the background in grub. The website is really easy to understand and doesn't require you to install programs to edit grub. Its just step by step using the terminal

https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/beautifygrub

One thing I would say though is I struggled to get the background to change when I was saving the image as a .jpg. It was the right resolution and appeared to be in the right folder but it just didn't appear when I booted my laptop. In the end when I used the image editor I saved the file as a .pgn file and works.

Also the site fails to mention that you need to save your image in the Downloads folder once you rescale it.

Hope this helps.

1
  • "Site not found" anymore, shame the instructions weren't copied to here, although it sounds like more than a two step process
    – Xen2050
    Dec 24, 2023 at 4:43
0

Instead of me typing out the answer on how to change boot entry and background I will let Chris Hoffman from Howtogeek explain it.

http://www.howtogeek.com/196655/how-to-configure-the-grub2-boot-loaders-settings/

0

open the terminal from the root directory using the command :

gksu nautilus

Just operate the terminal from your root directory and copy the any image in the boot/grub and update the grub using the command :

update-grub

now restart the ubuntu to see the changes made.

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