GRUB 2 configuration and customisation
GRUB 2 has been the default bootloader for Fedora and Korora for a number of releases. This is a short guide on tweaking the common settings, such as themes.
It is always a good idea to backup any important data before modifying system configuration.
Unlike legacy GRUB where there was a single running configuration file, with GRUB 2 there is a default configuration file and a command line tool that generates the running config.
There are a couple of important files.
/boot/grub2/grub.cfg or on EFI systems /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg – this is the file that GRUB 2 uses to boot the system. It contains all the configuration options but should not be edited. View this file to see the current running configuration and what options there are. If you do edit this file, the changes will be lost once you run the GRUB tool, grub2-mkconfig.
/etc/default/grub – this file contains the options used to create the running grub.cfg config and is expected to be edited (as root).
As we mention above, you do not edit the running GRUB 2 configuration file in GRUB 2 but rather run a tool after you have made changes to the default config file, /etc/default/grub.
This is how you rebuild the config.
sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
or for EFI system sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfgUnlike legacy GRUB, this step needs to be repeated every time you change the default GRUB 2 configuration.
As with previous versions you can call up the running GRUB menu when you turn on your computer by pressing any key before the kernel loads and use the edit options there for one time changes. This is a good way to test a change before you add it permanently to the config file. Simply follow the on-screen instructions to do this.
When you have the correct combination of changes, you can make them permanent by changing the default boot options. To do this, we need to edit the file as root (substitute nano -w for your favourite editor, such as gedit for GNOME or kwrite for KDE).
sudo nano -w /etc/default/grubIf you need to add or modify boot options to the kernel line you will need to edit the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX entry. Remove or add what you need, ensuring that you don't remove the closing (“) mark.
If you don’t have a dual boot system you could change the line GRUB_TIMEOUT=5 and replace the 5 with 0. This is the number of seconds that the GRUB menu will appear, just as in legacy GRUB. It is a good idea to change this last, once you have every thing else working as it makes it simpler if you need to change the boot command while experimenting.
Now rebuild your running configuration using the Rebuilding Running Configuration instructions above, you can reboot and test your changes!
Korora has a basic white on black screen which is functional but doesn't look too good. If you prefer a background, as in previous versions, there are a few steps involved.
First, create a GRUB compatible font file from an existing system font file (we chose DejaVu Sans Mono but you can use any you like).
sudo grub2-mkfont --output=/boot/grub2/unicode.pf2 /usr/share/fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSansMono.ttfThen enable graphics mode in the GRUB 2 default config file, /etc/default/grub.
GRUB_GFXMODE=auto
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep
GRUB_TERMINAL=gfxterm
GRUB_BACKGROUND=/usr/share/backgrounds/korora/default/normalish/korora.pngIf the "auto" setting in the GRUB_GFXMODE does not detect the screen size correctly you may specify a size as widthxheight e.g 1024x768 or widthxheightxdepth e.g. 1280X1024x16.
You can substitute any similarly sized .png or .jpg file for the background, just specify the path at the GRUB_BACKGROUND variable.
Now rebuild your running configuration using the Rebuilding Running Configuration instructions above, you can reboot and test your changes!
sudo nano -w /etc/grub.d/41_customset color_normal=white/black
set color_highlight=yellow/cyanPlease be careful as it may corrupt this file and give you errors when updating your running config file if not done correctly.
Here is an example 41_custom file.
cat <<EOF
if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
set color_normal=white/black
set color_highlight=yellow/cyan
EOFHere is a nice explanation and the list of the colours supported by GRUB 2 (please ignore the 05_debian_theme as it's not related to Fedora/Korora).
Now rebuild your running configuration using the Rebuilding Running Configuration instructions above, you can reboot and test your changes!
Some of us prefer to see what is happening when the system boots rather than the pretty animations that Plymouth provides. There are two ways to achieve this, edit the GRUB config or change the Plymouth theme.
Edit the default GRUB 2 config file as root (substitute nano -w for your favourite editor, such as gedit for GNOME or kwrite for KDE).
sudo nano -w /etc/default/grubFind the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX entry and remove rhgb from the line and saving the file.
Now rebuild your running configuration using the Rebuilding Running Configuration instructions above, you can reboot and test your changes!
List the available Plymouth themes.
plymouth-set-default-theme --listHere's an example of what you might see.
change
details
korora
textThe Plymouth theme that provides all the details of the boot is called details and so we simply tell Plymouth to use that theme.
sudo plymouth-set-default-theme details --rebuild-initrdThat command will take a short time to finish, simple reboot when it does to see the results!
A Korora user provided a Korora Grub2 theme, see https://kororaproject.org/support/engage/thank/korora-grub-theme-1
There is a page on the Fedora Wiki covering some additional options – https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Grub2, also see http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=275112.
Information on GRUB themes here – https://github.com/Generator/Grub2-themes#faq and http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=278536.