How-to Guide: Custom Image and Font Color in Grub2
Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:48 pm
This tutorial will show you how to have a custom image in Grub2 with custom font colors. This is very easy to achieve and I will show you every step.
Warning: It's looks totally geeky.
I am using Linux Mint 14 Nadia Cinnamon 64-bit on an Asus U56E laptop.
I like everything to match (wallpaper, lock screen, mdm, and Grub). During the boot process my screen shows one image!
This tutorial is for a Grub2 menu, with an image for the background and colored text.
Please excuse the images. I took them with my cell phone so I could get a quick picture of my Grub2.
This is my customized Grub2 screen.
On to the tutorial...
1) The image used in this tutorial was found in a Linux distro I downloaded off of Distrowatch. Sorry I don't remember the distro name or the artist who created it. All I did was change the orange to green, added 'black viper' and cropped it to my screen resolution. I copied this image from
/home/username/Pictures/Wallpapers and put it in /usr/share/pixmaps so Grub can use it. Copy your image and do the same.
2) I highly recommend 'Grub-Customizer.' It is very good, but it does have one fault though. I will explain later.
Get 'Grub-Customizer' from the repository with..
3) Start 'Grub-Customizer.'
a) Under the 'General Settings' tab, make sure 'show menu' is checked.
b) Adjust 'Timeout' to whatever you like (default is 10 but you may want 3 or 5)
c) Under the 'Appearance settings' tab, check 'custom resolution' and enter your resolution like this --> 1366x768x24 (this is my resolution).
d) Set the background image. Navigate to where you saved it and select it. You should see it in the preview window.
e) Now, this is where 'Grub-Customizer' has a fault. The 'menu colors' section is misleading. These are NOT the colors for the menu. These
are the colors of the Grub text (the title at the top and the extra commands text at the bottom). I chose light-green to go with
the 'theme' of my wallpaper. You can choose any color you want. So, under 'normal font color' I changed it to light-green and
'background' is transparent. Under 'highlight font color' it is light-gray and 'background' is transparent.
f) I did not adjust font.
g) You are done in 'Grub-Customizer.' Click 'Save' and exit.
4) Your Grub2 is almost done. If you reboot right now, you will notice that the actual menu is not color coded like you would think it
should be. I was shocked when I rebooted and it was ugly gray and not my geeky light-green color. So I did some exploring!
a) You have to manually edit a root file.Enter your password and gedit will open this file for you.
b) On lines 8 and 9 you will see the color code for the menu that we want to customize.
I changed line 9 to read 'set menu_color_highlight=light-green/black'. You can choose any color you want.
Available colors to choose from..
c) Update your Grub2
d) Click 'Save' and exit.
5) Now is a good time to reboot and look at your handy-work.
PRO TIP:
When you reboot, click the down arrow on your keyboard to stop the timer. Study the Grub2 screen and see if you like everything.
If you don't, or you want to experiment by trying different colors, then hit 'c' on your keyboard. This will open the 'grub console'.
Type 'set' and hit enter. You will see the current grub settings. Suppose you don't like light-green in the menu and you want red instead.
All you do is type in 'set menu_color_highlight=red/black' and hit enter. Hit 'Esc' to immediately go back to the Grub2 screen to view your change.
You can keep going back and forth to change colors until you find the colors you like. Note: This is not permanent and your changes
will not stick (this is just a trick to save you time from rebooting alot until you find the right color). Remember which colors you
want and log back in to your desktop. To change the color of the actual menu text and highlight, go to step 4a above. Make sure
to save your change and then reboot. To change the Grub text (the title at the top and the extra commands text at the bottom)
go to step 3e and make the color change. Save and reboot.
Enjoy, and I hope you liked this tutorial! Any mistakes, typos etc. please let me know. Heck, post your Grub2 screen too!
My Grub2 screen with the 'set' command (read PRO TIP above).
My login screen (MDM). Originally made by GraveyardPC and modified by me (I replaced the background image, changed some colors and modified the location of the login box to bottom center. Click here to get it. All you need to do really is replace bg.jpg with your image and put the 'custom_theme' folder in '/usr/share/mdm/themes'. Make sure you change to the new theme in the 'Login Window' tool under 'Menu>Preferences'.
