Grub Customizer

Does anyone have experience with this app? It sounds like it would be just the ticket for easily changing the Grub configuration

Never heard of it before, but gave it a quick google. At first glance the only thing I'm seeing that YAST -> System -> Boot Loader won't do is change menu entry colors. I could easily be missing something though. Looks like a very handy tool, especially if you're using a distro that doesn't have a good editor. Anything in particular you're looking for?

bdquick wrote:

Anything in particular you're looking for?

One thing that bugs me about 12.2, is the scrambled splash screen that pops up after grub starts,, and before the log-in box appears. I believe that it is due to the resolution setting (1600x1200) in the grub.cfg file. Although this is the monitor's native resolution, the NVIDIA GTS-450 can only display VGA=768 through 865 (Information obtained by using Hardware Detection Tool - HDT) I was looking for a safe way to change grub resolution setting to see if this would clear up the problem. Interestingly, once openSUSE is up and running, and the drivers take effect, the high resolution does not pose a problem. Being extremely tentative when it comes to editing scripts and such, I was looking for something bulletproof.

I gotcha and understand the apprehension about wanting to edit important config files by hand. It must be the "nomodeset" on mine, but my machine boots with the text scrolling by instead of a splash screen.

For KDE, there is Grub2editor that might do the trick, but first I must learn how to install it from a .gz file. I would like to clean this up because it's hard to make a good first impression when trying to demonstrate the os, and garbage shows up on the screen. Nothing like it to turn off potential
interest.

Ok I've been doing a little research. From what I understand you want to change the screen resolution from after your selection in grub to the point of logging into the desktop. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

To actually change the resolution of the GRUB menu you would edit the file "/etc/default/grub" and find the section and change it

Code:

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

But that is for actually changing the GRUB boot menu's screen resolution.

To change the resolution after making your OS selection the commands in your "/boot/grub/menu.lst" need changed. This is easily done in YAST -> System -> Boot Loader.
When you open it up, you will see the same list you do when GRUB is waiting for your selection. Simply highlight the entry you want to change. In my case it says "Desktop -- OpenSUSE 12.2 - 3.4.....". Last part is simply your kernel revision. Below the list there is an edit button, so just click that. You should see all kinds of things that mostly don't make sense to me now, but kind of in the middle there is a drop down box called "Vga Mode". It will probably be blank or say "unspecified". Pick something you feel is safe out of the list and try it.

I have mine set to "1024x768 16bit", because I know my monitor works good at that resolution. Unfortunately its native 1680x1050 is not supported. When it was set to its default "unspecified" state the text was being cut off the front of the screen, and was unreadable. I'm sure if I had been getting a splash screen, it would have looked bad too.


Hopefully this will help someone, even it does not help Laz.

You are right Bdquick. I decided to grab the bull by the tail and face the situation, edited
/etc/default/grub to correct the resolution. - No change.

I also went into Yast as per your suggestion, and indeed the VGA mode was unspecified.
Corrected it to 1024x768 - No change. In fact a bit worse, as I now get a flash of all the application icons for a split second. The same screen that normally appears when clicking on
"Applications" on the Gnome desktop, followed by the normal login screen.

This tells me my diagnostic was incorrrect, and this is not a resolution problem after all.
This was a good learning experience though, and I thank you for all the suggestions.

Out of curiosity what model of monitor do you have? What video card? I'm wondering if its possibly a video driver issue.

The monitor is a Dell 2410, video card is Nvidia GTS-450. The Nuveau driver works well
once the log in process is completed. The video is also correct at the initial boot screen,
and Grub menu. It is only the interval between the Grub menu and the log on screen that's scrambled. Starts with five green vertical strips containing the gecko image, progressing to
a monochrome stair-step image top left to bottom right screen. Weird.
Tried looking at the splash png's to see if that's the cause, but these only show a black background
with a green horizontal line about the middle.

There are also some movie files out there that get played over the splash screen. Not at a machine where I can look up the directory though.

That's interesting. I've never seen any of these. Do they come up during the boot process?

I see it on mine right before the login screen shows. Will track the path down and post it for you.

I have seen some references to an animated boot menu associated with thel Grub legacy, and Plymuth, but 12.2 uses Grub2.

From what I'm seeing 12.2 does use Plymouth. Its actually the first version to officially use it from what I understand. I'm still not sure what it does other than its some sort of bootup splash screen. I think its what I see flicker for a second just before the login screen. What I've read also says its not supposed to work with the proprietary drivers like I use.

As for the animations that I thought I found the other day, I can't find them tonight. Maybe I'll run across them sometime when I'm not looking for them.

Until tonight I only knew Plymouth to be a defunct car company.

Well, apparently it's for animated spash screens, but it's still in a buggy state. For one thing it does not agree with Nvidia, which leaves me out from the getgo. Anyway at least I can stop beating my head against the wall on this. Aah that feels good!