Boot Menu

This is the main boot menu theme and layouts. It is quite complex so we will go through steps by steps.

General Properties

For the first elements, we will set the general properties first. This allows us to carefully calculate the overall layouts and dimensions. These can be easily defined:

left
top

For width and height, you should carefully measure your design and will be discussed internally inside the correct sub-topic. Keep in mind that scroll bar is available for very long boot menu.

item_color, item_font, selected_item_color, selected_item_font

These are the item, and its highlighted properties for the menu. Based on the image above, dummy entry 4 is the highlighted one. You can configure each of them to appear differently.

item_color, selected_item_color - accept color values.

item_font, selected_item_font - alters item text fonts. Usually for consistency, these 2 remains unset.

selected_item_pixmap_style, item_pixmap_style

Decoration drawn outside the item, selected or otherwise. They both accepts filename with space-box allocations. Example:

selected_item_pixmap_style = "button_*.png"

menu_pixmap_style

Similar to item_pixmap_style. Only difference is that this affects the menu instead.

height, item_height, item_spacing, item_padding

For vertical height and spacing, they are measured in a way shown in the following diagram:

All 4 of them accepts integer values:

item_padding = 20
item_spacing = 20
item_height = 30
height = 289

icon-width, icon-height, item_icon_space

Each item has an accompanying icon image. By default, they are:

icon_width = 32

icon_height = 32

item_icon_space = 4

The width arrangement is illustrated as follows:

The text is always indented, be it displaying icon or otherwise. To remove the indention, set:

icon_width = 0
item_icon_space = desired spacing from left border

On the right, it is always shorten by 2 pixels (hence, item_padding + 2)

Stored Locations

All icons has a specific filename, stored under /boot/grub/themes/<your_theme>/icons.

Associating Icons

Via class name. The class name must have the exact match to the filename. Example: myfile ➔ myfile.png. There are some predefined classes, arranged in priority:

windows > os
gnu-linux > gnu > os
osx > darwin > os
hurd > gnu > os

Filetype

All icon files should be in PNG format, with file extension: .png.

scrollbar_slice, scrollbar_frame, scrollbar_thumb, scrollbar_width, scrollbar_left_pad, scrollbar_right_pad, scrollbar_bottom_pad, scrollbar

These are for creating a scrollbar next to a long menu.

Roles

scrollbar - instructs GRUB to render the scrollbar when scrollbar_frame and scrollbar_thumb are available.
scrollbar_frame - image pattern for the entire scrollbar.
scrollbar_thumb - image pattern for the moving part of the scrollbar.
scrollbar_width - width of the scrollbar.
scrollbar_slice - direction for positioning the scrollbar.
scrollbar_left_pad - left scrollbar padding in pixels. Unused if “scrollbar_slice“ is “west“.
scrollbar_right_pad - right scrollbar padding in pixels. Unused if “scrollbar_slice“ is “east“.
scrollbar_top_pad - top scrollbar padding in pixels.
scrollbar_bottom_pad - bottom scrollbar padding in pixels.

Accepted Values

scrollbar - accept "True" or "False". Default is "True".
scrollbar_frame - accepts all direction image file string, e.g: scrollbar_*.png
scrollbar_thumb - accepts all direction image file string, e.g: scrollbar_*.png
scrollbar_width - numbers. e.g. 10
scrollbar_slice - "west", "center", "east" (default). "west"
scrollbar_left_pad - numbers. e.g. 10
scrollbar_right_pad - numbers. e.g. 10
scrollbar_top_pad - numbers. e.g. 10
scrollbar_bottom_pad - numbers. e.g. 10

Some Guidelines

Avoid using other slices except North, South, and Center for scrollbar_thumb.
You can use all 9 slices for scrollbar_frame.
You can add spacing to scrollbar by drawing transparent pixels to the image.
Scrollbar is drawn towards the right of the center slice. It is only drawn when needed.
The minimum width is always 2 pixels.
You need to set both scrollbar_frame and scrollbar_thumb. Otherwise, you won't see any scrollbar.
You can draw different width for scrollbar_frame and scrollbar_thumb .
scrollbar_width is referring to the central part of scrollbar_frame.
item_padding does not affect scrollbar.

Example

Basic

+ boot_menu {

       left = 50%-300

       top = 50%-100

       width = 600

       height = 289

       selected_item_color = "#0000FF"

       selected_item_pixmap_style = "button_*.png"

       menu_pixmap_style = "menu_*.png"

       item_padding = 20

       item_height = 30

       item_spacing = 20

       scrollbar_thumb = "scrollbar_thumb_*.png"

       scrollbar_frame = "scrollbar_frame_*.png"

       scrollbar_width = 10

That's all about scrollbar.

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