How to set the default GRUB2 font and splash screen in Fedora

[plasmonics]

When I installed F16 on my laptop, the installer set up a coarse default font and a blank background. You have to use a manual method the set up the font and background splash. The following works for a wide screen. If you have a non-wide screen, adjust the numbers accordingly, and change the "wide" subdirectory to "standard".

Make a GRUB2 font using (ignore the screen messages - the font is still made)

grub2-mkfont --output=/boot/grub2/DejaVuSansMono.pf2 --size=24 /usr/share/fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSansMono.ttf

Edit /etc/default/grub and insert the following lines:

GRUB_FONT=/boot/grub2/DejaVuSansMono.pf2
GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x800
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep
GRUB_BACKGROUND=/usr/share/backgrounds/verne/default/wide/verne.png

Rebuild the cfg file using

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

------------------Edited Jun 9, 2012--------------------

Note that F17 implements an alternative method of setting the grub2 theme. If you wish to use the new method, comment out GRUB_FONT and GRUB_BACKGROUND and uncomment GRUB_THEME. It points to a text file theme.txt which contains the variables you need to adjust. After adjusting, rebuild the cfg file as described above.

[kkshethin]

thanks, i will try

[glennzo]

I've tried this and it worked well. I give it an 8 out of 10. There are some minor issues but nothing critical.

Thank you Plasmonics. I've been waiting for someone to figure this out. Since I like to have a menu background I've researched exaustively but the avalable (yes, I've seem them all) GRUB2 documentation, while good, is far from complete and quite lacking in a lot of areas.

[nonamedotc]

When I installed F16 on my laptop, the installer set up a coarse default font and a blank background. You have to use a manual method the set up the font and background splash. The following works for a wide screen. If you have a non-wide screen, adjust the numbers accordingly, and change the "wide" subdirectory to "standard".

Make a GRUB2 font using (ignore the screen messages - the font is still made)

grub2-mkfont --output=/boot/grub2/DejaVuSansMono.pf2 --size=24 /usr/share/fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSansMono.ttf

Edit /etc/default/grub and insert the following lines:

GRUB_FONT=/boot/grub2/DejaVuSansMono.pf2
GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x800
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep
GRUB_BACKGROUND=/usr/share/backgrounds/verne/default/wide/verne.png

Rebuild the cfg file using

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

This will not work if the / partition is encrypted and there is no separate /usr partition - right? Can the image also be copied to /boot like the font?

[PabloTwo]

Can the image also be copied to /boot like the font?

Yes. This is mine: GRUB_BACKGROUND=/boot/grub/farcry_3-1440x900.jpg

[nonamedotc]

Ah ! Excellent! Time to make the splash screen colorful

[plasmonics]

The image file can be in any directory. It also doesn't have to be png.

The font can also be any ttf. I gave that example, because DejaVu is my default for many applications.


-----------------------
Correction (2/24/2012): It supports only tga, jpg, and png. grub2-mkconfig warns if the graphics format is unsupported.

[synic]

I'm having trouble with this. I've placed an image in /boot/grub/blue_energy_tornado_grub_splash.jpg but when I run grub2-mkconfig I get nothing..

GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Fedora"
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_GFXMODE=1366x768
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep
GRUB_BACKGROUND=/boot/grub/blue_energy_tornado_grub_splash.jpg
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.md=0 rd.lvm=0 rd.dm=0 KEYTABLE=us quiet SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 rhgb rd.luks=0 LANG=en_US.UTF-8"

and

[root@Faeland ~]# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.3.0-4.fc16.x86_64
Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-3.3.0-4.fc16.x86_64.img
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-7.fc16.x86_64
Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-3.1.0-7.fc16.x86_64.img
No volume groups found
done
[root@Faeland ~]#

What am I doing wrong?

EDIT:

Off topic but what about the Fedora loading screen; that comes up after grub but before the login screen? That takes longer. Anyone point me in the right direction for changing that one?

Thanks

[PabloTwo]

What am I doing wrong?

You're failing to follow all the instructions. Go back up to post#1 of this thread and read it.
It won't work without the font file.

[synic]

Ah... you HAVE to have the font title.

EDIT:

KOOOOOL Hell Yes..

Thanks.

[plasmonics]

There is a code fragment in the bash script /etc/grub.d/00_header that looks for the font file. If it is not defined, it does not load the graphics part.

This is also the standard behaviour in another (non-Fedora) distro that I use.

[synic]

There is a code fragment in the bash script /etc/grub.d/00_header that looks for the font file. If it is not defined, it does not load the graphics part.

This is also the standard behaviour in another (non-Fedora) distro that I use.

That's what I wanted to know. Weird that Grub2 would require this feature in order to be customisable.

[callado]

Works well with Fedora 17 with the beefy-miracle image. I have two questions:
I used the same font and size as in #1, but the vertical borderlines are not continuous, they are broken between the lines. Should I use other font or how could I fix that?
How can I change the main title at the top?

[plasmonics]

The vertical lines remain broken with DejaVu. This is true with Debian/grub2 as well. I believe that the border decorations are written into the font definition file. You can try reducing the font size. You can also experiment with other fonts in /usr/share/fonts. Not all of them work. In the end, I switched back to DejaVu.

I think the title is in /etc/defaults/grub.

[elias12]

Nice Thank you

Furthermore you do not want anything if you do a fresh install simply use the following steps to enable background.

Please open /etc/default/grub and uncomment the line "GRUB_THEME". Here an example for my config:

GRUB_TIMEOUT=30
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Fedora"
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.md=0 rd.lvm=0 rd.dm=0 SYSFONT=True  KEYTABLE=de rd.luks=0 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rhgb quiet"
GRUB_THEME="/boot/grub2/themes/system/theme.txt"

In the "theme.txt" is all you need to install a theme. Sure, you can change the background by simple change the background with your favourite one. This is a standard-entry after the fresh FD17 install.

Don't forget to update grub as shown by @plasmonics