Ubuntu – How to enable the GRUB splash screen in Xubuntu 12.10

bootgrub2xubuntu

I have Xubuntu 12.10 running fine on a Thinkpad T60. Grub2 is installed as the boot manager and the GRUB….LINUX_DEFAULT is set as "quiet splash". Therefore, Grub should display its splash image until plymouth takes over, as I understand it. Unfortunately, it does not. If I hold down shift to get into the boot menu, my splash image shows up, but the screen remains black. I realise it's a minor cosmetic issue, but I have found no way to fix it.

Best Answer

First of all, the GRUB splash displays behind the text of the kernel and OS selection screen that you get to by holding Shift during boot. It does not show up by default (unless you are dual booting, although I do not own a copy of windows to my name and am not sure of this) and I don't think it works as a traditional splash (like Plymouth; please someone more knowledgeable correct me here if I am wrong).

The splash in the command line determines (on Ubuntu) if plymouth is run at all. Removing it (I often do as my graphics driver does not work well with it anyway) just shuts off the blue xubuntu screen assuming it's showing at all.

To make the GRUB menu (and your picture in the background) show up you need to edit the file /etc/default/grub and change the line that says GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 to the number of seconds you want the menu to display for.

So GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=5 for five seconds. Run sudo update-grub and then reboot.

Reference: Grub 2 Basics.

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