mintCast 155: GRUB Mysteries

• Dell now offering Alienware gaming PCs with Linux. (steamforlinux.com)
• OpenSUSE exec says it is an ideal time to have Linux skills. (pcworld.com)
• Intel releases a graphical installer for their Linux drivers. (omgubuntu.co.uk)
• What is Our Goal Here? (linuxadvocates.com)
• Google forks webkit, moves on to Blink. (omgchrome.com)

• James Eaton sent in a great link on the whole process of booting Linux. (infosecinstitute.com)
• GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader. “GNU GRUB is a very powerful boot loader, which can load a wide variety of free operating systems, as well as proprietary operating systems with chain-loading.”
• How does GRUB know what to boot? It reads /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
  • grub.cfg is written in GRUB’s built-in scripting language, which has a syntax quite similar to that of GNU Bash and other Bourne shell derivatives.
  • The program grub-mkconfig generates a grub.cfg file based on the scripts in /etc/grub.d and the /etc/default/grub file.
  • grub-mkconfig does have some limitations. While adding extra custom menu entries to the end of the list can be done by editing /etc/grub.d/40_custom or creating /boot/grub/custom.cfg, changing the order of menu entries or changing their titles may require making complex changes to shell scripts stored in /etc/grub.d/. This may be improved in the future.
• The file /etc/default/grub controls the operation of grub-mkconfig. It is sourced by a shell script, and so must be valid POSIX shell input; normally, it will just be a sequence of ‘KEY=value’ lines, but if the value contains spaces or other special characters then it must be quoted.
• ‘update-grub’ is a stub for running: ‘grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg’

• Simple changes to try…
  • Change the default OS booted:
    • Change GRUB_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub
    • Run ‘sudo update-grub’ to update /boot/grub/grub.cfg
  • Change the colors of the GRUB screen:
    • Edit /etc/grub.d/06_mint_theme to change these lines:
    • set menu_color_normal=white/black
    • set menu_color_highlight=white/light-gray
    • Run ‘sudo update-grub’
  • Add a background graphic: (Doesn’t work in Mint because of 06_mint_theme?)
    • Move one picture that is the same size as your screen resolution to /boot/grub/ (first one found is used?)
    • Run ‘sudo update-grub’
  • Change the order of the OS list:
    • Use the “maintenance-free Grub2 menu” article… (help.ubuntu.com)
    • Involves editing the scripts in /etc/grub.d
  • Recover your system if it won’t boot due to messed up MBR:
    • This can happen if you install Windows after installing Linux, but can also happen if you change hard drive settings or and or remove a hard drive (help.ubuntu.com)

• GNU GRUB Manual 2.00~rc1. (gnu.org)
• GRUB 2’s major improvements over the original GRUB. (help.ubuntu.com)
• GRUB 2 bootloader – Full tutorial. (dedoimedo.com)
• How to Configure the Linux Grub2 Boot Menu the Easy Way (Uses a program named “Grub Customizer” from a PPA). (howtogeek.com)

• How to measure the speed of your SATA devices from the command line. (linuxaria.com)

Hosts:: Rob, Scott, James

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Credits: Podcast Entry and exit music provided by Mark Blasco (podcastthemes.com). The podcast’s bumpers were provided by Oscar.