How to change the back ground on GRUB

[Rick Knight]

cj wrote:
> John DeCarlo wrote:
>   
>> On 8/5/07, *cj* <debiani386 at gmail.com <mailto:debiani386 at gmail.com>> 
>> wrote:
>>
>>     ive seen it done before, they just didnt provide much of any
>>     instruction
>>     as to how.
>>
>>
>> If you mean the background color, the color command in 
>> /boot/grub/menu.lst sets that.
>>
>> color cyan/blue white/blue
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> John DeCarlo, My Views Are My Own 
>>     
> I saw on this website 
> (http://linux.softpedia.com/progScreenshots/GNU-GRUB-Screenshot-1092.html) 
> where they had different background images. im just wondering if i add a 
> background image.
>
> Also, can i change the font color? (Maybe from white to red?)
> --cj
>
>   
Yes, you can do this, or at least you could a couple of years ago. I 
helped with a howto on this 3 or 4 years ago. In a nut shell ...

Select your image and convert it into the proper format with convert.
Grub wants a 640x480 14 color image (yes 14 color), so '$ convert 
-resize 640x480 -colors 14 your_image.png your_splash.xpm'. Now use gzip 
to compress the image '$ gzip your_splash.xpm'. This will leave you with 
a new compressed image file, your_splash.xpm.gz. Move this file to a 
location grub can see, '$ sudo cp your_splash.xpm.gz /boot/grub/images' 
(I prefer /boot/grub/images, but you'll have to create that first).


Now add this to your grub menu file. Do this as root (sudo). I use 
MidnightCommander, but you can use whatever editor you like

$ 'sudo mcedit /boot/grub/menu.lst'

and add..

# Splash image
splashimage (hd0,1)/grub/images/your_splash.xpm.gz

(you may also want to edit this line to get better colors)
# Pretty colours
color cyan/blue white/blue

In the "splashimage" line, if you have 'root=' configured you can use
splashimage /boot/grub/images/your_splash.xpm.gz

Otherwise, (hd0,1) comes from 'root=' in your linux boot stanza in menu.lst.

As I said, this worked 3 or 4 years ago. I have a new flat panel display 
that only supports color depth 24. The grub splash does not work for me 
anymore, so your mileage will vary.

Good luck and if you get it to work, report back here.

Rick Knight

btw The remnants of the original are floating around the net. Google 
"grub splash rick knight" and it will turn up.