I wanted to have a nice png file as a background for my GRUB boot menu, this will make it more attractive than the boring text screen. I decided to create a symlink to a suitable image as an example.
┌──[jason@192.168.1.2]─[~] └──╼ ╼ $ ls -hulsa /boot/grub/ total 2.4M 4.0K drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4.0K Jun 4 11:52 . 4.0K drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Jun 4 09:03 .. 4.0K drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Jul 3 2020 fonts 4.0K -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 712 Apr 23 2020 gfxblacklist.txt 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 56 Jun 4 11:52 grey.png -> /usr/share/backgrounds/Focal-Fossa_WP_4096x2304_GREY.png 40K -r--r--r-- 1 root root 37K Jun 2 10:06 grub.cfg 4.0K -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.0K Jun 4 07:57 grubenv 12K drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 12K Jul 30 2020 i386-pc 2.3M -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2.3M Apr 23 2020 unicode.pf2 |
As you can see above, I created a symlink to a wallpaper file in the /boot/grub folder. This will be the background image for the GRUB boot menu. Once the correct image is here, either as an image file or a symlink to another file, run this command below.
┌──[jason@192.168.1.2]─[~] └──╼ ╼ $ sudo update-grub [sudo] password for jason: Sorry, try again. [sudo] password for jason: Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub' Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/init-select.cfg' Generating grub configuration file ... Found background image: grey.png Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.8.0-53-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.8.0-53-generic Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.8.0-50-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.8.0-50-generic Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.8.0-45-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.8.0-45-generic Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.8.0-44-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.8.0-44-generic Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.8.0-41-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.8.0-41-generic Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-73-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-73-generic Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-72-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-72-generic Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-67-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-67-generic Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-66-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-66-generic Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-65-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-65-generic Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.elf Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin Found Windows 8 on /dev/sda1 Found Ubuntu 19.10 (19.10) on /dev/sda3 Found Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (20.04) on /dev/mapper/ubuntudrive-root done |
This will create a new GRUB configuration with the background image in place. This can look very nice. The image I chose was too light grey and garish, but this is just an example. I wish I could preview this before committing to it. Use a darker image and/or tweak the text colours to suit. But this will work just fine. And it is another way to personalise the GRUB layout.