How do I customize the GRUB menu?

grub2 customization

105,339

Solution 1

How to customize the grub menu:

Download/Install the grub-customizer latest version.

This PPA contains the latest release of Grub Customizer.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

Among the Grub Customizer features are:

Edit the menu entries (reorder, rename, add or remove entries)
Edit the contents of menu entries or create new ones (internally it edits the 40_custom)
Change the default boot entry
Change menu visibility and timeout
Disable recovery entries
Change GRUB resolution, menu colors or background image
GRUB repair & configuration using a Live CD
Advanced options like booting an ISO, changing kernel parameters and lots more

After installation launch 'Grub Customizer' from Dash and as you see in screenshot you will see this window(I unexpanded "Advanced options for Ubuntu")

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Then lets Start to answer the How to questions.

How to rename entries:

If you want to rename menu entries, under "List configuration" tab, first select the entry and right-click on it and select "Rename" from context menu. Then type new name and hit enter.

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Now we renamed both "Ubuntu > Lubuntu 14.04.1" and "Windows Boot Manager (on /dev/sda1) to just "Windows 8.1".

How to change order of entries:

To reordering menu entries, do like above, first select entry and right-click on it and select "Move up/Move down" from context menu to move the entry to up/down. (Also you can use Up/Down arrow from tool-bar enter image description here )

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Now after renaming and reordering the entries we will have this list.

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Now last question: How to make an entry as a default:

After changing order of the menu entries, First entry will be as default entry. In this case your Windows 8.1 will be default OS if you moved it to up and it's the first entry of the list. Or you can use "General settings" tab and select your "Windows 8.1" from default entry list box. see the screenshot:

enter image description here

That's it. After you finished changes press "Save" (the icon under main menu) to save the changes.

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Solution 2

You need to install grub-customizer and rename the windows boot entry then change its properties so it boots first (easiest way is to just move it to the top of the boot menu). To install grub-customizer run these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

And a few screenshots of using the customizer: move it to default: right click menu when all is said and done

105,339

Patrick C. James

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Patrick C. James over 1 year
This is what my GRUB 2 menu looks like so far:

I want to do a few things here:
- I want to rename "Windows Boot Manager (on /dev/sda1)" to just "Windows 8.1".
- I'd like to rename "Ubuntu" to "Lubuntu 14.04.1".
- I'd also like to switch the order of the options to this:
  - Windows 8.1
  - Lubuntu 14.04.1
  - Advanced options for Lubuntu
(Windows will be the default OS)

If it helps in any way, I'll explain the steps I took prior to this, since I am very new to Linux and don't know what information is required.
1. I bought a laptop on Amazon (ASUS X551MAV-EB01-B) pre-installed with Windows 8.1 64-bit
2. I downloaded the proper Lubuntu .iso file for my system (Lubuntu 14.04.1 amd64) and put it on my flash drive (via UNetBootin)
3. I went to Disk Management, and shrunk the C:/ drive down 32Gb so that 32Gb will be free for Lubuntu
4. I used my flash drive (32Gb Sandisk Cruzer) as a LiveUSB for Lubuntu 14.04.1
5. I went through the install process. It didn't recognize Windows 8.1 so I had to do the "Something Else" option.
6. I highlighted the free space, and pressed the + button
7. I created a 10,000mb ext4 partition and mount point is / (is now dev/sda7)
8. I created a 4,000mb swap area partition (is now dev/sda8)
9. I created an ext4 partition using the rest of the free space and the mount point is /home (is now dev/sda9)
10. I selected dev/sda7 to install Lubuntu and selected dev/sda7 for the bootloader installation
11. It installed just fine, booted up just fine, and I'm happy to know the GRUB menu works.
Patrick C. James over 9 years

Trying it now...
Parto over 9 years

I think it would be better to explain exactly - include instructions and screenshots - on how to do as he has requested instead of just telling him to install some package.
sbergeron over 9 years

Hold on, I'll need to reboot into ubuntu for that but I will. be back in 5 minutes
Patrick C. James over 9 years

@Parto Actually, I think I'm done. Just need to reboot to see how it goes. I installed it just fine, and made it look how I want.
sbergeron over 9 years

ok, also you can change stuff like resolution and theme and background and such (apparently, I never got a background to work on it though) and I hope you enjoy ubuntu so far
Parto over 9 years

@PatrickC.James You seem to know your way around Ubuntu but not everyone is like that. Some people just need every minor detail and step.
sbergeron over 9 years

and I've already got two of the screenshots, and I need to upload the third
Patrick C. James over 9 years

@Parto Yeah, understandable. After all, this page might get Googled lol, considering I put alot of detail into it.
Parto over 9 years

@sbergeron My +1 for you is waiting for the 'full' answer...
Parto over 9 years

@sbergeron Mmmh, not exactly what I was looking for but it will do. There's your +1 :-)
sbergeron over 9 years

how could I improve it?
Patrick C. James over 9 years

@sbergeron I had an issue just plain running the commands, so I opened LXTerminal, ran the first command, and figured out it required my password. Then everything else was a breeze.
sbergeron over 9 years

good! glad to hear it
rubo77 over 9 years

You need to start it as root with gksu grub-customizer
rubo77 over 9 years

I couldn't launch 'Grub Customizer' from Dash because it needs root to run. So I started it from the console with gksu, which seemed to work at first, but in the end it doesn't seem to work any more, cause it generates crash reports. I tried changing the color but no effect on my grub ;( I installed it from the PPA
Joe over 9 years

@rubo77 You might want to purge it and then reinstall it. Sometimes that will clean things up. I've been happily using Grub Customizer for years and the only problems I have ever had were a glitch in Ubuntu 12.04 which the developer helped me get past and a problem where a newer distro in another partition changed the grub file formats so grub customizer wouldn't work from within the old distro. No crashes.
Joe over 9 years

@sbergeron I had some trouble with background images and fonts in the past. It turns out that some images just don't work - I don't know why. I asked the developer about it. Also, some fonts don't have the horizontal and vertical bar characters that grub uses for the border. If you experiment a bit, you'll probably find images and fonts which work. The images and fonts all look fine in the grub-customizer preview pane, but not when grub actually runs.
rubo77 over 9 years

I just installed it and tried it only once, so what should there be cleaned up by a purge? Maybe it doesn't work on my 32-bit Ubuntu 14.04?
Krisztián Balla over 8 years

GRUB customizer is doing weird things (copying entries) and crashing all the time when I try moving entries. Any ideas?
Frank Nocke almost 8 years

Will Grub Customizer directly change the boot/grub/grub.cfg? Means: I have to stay clear of any update-grub/grub2-mkconfig command, which compiles those 10_, 20_, 30_ “source files“), or does it modify those source files (thus: there is no danger of wiping my customization by accident)?