To give your GRUB a little extra flair, instead of the boring blue, white, black default, you can add a grub splash image to /boot/grub/menu.lst

# general configuration:
timeout   5
default   0
splashimage /boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

I like to use this GRUB theme which Franlin Piat developed. Once downloaded coppy into the directory specified in /boot/brub/menu.lst (change splash.xpm.gz to the file you wish to use)

You can also install a collection GRUB images

sudo apt-get install grub-splashimages

I also like to have a high resolution frame buffer. Generaly, I add vga=791 to the end of the kernel line in /boot/grub/menu.lst for 1024×768; However, codehunk suggests vga=865 for 1280×800 widescreen resolution.

To have a nice boot-splash image install and configure splashy:

sudo-apt-get install splashy splashy-themes

The splashy themes are stored in /etc/splashy/themes, and the theme can be change by editing /etc/splashy/config.xml within the <current_theme> tag (I like debian3).  edit /boot/grub/menu.list and add “splash quiet” at the end of the kernel line. Once this is done run:

sudo update-initramfs -u -t -k `uname -r`

To help simplify this processes you can install a program to manage both Splashy and GRUB images

sudo apt-get install startup manager

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