Installing and Configuring a Graphical Boot Loader - BURG

Installing and configuring BURG

As boot loaders go, GRUB is rather plain, boring and for a few people a bit confusing, what with the bland text based menu options:

GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic

GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic (recovery mode)

Windows Recovery Environment (loader) (on /dev/sda2)

Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda3)

Plus all the data (writing) at the bottom of the screen. No wonder people go “yeah, okay, thank you” and “bye”.

But all is not lost. There is a wonderful little boot loader called BURG (which stands for: Brand-new Universal loadeR from GRUB)

It is a graphical boot loader which works very well with systems with more than one operating system, say a Linux distro and MS Windows [any variant]

The first thing we have to do is install BURG:

First add the ppa:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bean123ch/burg

and then the PGP key:

$ wget http://www.sourceslist.eu/?download=public.key -O- | sudo apt-key add -
(The '-' at the end, it may be on the next line, should be included if you do a copy and paste)

Then install BURG and BURG Themes:

$ sudo apt-get update && $ sudo apt-get install burg burg-themes

You might need to install BURG into the Master Boot Record (MBR):

$ sudo burg-install”(/dev/sda)”

-or-

$ sudo burg-install”(hd0)”

This should install BURG into the MBR.

Next do:

$ sudo update-burg

to bring BURG up to date with the operating systems on your computer.

From here you can set the theme:

$ burg-emu

This will bring up a screen:

BURG Text menu

From here you can press the letter 't' (without the quotes), and choose a graphical theme. However, this may not work. You might have to approach this new problem in a different way.

The first thing we have to do is find the burg file. This file should contain the initial theme. It is located in the /etc/default directory:

$ cat /etc/default/burg

GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768

Now we just have to add the theme style, on the first line. You can choose any of the themes installed with the Themes package.  To see the list of themes look at the /boot/burg/burg.cfg file; a copy of which is below):

$ sudo vi /etc/default/burg

GRUB_THEME=chiva

GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768

Now save the file. Now if we run

$ burg-emu

we get:

Graphical BURG menu

Now we have the basics sorted out, let's look at that menu structure. It's currently showing the operating systems and the recovery sections, as well as the shutdown and restart menu items. For normal day to day running of our computer we don't need all the information on here. What we really need is a simple menu, which can be seen at a glance and is not intimidating to the casual user. For this we need to turn our attention to a very important file as far the BURG boot loader goes, it's configuration file.

Needless to say be very careful here. Please, make a backup. First let's find the relevant file. It's located in the /boot/burg directory and s called burg.cfg:

$ sudo cp /boot/burg/burg.cfg /home/user/safe_area/burg.cfg.bak

This will ensure that if anything goes wrong we do have a working copy of the file.

Now we need to edit this file:

$ sudo vi /boot/burg/burg.cfg

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/burg-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/burg.d and settings from /etc/default/burg
#
### BEGIN /etc/burg.d/00_header ###

...

if test -f ${prefix}/themes/${theme_name}/theme ; then
insmod coreui
menu_region.text
load_string '+theme_menu { -arabic_and_freedom { command="set theme_name=arabic_and_freedom" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -black_and_white { command="set theme_name=black_and_white" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -burg { command="set theme_name=burg" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -chiva { command="set theme_name=chiva" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -coffee { command="set theme_name=coffee" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -kubuntu { command="set theme_name=kubuntu" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -minimum { command="set theme_name=minimum" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -proto { command="set theme_name=proto" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -radiance { command="set theme_name=radiance" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -radiancetext { command="set theme_name=radiancetext" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -refit { command="set theme_name=refit" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -sora { command="set theme_name=sora" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -sora_clean { command="set theme_name=sora_clean" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -sora_extended { command="set theme_name=sora_extended" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -ubuntu { command="set theme_name=ubuntu" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -ubuntu2 { command="set theme_name=ubuntu2" }}'
load_string '+theme_menu { -winter { command="set theme_name=winter" }}'
load_config ${prefix}/themes/conf.d/10_hotkey
load_config ${prefix}/themes/${theme_name}/theme ${prefix}/themes/custom/theme_${theme_name}
insmod vbe
insmod png

