Changes to grub2 not respected after updates

cc2006305 · February 6, 2025, 1:26am

Hello,

OpenMandriva Lx 25.01 ROME
Desktop environment Plasma X11:
_**Description of the issue: I’ve installed grub2 editor from the repository so I can tweak the bootloader’s appearance but I can’t seem to find it in the settings or the any of the menus. I’ve figured out how to install themes manually however that gets reset after some updates so I’d like to do it the right way. I’ve tried Grub Customizer but it doesn’t work. I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling both packages and installing them alone with no luck. My install is on a brand new Dell Inspiron with a Ryzen 7 8000 series processor and 32 gb ram. I have screenshots showing what search pulls up on my install but the board isn’t letting be post screenshots.

WilsonPhillips · February 6, 2025, 1:30am

Welcome! We are happy to see you here.

I upped your trust level. You should be able to post an image now.

cc2006305 · February 6, 2025, 1:35am

Thanks

WilsonPhillips · February 6, 2025, 1:46am

I don’t know why, but I cannot open the photos to see them without a magnifying glass.

I see from the package info that grub2-editor was built for kde frameworks 5. I am guessing they have not updated this to run with Plasma 6. It is an unofficial port, so it is not part of KDE.

┌──[wilson@heisenberg] Wed Feb 05, 07:41:17 [~] 
└──[ <$> sudo dnf info grub2-editor
Last metadata expiration check: 1 day, 13:58:56 ago on Tue 04 Feb 2025 05:42:31 AM CST.
Available Packages
Name         : grub2-editor
Version      : 0.8.1
Release      : 9
Architecture : znver1
Size         : 213 k
Source       : grub2-editor-0.8.1-9.src.rpm
Repository   : rolling-znver1
Summary      : Grub2 editor
URL          : https://github.com/maz-1/grub2-editor
License      : GPLv2
Description  : A KDE Control Module for configuring the GRUB2 bootloader.
             : Unofficial KF5 port.

I used grub-customizer on mine, but I only changed the wait time. I didn’t go any deeper into it than that.

EDIT: now it lets me open the photos.

WilsonPhillips · February 6, 2025, 1:54am

I tried installing grub2-editor and it did not show up in the modules of Plasma’s Settings.

WilsonPhillips · February 6, 2025, 2:06am

Even a restart of Plasma doesn’t make it show up.

For me, grub-customizer seems to work fine. You said it doesn’t work, but what exactly was the issue with it? It may be the only way to do this, for now.

cc2006305 · February 6, 2025, 2:19am

It changes the configuration, but it seems like grub refuses to pull the theming from the config file, instead reading it from the grub.Openmandriva file which gets reset after updates. That’s the file I edited manually.

WilsonPhillips · February 6, 2025, 2:22am

I am not exactly sure how the devs do that. Let’s wait and see what one of the experts say on this.

LeeTalbert · February 6, 2025, 2:40am

I really suggest avoiding grub-customizer. It can quickly ruin your grub configs. Writing your own theme into your config file is pretty easy. Read up on grub config files then look into what changes you want to make in your /boot/grub2/grub.cfg file.

Also, after changing your grub.cfg you need to sudo update-grub2 && sudo grub2-install

cc2006305 · February 6, 2025, 2:51am

Thats basically what I’ve been doing. Problem is it’s not persistent across updates. The original grub.Openmandriva gets restored and it goes back to the original theme.

LeeTalbert · February 6, 2025, 2:51am

grub2-mkconfig then do the update and install

cc2006305 · February 6, 2025, 2:54pm

Ok, tried that, this is what I got:

ben79 · February 6, 2025, 3:36pm

Is this what you are looking for?

grub2-editor is Plasma5 only package.

ben79 · February 6, 2025, 3:37pm

Welcome @cc2006305 to OpenMandriva and our forum. This forum is for users of OpenMandriva Linux operating systems.

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cc2006305 · February 6, 2025, 7:47pm

Ok, so where do I ask how to keep OM from wiping my customizations after major updates? I have done internet searches and searches of the the forum and nothing comes up: my theme automatically gets wiped and replaced with the original one because grub.openmandriva gets reset.

ben79 · February 6, 2025, 8:14pm

In a bug report. It does seem like that should not be happening.

ben79 · February 6, 2025, 8:29pm

Also my earlier post may be incorrect for this problem. I think that may be setting plymouth boot splash. Which may mean there is no GUI utility to change the grub2 theme.

What should change this is changing /boot/grub2/themes/OpenMandriva/background.png to what you want. Then running update-grub2. Should being the operative word.

ben79 · February 7, 2025, 1:01am

I did some testing of this. First as I understand it the issue is to change and keep changes to the grub2 menu theme. Next I hope this explanation of the problem makes sense.

Edit: I put this information here for possible use in a bug report for this problem. I am not filing a bug report on this as I do not do this myself.

Grub2 menu background is set in the file /boot/grub2/themes/OpenMandriva/background.png whatever is in that file will be used by update-grub2 or grub2 mkconfig. What is over writing that seems to be when ever there is a new distro-release-theme package. In ROME this package gets changed to a new version every month which would change the /boot/grub2/themes/OpenMandriva/background.png to the default image in distro-release-theme.

I do believe this qualifies as a legitimate bug. Not a blocker but a bug.

The workaround is simply use what ever background you want to use:

$ sudo cp -av /path_to/some_background.png /boot/grub2/themes/OpenMandriva/background.png ; sudo update-grub2

For example on a test machine I used:

$ sudo cp -av /home/ben79/Shared/pretty-photo.png /boot/grub2/themes/OpenMandriva/background.png ; sudo update-grub2

Edit: Copy and save whatever command works for you and save it for use when these packages update.

Note: In ROME all distro-release* packages get updated monthly not just distro-release-theme until now this has not presented any problem I am aware of. In Rock these packages are usually only updated for a new point release Rock version.

ben79 · February 7, 2025, 1:22am

I believe we should change the topic to “Changes to grub2 menu background not respected” or similar. Same topic would work for a bug report.

I have not found any version of grub2-editor for Plasma6. This looks like a not recently well supported project. Unless there is there is no reason for a bug report against grub2-editor.

LeeTalbert · February 7, 2025, 1:33am

Is there any issue with removing the distro grub theme package?