OMGVideo: Probing Your Box, Grub 2 and You

If I had to pick one horror story that I get messaged about the most, it would be the dreaded bootloader. "It's missing" or "I have a black screen of death.." and some people edit their grub.cfg without realizing it can disable you from booting at all, essentially turning your computer into a brick. Yay! Most of you already know that when you power on your computer, the first software that runs is a bootloader that invokes the OS from the computer. GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader, is an important part of many Linux systems. Above are a few tips to help address the issues with Grub 2. What are your horror stories?

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Get Animated, Themed, Icon Only GRUB Menu Using BURG - now simple to use!

This is an updated version of our original BURG article which was published earlier this year. Since that time BURG has progressed immeasurably. If the complex installation and configuration steps put you off previously you may wish to glance over the new refined installation steps.

We all know that the GRUB loading menu that greets many of upon boot isn't the most stylish or modern looking interface - even adding a poorly pixelated picture background can't save it from looking lame.
 
Well, getting a gorgeous, animated and informative boot-loader is no longer a dream thanks to 'Brand New Universal Bootloader' (more commonly referred to as 'BURG'.)

Admittedly, "BURG" may sound like something from the depths of Star Trek mythology but the letters actually stand for "Brand-new Universal loadeR from GRUB" and is based on the GRUB bootloader. A bevvy of cool features and enhancements make it an option well worth considering if you like to beautify your system. Here's a video of BURG in action: -

Install BURG

Here sits my warning - don't try this unless you're really sure you want to. Whilst there shouldn't be any frakk-ups this is a delicate area of your system and things will go awry without attention or intention!

Add the BURG PPA:-

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bean123ch/burg
• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install burg burg-themes

Install BURG to your Master Boot Record

Install burg to your MBR using the command below. Substitute ‘hd0’ with an alternative drive if needed.

• sudo burg-install "(hd0)"

Update BURG entries

You MUST run this step or you may be left scratching your head upon reboot when nothing shows up

• sudo update-burg

Theming

Now for the juicy stuff; the reason you’re probably installing burg - themes!

Selecting a burg theme is simple; reboot and when you see the default BURG screen press the 't' button on your keyboard. A long list of themes will present itself to you, you need only to use your arrow keys to select one and then hit enter for it to be applied.

Here are a selection of some of the more popular themes: -

Sora

Radiance

Coffee

Winter

Ubuntu

Proto

 

Previewing Your GRUB Menu
You can preview your GRUB theme without rebooting providing you have first done all of the above steps

 

After installation run the command: -

• burg-emu

A new window will open displaying your GRUB menu. To close it press the 'c' button on your keyboard and type 'exit'.

 

Official BURG website can be found @ http://code.google.com/p/burg

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Fatal flaw connected to GRUB found at very late notice, never fear!

This bug report which was reported yesterday suggests that Lucid was about to ship with an issue that caused the secondary operating system to be missing from GRUB when installing in a dual boot setup; if migration assistant found anything to import.

"When installing in a dual boot environment, the other operating system will not appear at first in the GRUB menu. Installing the available updates and rebooting will fix this issue." Potentially catastrophic to Windows and Mac users who want to install Ubuntu alongside their current OS, thankfully the bug has been fixed in updates and a decision was made to re-spin the ISO images for the Ubuntu desktop edition only to include the updates in time for release. Other variants will get the update in the next day or two (or should already have it). The comments on the bug report give an excellent insight into the stressful situation key developers and Canonical employees face around release time, and we should all +1 them for picking up on this only hours before release and fixing it swiftly. Any help on testing the fix would be much appreciated, but please DO NOT bombard the bug with pointless comments at such a crucial time. "We've decided to respin the 32bit and 64bit CDs of Ubuntu Desktop *ONLY*, as we feel this gives us the widest spread fix possible and allows us to still release today (April 29th). Unfortunately, this means other affected variants, such as Xubuntu, will not have this fix, and we deeply apologize for this." We're intending to have this bug fixed in the official ISO release at this point." -- Robbie Williamson - foundations team

More info here.

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Simple GRUB Theming Script [Updated]

Bored with how GRUB looks? Well if you don't have the nerves to try total boot pimper BURG, the following simple script will help beautify your boot. The following simple script dolls up your GRUB menu with an Ubuntu-like appearance. There are currently two styles to choose from - a 'skin tone' version that compliments Karmic suitably, or a Purple version designed for Lucid users.

• Download one of the following scripts by MichealH

Normal version Purple version

• Give the script permission to 'execute as a programme' (Right click > properties > permissions)
• Run it!

The background of the normal version The Lucid Version Any problems or ideas belong in this Ubuntu Forums Thread

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How To Use Custom Backgrounds In Grub2

Grub2 - the default boot-loader for new installations of Ubuntu 9.10 - has some nifty new features - including support for background images and custom font colours.

Whilst the previous version of GRUB could also support background images - it involved a hassle, some nifty navigation of folders and and editing some boot files. GRUB2 however supports this out of the box!

Install GRUB Background Package

A set of GRUB backgrounds is included in the Ubuntu repositories. Just install them via synaptic or install via the Terminal using: -

• sudo apt-get install grub2-splashimages

The default choices aren't exactly much laud over, but are a nice enough selection. You'll find them in /usr/share/images/grub.

Choose An Image

If you want to use a background image be sure to FIRST make a backup of the files you're editing. 

To choose one of the images from the grub2-splashimages packages you need to specify the file name in the grub boot appearance file: -

• gksudo gedit /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme

Find the following line: -

• for i in {/boot/grub,/usr/share/images/grub}/moreblue-orbit-grub.{png,tga} ; do

Change: -

• moreblue-orbit-grub

to the file name of an image in the /usr/share/images/grub folder.

Save and close.

You then MUST update GRUB2 by running: -

• sudo update-grub2

Example

Change moreblue-orbit-grub to Plasma-lamp.

• for i in {/boot/grub,/usr/share/images/grub}/Plasma-lamp.{png,tga} ; do

Use your own image

To use an image of your choice you need to resize it to 640x480 and save it as a .tga file. You then need to make sure you place it in the grub images folder above.

Thanks to webupd8

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