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Pseudobish
Pseudobish

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Grub customization : A lazy weekend journey

#linux #grub #themes

Before:

Default GRUB theme

After:

Custom Minecraft GRUB theme

This is what happens when you are bored out of your mind on a weekend and Youtube nudges you to mess around with your GRUB just for the funsies of it.

Next thing you know,you are in the /boot and the /etc folder just trying your best to make your grub look cool and increasing boot default entry timeouts . Here is how I cooked and got cooked in the process. Quick Note: Modifying grub can affect your system's ability to boot,so proceed with caution

For context,I use Linux Mint 22.3-Cinnamon so your package manager command might be different, but the tool itself works the same.

Part 0: Installing grub customizer (For increasing boot default entry timeouts)

  • Update your packages

Open the terminal and run the update command.It makes sure we have the latest packages before we install grub customizer.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
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  • Installing grub customizer

Since its not available in default Ubuntu, we will be adding a ppa(personal package archive) for it

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
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Installing grub customiser

  • Once added update your package list again 
sudo apt update
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  • Install grub customizer 
sudo apt install grub-customizer
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Installation

  • To open grub customizer

Just search "grub customizer" in the applications menu and launch it.

Search for grub-customizer

You will now be prompted to provide authentication. Enter your sudo password for admin privileges.

Provide your sudo password to proceed

  • After successful authentication

The grub customizer interface shall open like so

Grub customizer interface

  • Increasing boot default entry timeout

0.Click on the "General Settings" tab

General settings

  1. Click on the "+" icon to increase the boot default entry timeout

Increase timeout

  1. Click on "Save"

Saving the settings

Part 1: Changing grub theme using the terminal

  • Open up the terminal and run the following command 
git clone https://github.com/Lxtharia/minegrub-theme.git
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This is gonna clone the repo and save it to our home directory

  • Lets go into this folder by 
cd ./minegrub-theme
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In the folder

  • Copy the minegrub theme files to the grub theme on your system in the /boot directory using 
sudo cp -ruv ./minegrub /boot/grub/themes/
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Copying files

  • Now we will edit the grub configuration files in the grub directory 
sudo vi /etc/default/grub
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Im using vim in this case you can use nano or gedit as well for editing files.

  • Adding the theme with 
GRUB_THEME="/boot/grub/themes/minegrub/theme.txt"
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Edit in vim press the "I" key to go into insert node and paste this with CTRL+Shift+V, then quit insert mode using ESC and save it using :wq.

Editing the theme

  • Finally update your grub using 
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
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Now,it should detect our custom grub theme

Grub theme detected

Go reboot and enjoy the view. If things go sideways—or you just wanna show off your setup—hit the comments.

~pseudobish

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