Get rid of the terminal in GRUB

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arielenter

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Joined: 08/25/2010

So, mi computer takes sometime while booting to go from the bios to Trisquel pymouth, so I thought I could use a GRUB theme to have something pretty to see while waiting. Unfortunately I soon realized that this idea had a flaw. GRUB themes seemed to only show something pretty to see during its boot menu options, once an options is chosen, most themes use a full screen "terminal", which even if 'quite' is removed from the boot entry, doesn't really show anything cool to see while the computer boots. I even first thought that the black screen I was looking, which I later find out was the terminal, was unavoidable, but soon I found that it could be change in little ways in the GRUB themes properties, but soon realized that there are a lot of limitations.

GRUB doesn't like it if you try to get rid of the terminal by making super small or trying to draw it out side of the screen, and a terminal transparency and a background image are not an options in Trisquel's GRUB, and the tiniest you can make the terminal is 80 columns and 24 rows of text. Most GRUB themes don't look to good with a big black square after choosing an entry no matter where you place it on the screen.

Thankfully I found that if I choose the tiniest font size of 1px for the terminal in the theme, I could reduce the terminal to an 80x24px in size, which doesn't take a lot from the GRUB theme at all.

I'm pretty sure most computers are so fast while booting that this little "Hack" won't be too interesting for most. But it's something cool to find out.

I found a script that randomize GRUB themes at every boot, so I think it can be a little cool even in fast computers.

I have never used GRUBS terminal for anything, maybe once or twice to change that boot parameters a little before booting, but not very often really, so loosing it is not a big deal to me. I'm surprised to find out how much afford was given to make the terminal not invincible by GRUB, I mean I understand that this terminal has its purpose but come on. Any way, I'm sure a patch or fork exist to make this easier, but I wanted to uses Trisquel's GRUB's version. Also, I'm making a script to print something interesting on the GRUB terminal while booting, and I'll be sharing very soon. Thank you for your attention.

pituforojo
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Joined: 07/17/2026

'quite' -> 'quiet' :)