Playing around with "Pretty Colors" in GRUB...

cool_dude_prav · 21-04-2005, 07:26 PM

Hi ppl,

I was trying to play around with GRUB and I found out the "pretty colors" part.

I thought maybe I could try out some cool combos with it...

It doesn't support colors like Grey(or is it Gray?) and so on...

So, here's the big Questions...

What colors are supported on GRUB's menu.lst?

How to use "other" colors - can RGB colors be used as in HTML?

This sure will make some heads ponder :roll:

cool_dude_prav · 05-05-2005, 10:18 AM

Come on ppl..

Even after sooo many days and abt 20+ views, no one seems to reply...

Atleast someone temme, on what colors are accepted in Shell Scripting, and what do I do for other colors???

vignesh · 23-08-2005, 08:05 AM

I am using the Ubuntu 5.04`s grub.There is an option color to change the color and it has only 4 colors.I gave the command color = cyan.But no change in the grub color on bootup.

QwertyManiac · 23-08-2005, 06:49 PM

Hmm, found this Splash images support for GRUB...
http://ruslug.rutgers.edu/~mcgrof/grub-images/
Also , found this at gnu.org
13.2.2 color
— Command: color normal [highlight]

Change the menu colors. The color normal is used for most lines in the menu (see Menu interface), and the color highlight is used to highlight the line where the cursor points. If you omit highlight, then the inverted color of normal is used for the highlighted line. The format of a color is foreground/background. foreground and background are symbolic color names. A symbolic color name must be one of these:

* black
* blue
* green
* cyan
* red
* magenta
* brown
* light-gray

These below can be specified only for the foreground.
* dark-gray
* light-blue
* light-green
* light-cyan
* light-red
* light-magenta
* yellow
* white

But only the first eight names can be used for background. You can prefix blink- to foreground if you want a blinking foreground color.

This command can be used in the configuration file and on the command line, so you may write something like this in your configuration file:

# Set default colors.
color light-gray/blue black/light-gray

# Change the colors.
title OS-BS like
color magenta/blue black/magenta

cool_dude_prav · 23-08-2005, 08:54 PM

Good post there...

Great find!!!

Prav.

QwertyManiac · 23-08-2005, 09:59 PM

Also, get the new GRUB loader for more colors...
http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/.../msg00275.html

gauravnawani · 24-08-2005, 06:59 AM

Thats a pretty limiting colours, you can use actual images for the splash too.

WARNING if you dont know what you are doing dont mess with it, you could mess up your system. First locate this entry in your /boot/grub/grub.conf or menu.lst (you will need to be root).

splashimage=(hd1,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

If its there then good if not then make one just at the top of some commands. Make sure you are not breaking any continued command on the grub list.

1. The Splash.xpm is 'bmp' of Linux an INDEX(16Colour) image format(No transparency).
2. Copy the file from /boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz (If it exsits).
3. Make a seperate copy for backup.
4. Fire up GIMP and open that splash.xmp.gz file. (Note you can append .gz to any file while you are saving it from gimp even .bz2)
5. Copy another splash or make your own and paste it into the splash.xpm.gz file. Save it.
6. Go to Image>> Flatten.
7. Go to Image>>Mode>>Index.
Here change the colour from 256 to 16.
8. Replace the old new splash.xpm.gz with the new one.

(NOTE if that file dosent extsts then simply save any file in the same format .xpm.gz)

Restart and watch a vibrant boot up screen.

Cheers!

UPDATED: A Minor mistake

QwertyManiac · 24-08-2005, 06:03 PM

Tis what i posted above dude...the link...

also, i dont like the splashies much coz i want linux to look as a nerd and not as a multimedia alternative...

But good tutorial....
plain and good language too...