Grub in Console Mode anyone?

Thoughts & Feedback
#1

Continuing the discussion from Grub theme is too slow:

I'm leery posting this as a step-by-step howto because grub, frankly, scares me with all the changes I've been wrestling with the last few years. I'd hate to see a new user make his system unbootable.

Things like config files scattered helter-skelter, tweaks and comments edited by distros that are flat wrong (not UM BTW), deprecated things with no replacements. It's my rage topic.

That said, the way I solve a lot of issues is get grub out of graphics mode like this (remember it's not detailed step-by-step):

edit /etc/default/grub as root
Uncomment the line so GRUB_TERMINAL=console is active
run update-grub as root

Grub will now be in a TEXT mode, like a console. You don't even have to uninstall grub themes.

Drawbacks? Comments? Anyone else doing this?

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#2

If it works for you AND you are the sole user …
G R E A T

I haven’t tried this myself, please describe what is required to boot while in grub’s text mode.

#3

Hiya @pfeiffep. It’s no different except the appearance. You won’t have any pictures or effects, just the text.

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#4

Hi Bill

Why not just edit /etc/default/grub?

grubtxt.png709×322 127 KB

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#5

I thought that’s exactly was in @Bill_MI’s OP

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#6

Hi v3xx. Isn’t that what I did? I’ve never played with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX(_DEFAULT), though.

Hehe… you show one of my pet-peeves, too. grub-pc has been incorrectly named “grub2” by the rest of the world and started at version 1.98 as I recall (rolling eyes).

EDIT: For anyone wondering, the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX(_DEFAULT) changes from @anon42388993 allows the bootup messages to show. Nostalgic! I like! :wink:

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#7

Guess I just interpret it to be different.

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#8

I just tried the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX(_DEFAULT) changes. Nice! :joy:

Anyone trying these be aware changes to /etc/default/grub do nothing until update-grub is run.

#9

Very nice - with an SSD as boot disk the slow graphical boot menu felt almost like a bottleneck… :wink:

#10

Hi @maximuscore. A few years ago I had VBox VM trying OpenSUSE and the grub chameleon graphics took 90 seconds! 90 seconds!!! Grant it VBox doesn’t have the best graphics but that was ridiculous.

#11

Stacks of info about GRUB settings here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Setup

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#12

Hi @wolfman. Very nice, indeed and appears up to date.

I’ve found over the last few years how quickly so much good info becomes stale - especially for LTS users.

EDIT: Yep, same problem that plaques many such pages:

The current version of GRUB is 1.99, which was introduced with Ubuntu 11.04, Natty Narwhal and is the version installed with 12.04, Precise Pangolin LTS. The documentation on this page applies to GRUB 1.99 unless otherwise noted.

Still very useful, just have to be aware.

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#13

I still think that

sudo apt-get remove grub2-themes-ubuntu-mate

Is the best way. It really gives you your old grub back.
I think / hope that Mate team can consider a better theme or none at all.
it is really painfully slow in the current state.

#14

I went with that cause for me accessing the GUI enhanced grub was freezing my system. Freezing as in hard reboot necessary. :/

#15

Wow thanks very much for this information. Helped me out a bunch :slight_smile: