Graphical Grub Text Color Change

[promike]

Hi
One day I've changed my SuSE 10.3 (graphic) grub picture, and the default white menu list color it isn't visible, because the background color mostly white. Can I change somehow the white text color to black?

[Jonathan183]

Hi
One day I've changed my SuSE 10.3 (graphic) grub picture, and the default white menu list color it isn't visible, because the background color mostly white. Can I change somehow the white text color to black?

You can alter the colour in Yast ... edit the menu files - see the grub manual for an details of colour. You can also edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst directly ... but you need root access rights for editing it.

[promike]

So, first I try to set the text color in the Yast, but I can't found it.
Yast -> System -> Boot Loader ---> ??Boot loader installation??->??Boot loader options??
I don't know where can I change the text color with Yast.

Later I try edit the menu.lst, but I don't understand exactly.
I did :
I pasted this text in the menu.lst: color magenta/blue black/magenta (under the "title" line)
But it goes without saying it doesn't work.

[Jonathan183]

Can you post the output of

su
cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

[promike]

Sure, here it is:

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on p ápr 18 09:03:31 CEST 2008
default 0
timeout 3
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.17-0.1
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.17-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST380815AS_5RW0ET6C-part2 vga=0x317 resume=/dev/sdb5 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.17-0.1-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.17-0.1
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.17-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST380815AS_5RW0ET6C-part2 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.17-0.1-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader (hd0,0)+1

[peteh]

As far as I recall, to change the grub background you have to extract the files from /boot/message, which is a cpio archive. If you did this to change the background just open the other pictures and edit the colours of the text.
If you didn't do this then I'm at a loss as to how you changed the background picture.

[Jonathan183]

Later I try edit the menu.lst, but I don't understand exactly.
I did :
I pasted this text in the menu.lst: color magenta/blue black/magenta (under the "title" line)
But it goes without saying it doesn't work.

You need to put the code towards the top of the menu.lst file if you put it under a title it has no effect until you select that menu item ... which is too late for what you want.

My Linux Mint menu uses ...

# Pretty colours
color cyan/blue white/blue

The menu.lst file you posted did not have colours defined ... did you edit the file with root access rights?

Ed: Just tried this myself adding the following to my grub menu.lst in Linux Mint ... not the results I expected ... text with graphics background is white, when a change colour option is selected the graphics are removed and the text only menu is displayed in the selected colour.

# Change the colors.
  title colour combination 1
  color magenta/blue black/magenta
# Change the colors.
  title colour combination 2
  color dark-gray/cyan black/magenta
# Change the colors.
  title back to original colours
  color cyan/blue white/blue

[peteh]

Like I said earlier, all pictures opensuse uses in boot are stored in /boot/message. The only way to make the changes you want is to play around with the 'message' file.
Open a terminal window and do

man cpio

then try it with /boot/message to extract the files. They're all in there.