Hello
I have a strange problem with grub.My grub boot image randomly changes sometimes into default opensuse and sometimes into penguin moving around.Is is a funny program?
It’s normal at this time of year - usually it’s a snow scene and penguin
What would not be normal is to see penguins walking around outside your home’s windows. But then if the cold snap continues, it may become feasible to release penguins in northern Europe. 
On 2010-12-04 09:36, Aatish910 wrote:
>
> Hello
> I have a strange problem with grub.My grub boot image randomly changes
> sometimes into default opensuse and sometimes into penguin moving
> around.Is is a funny program?
A known and old joke of the developers. Absolutely no problem.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
A technical answer would be appreciated.
Technically it’s the developers having fun.
What more can we say.
It’s a Xmas gift of the GRUB developpers. If you unpack /boot/grub/message using cpio, you’ll find a configfile inside, that allows configuration of the penguin Xmas feature. More should be found in the GRUB sources.
On 12/04/2010 09:36 AM, Knurpht wrote:
>
> It’s a Xmas gift of the GRUB developpers. If you unpack
> /boot/grub/message using cpio, you’ll find a configfile inside, that
> allows configuration of the penguin Xmas feature. More should be found
> in the GRUB sources.
Think of it as a Christmas Egg that does not require any special code other than
having the date set to near December 25.
The GRUB installed by openSUSE has code that will randomly select a fun theme around this time of the year. The probability of this happening can even be controlled. Search for some posts in the forum about changing the boot splash theme.
Alas, some of us hardly ever reboot and don’t see it. 
On 2010-12-04 23:36, ken yap wrote:
> Alas, some of us hardly ever reboot and don’t see it.
Which is why I changed the settings to have it always on.
When I have people around I pause boot for a bit
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
Alas almost always the only reason I have to reboot these days is a kernel update*. However I’ll be doing some version upgrading and hardware fiddling over the holidays. I don’t know if I should invite friends over to watch. It’s already a strain on them to have a geeky friend. Except when they have a computer problem. lol!
- There’s an old anecdote, apparently years ago somebody complained that Linux killed floppy drives. Eventually it turned out the problem was Linux required rebooting so rarely that the floppy drive didn’t get exercised by the seek-in seek-out done by the BIOS at cold start, so accumulated dust which eventually killed it.
On 2010-12-05 01:36, ken yap wrote:
>
> Alas almost always the only reason I have to reboot these days is a
> kernel update*.
That, and factory testing season
> However I’ll be doing some version upgrading and
> hardware fiddling over the holidays. I don’t know if I should invite
> friends over to watch. It’s already a strain on them to have a geeky
> friend. Except when they have a computer problem. lol!
Sounds familiar
> * There’s an old anecdote, apparently years ago somebody complained
> that Linux killed floppy drives. Eventually it turned out the problem
> was Linux required rebooting so rarely that the floppy drive didn’t get
> exercised by the seek-in seek-out done by the BIOS at cold start, so
> accumulated dust which eventually killed it.
Wow! X’-)
There is a point in that. I think I’ll put a cron job to exercise my drive
once a week at least
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
ken yap wrote:
> It’s already a strain on them to have a geeky
> friend. Except when they have a computer problem. lol!
one of the reasons i don’t have a win partition is about 12 or so
years ago i was getting calls from friends all the time to please come
by and help a little…
rather than “i charge xx per hour” (to a friend) it is a lot easier to
say: i don’t use Windows and know almost nothing about it, so you need
to find a different friend for that help…
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
Funny grub can be customized from this example:
I just replaced the winter scene with this, penguins still work too
http://linux.alltechdevelopment.ca/planetary.jpg
Steps I took:
- open super terminal
- cd /boot
- mkdir message1
- cd message1
- cpio -i < …/message
- exit
- open /boot/message1/pback.jpg in gimp
- Used a background image 800 x 600 (same size as pback.jpg )
- Used gimp to design visual objects to align with those in pback.jpg
- saved out as flat image (no layers) as pback.jpg
- exit gimp
- open terminal again
- cd /boot/message1
- ls >> filelist
- cpio -o < filelist > …/message
- exit & reboot
Don’t know how to change the penguins positions but upon reboot
my new grub display comes up with the menu and penguins moving intact.
hope this is of interest.
I was intending to make a script so people could modify the splash at will but never got to it. Possibilities are endless.
+1
Same for me … except that I don’t have friends anymore.
Fortunately most of the friends who are likely to ask know about my preferences, and those that do have Windows problems usually have relatively simple problems. I’ve even encouraged some of them to use FLOSS, e.g. Firefox, Thunderbird, OO, web apps, etc. I don’t mind learning a bit about the sorts of issues that pop up in Windows, if only to tell myself how lucky I am that I don’t use Windows. Also I don’t charge money, but I charge meals.
please try again wrote:
> Same for me … except that I don’t have friends anymore.
heh! maybe you and i ought to start a new social network for all our
friendless online acquaintances… (foa.com ?)
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
On 2010-12-05 13:36, ken yap wrote:
> Fortunately most of the friends who are likely to ask know about my
> preferences, and those that do have Windows problems usually have
> relatively simple problems. I’ve even encouraged some of them to use
> FLOSS, e.g. Firefox, Thunderbird, OO, web apps, etc. I don’t mind
> learning a bit about the sorts of issues that pop up in Windows, if only
> to tell myself how lucky I am that I don’t use Windows. Also I don’t
> charge money, but I charge meals.
Likewise.
If the issue is too complex, I say the truth, that I no longer know too
much about windows. In fact, I do ask one of them (who also uses a bit of
linux) about my issues with windows (now and then I have to use some
proprietary software).
I try to educate them on opensource alternatives, but I don’t push them to
switch to Linux - or I’d become their unpaid 24*7 help line
No, seriously, I don’t push people to switch, unless they are convinced on
their own. Linux is hard for beginners, hardware tends to not work, they
don’t have a local network of helpers-friends, and they become isolated.
The “frikis”
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
This is really cute I have only noticed it today when I had to reboot.
oh cute. I nearly had a heart attack though, thought it was some kinda cutesy hack - still being way too ignorant regarding proper security. Heh. They should do one with dinosaurs for Darwin Day.