Changing grub2 FONT size and grub2 menu spacings in openSUSE ?

I was curious if anyone has documented a preferred method for changing the Grub2 menu font (and associated spacings) ? And also, if there are any preferred FONTS or can the current font (what ever it may be) be used and reduced in size ?

I ask this as I note:

  • the FONTS in two of my 3 openSUSE-13.2 installs are very (uncomfortably) large (in one case the boot options fit only on two grub2 pages), and
  • an old mailing list thread here which suggests (a) not every font is suitable to be used in Grub2, and (2) the font chosen needs to be able to display certain characters, be unicode, etc. and (3) at the time of the post in 2012 the best one working was the one that also Fedora was using (unicode.pf2).

I note a proposal here how to adjust the font (and presumeably font size) in Grub2. But I am also not clear how relevant that is to openSUSE, as I note in YaST2 > Boot Loader > Kernel Parameters for “Console theme” reference to /boot/grub2/themes/openSUSE/theme.txt which specifies fonts, spacing … etc …

Rather than dable and tinker (which takes time) I prefer to follow a verified and validated method for tuning the Grub2 menu Font presentation.

Hence I am curious - have any of our users gone done this path of improving the grub2 menu presentation (fonts) for openSUSE-13.2, and if so, which method/guide did you choose/follow ?

On some netbooks I noticed this phenomenon. AFAIK the cause is that GRUB2 cannot properly detect the VGA mode. On most it was fixed by setting the VGA mode in Yast’s Bootloader module - Kernelparameters.But, htat’s not what you’re looking for. I guess.

Thanks for the reply.

Well - what you note it might be the root cause and that the solution.

Currently I have 'auto detect by grub2" as the setting for ‘console resolution’. The drop down list has a number of resolutions I could select, but I was reluctant to randomly chose a resolution (without more support/reference-guide) as for me that is akin to tinkering/dabbling, which I prefer not to do - if I can find a source/reference/person who has paved the way before (me). :slight_smile: I guess I’m getting too ‘old’ and I don’t venture far from my comfort zone.

I infer from your post that it should be relatively safe to select any of the resolutions in the YaST bootloader module ‘console resolution’ selection ?

Yes, it should be safe.
Those are standard VESA resolutions mostly, that every graphics card should support.

In the worst case (no boot menu shown), just blindly press Enter or wait for the timeout until your system boots and change it back then.

Lee, I just checked in my test install. From Yast’s Bootloader manager I can set VGA mode + console resolutions to 800 x 600 x 16 and the diference is clear. Autodetect brings 1024x768.
Come to think of it, I’d welcome a feature where one could adjust font-size in the bootloader module. I’ve already installed kcm_grub2 from deltafox’s repo, see if that’s giving more control.

Thanks.

That method works well. In the YaST Bootloader I applied a console resolution of 1024x68 on my two PCs with the grub2 font size presentation problem and the grub2 display is now significantly superior with that resolution. I’m not sure what resolution was in place before (auto detected), but it was either 640x480 (or lower).

With that simple menu selection change (of console resolution) clearly there is no need here (for a simple font size change) to dabble with custom grub2 settings.

I’m glad now I asked (on the forum) for guidance, as opposed to venturing off in an unknown (wrong) direction on my own. :slight_smile:

Your pointer is much appreciated.