...

echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
}
menuentry 'GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic (recovery mode)' --class linux --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os --group group_main {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set aec3a85f-5d0e-4fa5-9fd3-faab2cdc9876
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.35-22-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=aec3a85f-5d0e-4fa5-9fd3-faab2cdc9876 ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
}
### END /etc/burg.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/burg.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Windows Recovery Environment (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" --class windows --class os {
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set eac467dfc467ac8f
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda3)" --class windows --class os {
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,3)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 60408db5408d9308
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/burg.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/burg.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/burg.d/40_custom ###

As you can see it's rather a big text file. Now what we need to do is change some of the text for the found operating systems and also comment out the text we don't need:

Find line 90 or thereabouts, we want the bit of text that reads:  menuentry 'GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic' --class linux --class gnu-linux x --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os --group group_main {

It should all be on one line, but is on a number of lines here, due to the limitations of the blogger template.

 ### BEGIN /etc/burg.d/10_linux ###

 menuentry 'GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic' --class linux --class gnu-linux x --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os --group group_main {

The line beginning with menuentry we comment out with the pound sign (#):

### BEGIN /etc/burg.d/10_linux ###

# menuentry 'GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic' --class linux --class gnu-linux

Now we can add our own entry (It's the text within the ' and ' that we want to change) on the line below (just press enter at the end of the commented out line and pop this new text there):

menuentry 'Ubuntu 10.10' --class linux --class gnu-linux x --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os --group group_main {

Now we need to 'remove' the recovery options, only if we want to. You can if you wish change the text from the long form already written to a short form, such as 'Ubuntu Recovery'.

To 'remove', if this is what you want to do, all we need to do is comment out each line (Please don't delete the text, you might want to reinstate it at a later date it would be a real shame if you can't remember what is states...) :

# menuentry 'GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic (recovery mode)' --class linux --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os --group group_main {

# insmod ext2

# set root='(hd0,5)'

# search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set aec3a85f-5d0e-4fa5-9fd3-faab2cdc9876

# echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.35-22-generic ...'

# linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=aec3a85f-5d0e-4fa5-9fd3-faab2cdc9876 ro single

# echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'

# initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic

# }

Save the file.

We can do the same with the Windows Recovery entry if we want to as well. Though, again, you can just change the "Windows Recovery Environment (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" to read “Windows Recovery” if you wanted. Don't forget this section, the Windows section uses “ around the text rather than a single ' as the Linux section does.

Save the file.

Now we can change the menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda3)" --class windows --class os { bit.

Again comment out this line:

# menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda3)" --class windows --class os {

Now we will write our own (on the line below.  As before, just press enter at the end of the commented out line and pop the new text there):

menuentry “Windows Vista” --class windows –class os {

Save the file and close it. It might be an idea to save a backup of this file, just in case...

$ sudo cp /boot/burg/burg.cfg /home/user/safe_area/burg.cfg.bak

Now you're done.

Do not, I repeat do not, run update-burg You'll only have to go through all of this again...

As you can now see, the menu items have been reduced down to the two operating systems, shutdown and restart menu options.

New BURG menu

You can if you wish install the BURG-Manager. This is a graphical manager for BURG. It is fairly easy to install and use. The installation is as follows, do this in the terminal:

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install burg-manager

Then we can go to the usual menu, you will find the BURG-Manager in the System Tools menu option:

Location of BURG-Manager

And this is what we get:

The BURG Manager

From here you can configure many different aspects of the BURG loader, including the theme. I'll leave you to work on this yourself.

Just in case you are wondering why the screenshots show a MAC OSX clone desktop, it's because I did this on the wife's laptop using Ubuntu 10.10 with the macbuntu theme package; she loves Mac's.  Google macbuntu for details about downloading and installing.