Minimal GRUB Customization Without grub-customizer

#grub #bootloader #configuration #customization #arch linux #linux #minimalism

Here’s how to manually customize GRUB for a clean, minimal look:

1. Essential Files to Edit

/etc/default/grub          # Main configuration
/etc/grub.d/00_header      # Header customization

2. Install Requirements

sudo pacman -S grub os-prober ttf-dejavu

3. Configure /etc/default/grub

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080x32
GRUB_THEME="/boot/grub/themes/minimal/theme.txt"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

4. Create Minimal Theme

# Create theme directory
sudo mkdir -p /boot/grub/themes/minimal

# Create theme.txt
sudo nano /boot/grub/themes/minimal/theme.txt
desktop-color: "#000000"
title-color: "#EEEEEE"
message-color: "#AAAAAA"
message-bg-color: "#111111"
terminal-font: "DejaVu Sans Mono"

+ boot_menu {
    left = 30%
    top = 30%
    width = 40%
    height = 40%
    item_font = "DejaVu Sans Mono 14"
    item_height = 30
    item_padding = 5
    item_color = "#111111"
    selected_item_color = "#888888"
}

5. Generate Font File

sudo grub-mkfont -s 18 -o /boot/grub/fonts/DejaVuSansMono18.pf2 \
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/DejaVuSansMono.ttf

6. Create custom menu entry

Add to 40_custom

sudo nano /etc/grub.d/40_custom
#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0

menuentry "Windows 11" {
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root YOUR_WINDOWS_UUID
    chainloader (${root})/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}

Find Partition UUIDs

# For Windows EFI partition
sudo blkid /dev/nvme1n1p1

7. Generate Final Config

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

# Verify entries
grep menuentry /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Troubleshooting: Emergency Shell Recovery

If you see “You are now being dropped into an emergency shell”, this means initramfs failed to mount your root filesystem. Follow these steps:

1. Identify Root Partition

# List available block devices
lsblk -f

# If lsblk isn't available:
# Try mounting likely candidates:
# NVMe drives: /dev/nvme0n1p2, /dev/nvme1n1p1
# SATA drives: /dev/sda2, /dev/sdb1

2. Mount Root Partition

# Mount your Linux root partition to /new_root
mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /new_root

# If you have separate boot partition:
mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /new_root/boot

3. Exit to Continue Boot

exit

4. Fix After Boot

# Verify root parameter in GRUB config
grep GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX /etc/default/grub

# Should include root parameter like:
# GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="root=/dev/nvme0n1p2"

# Regenerate GRUB config
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
← Back to Home