Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Custom GRUB splash image in Fedora/Redhat/Centos

  • Log or Switch in to the root account
  • Get an image file to use for the new splash image (can be some wallpaper in jpg, png format)
  • Check whether ImageMagick rpm is installed
# rpm -q ImageMagick
  • If it's not installed you have to install it first
# yum -y install ImageMagick
  • Then, Assuming the image is in the root's home folder & the image name is "myboot.jpg"
# cd
# convert myboot.jpg -resize 640x480! -colors 14 -depth 8 myboot.xpm
# ls
  • Now you will be able to see a file call "myboot.xpm"
  • Then you have to gzip it.
# gzip myboot.xpm
# ls
  • Now you will be able to see a file call "myboot.xpm.gz"
  • Then you have to copy it to "/boot/grub" folder
# cp myboot.xpm.gz /boot/grub
  • Then you have to edit "grub.conf" file with your favorite text editor, I'll use "nano" text editor
# nano /etc/grub.conf

Edit the following line

splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

to

splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/myboot.xpm.gz

NOTE- DON'T EDIT ANYOTHER PARAMETER OF THE LINE, ONLY CHANGE THE IMAGE FILE NAME.

save & exit
  • Then reboot your system
# reboot
  • Then you'll be able to see the new GRUB spalsh image during the startup.