And my desktop!
The wallpaper (without the 'black viper') is available in green and orange.
Warning: It's looks totally geeky.
I am using Linux Mint 14 Nadia Cinnamon 64-bit on an Asus U56E laptop.
I like everything to match (wallpaper, lock screen, mdm, and Grub). During the boot process my screen shows one image!
This tutorial is for a Grub2 menu, with an image for the background and colored text.
Please excuse the images. I took them with my cell phone so I could get a quick picture of my Grub2.
This is my customized Grub2 screen.
On to the tutorial...
1) The image used in this tutorial was found in a Linux distro I downloaded off of Distrowatch. Sorry I don't remember the distro name or the artist who created it. All I did was change the orange to green, added 'black viper' and cropped it to my screen resolution. I copied this image from
/home/username/Pictures/Wallpapers and put it in /usr/share/pixmaps so Grub can use it. Copy your image and do the same.
Code: Select all
gksu nemo /
Get 'Grub-Customizer' from the repository with..
Code: Select all
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer
a) Under the 'General Settings' tab, make sure 'show menu' is checked.
b) Adjust 'Timeout' to whatever you like (default is 10 but you may want 3 or 5)
c) Under the 'Appearance settings' tab, check 'custom resolution' and enter your resolution like this --> 1366x768x24 (this is my resolution).
d) Set the background image. Navigate to where you saved it and select it. You should see it in the preview window.
e) Now, this is where 'Grub-Customizer' has a fault. The 'menu colors' section is misleading. These are NOT the colors for the menu. These
are the colors of the Grub text (the title at the top and the extra commands text at the bottom). I chose light-green to go with
the 'theme' of my wallpaper. You can choose any color you want. So, under 'normal font color' I changed it to light-green and
'background' is transparent. Under 'highlight font color' it is light-gray and 'background' is transparent.
f) I did not adjust font.
g) You are done in 'Grub-Customizer.' Click 'Save' and exit.
4) Your Grub2 is almost done. If you reboot right now, you will notice that the actual menu is not color coded like you would think it
should be. I was shocked when I rebooted and it was ugly gray and not my geeky light-green color. So I did some exploring!
a) You have to manually edit a root file.
Code: Select all
sudo gedit /etc/grub.d/06_mint_theme
b) On lines 8 and 9 you will see the color code for the menu that we want to customize.
I changed line 9 to read 'set menu_color_highlight=light-green/black'. You can choose any color you want.
Available colors to choose from..
c) Update your Grub2
Code: Select all
sudo update-grub
5) Now is a good time to reboot and look at your handy-work.
PRO TIP:
When you reboot, click the down arrow on your keyboard to stop the timer. Study the Grub2 screen and see if you like everything.
If you don't, or you want to experiment by trying different colors, then hit 'c' on your keyboard. This will open the 'grub console'.
Type 'set' and hit enter. You will see the current grub settings. Suppose you don't like light-green in the menu and you want red instead.
All you do is type in 'set menu_color_highlight=red/black' and hit enter. Hit 'Esc' to immediately go back to the Grub2 screen to view your change.
You can keep going back and forth to change colors until you find the colors you like. Note: This is not permanent and your changes
will not stick (this is just a trick to save you time from rebooting alot until you find the right color). Remember which colors you
want and log back in to your desktop. To change the color of the actual menu text and highlight, go to step 4a above. Make sure
to save your change and then reboot. To change the Grub text (the title at the top and the extra commands text at the bottom)
go to step 3e and make the color change. Save and reboot.
Enjoy, and I hope you liked this tutorial! Any mistakes, typos etc. please let me know. Heck, post your Grub2 screen too!
My Grub2 screen with the 'set' command (read PRO TIP above).
My login screen (MDM). Originally made by GraveyardPC and modified by me (I replaced the background image, changed some colors and modified the location of the login box to bottom center. Click here to get it. All you need to do really is replace bg.jpg with your image and put the 'custom_theme' folder in '/usr/share/mdm/themes'. Make sure you change to the new theme in the 'Login Window' tool under 'Menu>Preferences'.
And my desktop!
The wallpaper (without the 'black viper') is available in green and orange.