My GRUB boot menu looks different from Manjaro's default boot menu

Here is what it looks like on my Xfce Manjaro system, for the sake of comparison:

Relevant entries from the default GRUB config:
/etc/default/grub

GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Manjaro"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet udev.log_priority=3"

# Uncomment to use basic console
GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT=console

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal
#GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
GRUB_GFXMODE=auto

# Uncomment to allow the kernel use the same resolution used by grub
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep

# Uncomment and set to the desired menu colors.  Used by normal and wallpaper 
# modes only.  Entries specified as foreground/background.
GRUB_COLOR_NORMAL="light-gray/black"
GRUB_COLOR_HIGHLIGHT="green/black"

# Uncomment one of them for the gfx desired, a image background or a gfxtheme
#GRUB_BACKGROUND="/usr/share/grub/background.png"
#GRUB_THEME="/usr/share/grub/themes/manjaro/theme.txt"
GRUB_THEME="/boot/themes/manjaro/theme.txt"

ls -1 /boot/

amd-ucode.img
efi
grub
initramfs-5.10-x86_64-fallback.img
initramfs-5.10-x86_64.img
intel-ucode.img
linux510-x86_64.kver
memtest86+
themes
vmlinuz-5.10-x86_64

ls -1 /boot/themes/

manjaro
starfield

ls -1 /boot/themes/manjaro/

background.png
bunch of fonts
theme.txt

I don’t know how to restore the Manjaro theme but until then you can try this if you want something good for your grub.
https://github.com/vinceliuice/grub2-themes.git

As previous posts have alluded to, it may be your display / hardware. What model Lenovo is it? By chance you can try @Aragorn’s workaround to manually specificy your display parameters, such as 1920x1080x32 (depending on your native resolution).

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You can also use
GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080,auto (this is in my grub)

The theme file you want is in /usr/share/grub/themes/

Hello.

Yeah I already tried this. 1920x1080x24

My computer is a lenovo thinkpad w541

I tinkered around a bit, comparing the snippets of the /etc/default/grub files here posted with mine. Here is what I found:

The theme-less grub menu appears after I uncomment this line:

GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console 

Here is something even weirder. If I comment out that line, as in:

#GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console

Then there wouldn’t even be a menu! Instead, it’s just the Lenovo splash screen, and that’s it. There wasn’t a boot menu.

Here is the strange part. Even though there wasn’t a boot menu, GRUB was still working in the background. I’m on a dual boot, so when I saw the Lenovo splash screen, I pressed “Down” then “Enter.” The system booted straight into windows 10, my second OS. If I press “Enter” without pressing the down key, I booted straight into Manjaro. It works as if the menu was there, just that it’s been overlaid by the splash screen.

What about when the GRUB menu displays, press C on your keyboard to drop down to a console.

Then run the command,

videoinfo


Other than checking what VBE modes are supported by your display (which based on the Lenovo specs appears to be 1920x1080x32), maybe review the following files and folder contents in case something was missed (even a small detail or mispelling)?

  • /etc/default/grub
  • /boot/themes/
  • /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

The videoinfo command output the following:

List of supported video modes:
Legend: mask/position=red/green/blue/reserved

That was it. Nothing else.

Reviewed the files. Nothing seemed out of ordinary.

Is there a way to bring this to the manjaro developers’ attention?

But what do you want to bring to Manjaro’s team attention? You need to find the issue before reporting it.

That’s odd. Even my old 10" netbook from 2012 yields a list of 4 different VBE modes.

Have you tried installing grub-theme-manjaro and then do update-grub?
sudo pacman -S grub-theme-manjaro
When I f-ed up my partition and lost my grub theme, this fixed it for me.

Could it be bios-related?

Even in the usb installation media, it seemed strange. I mentioned just now about the lack of boot menu?

The user guide specifically mention that I’d see a menu asking you to choose “open source drivers” etc. I didn’t see that at all. It’s just a bunch of text loading, then I boot straight into the desktop.

The installation ISO should have the themed GRUB boot menu, yes. Seems like a very specific issue with your hardware but I can’t think of what it could be.

I’m starting to reach the point of not caring. The system runs fine other than that boot menu. At least for now.

You must NOT give up! No way! Don’t give up this fight! You CANNOT! :muscle: If you give up now… then it means THEY win. :rage: Never!!! We can’t let them win!

Wait.

Who’s “they”?

What I am talking about?

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Sounds like you need a cup of coffee. Well, join the club. Lol. I’ve been up thinking of a solution pretty much all night.

Who knew being a linux noob can be so tiring.

I’m convinced now that it’s hardware-related. Even during the live-usb booting, I knew something wasn’t right. Just had no idea what it was.

I agree with this assessment.

If we put on our detective hats, there’s enough evidence that this is hardware/BIOS related:

:male_detective:

  • The issue arises during the menu (or lack thereof) from a live USB
  • No matter what type of combination of locating files and editing configs, there still remains a lack of a theme
  • System appears to be in order: packages are installed, config files are formatted correctly, no LUKS encryption is used on the system partition, yet the issue remains
  • Running videoinfo from the GRUB prompt does not yield a list of supported VBE modes, hence another indicator this is a hardware/BIOS issue
  • For comparison, my old 2012 netbook with a 10-inch screen, using LUKS encryption on the system partition, displays the theme’d menu properly (reading from /boot/themes/), and running videoinfo from the GRUB prompt yields a list of four different supported VBE modes.

Luckily, this only affects the GRUB menu upon booting up, and shouldn’t bear any problems once Manjaro is running. :relieved:


UPDATE: You could try flashing your BIOS to the latest firmware, but it’s extra work and stress (and potential risk) for the sake of hopefully getting a theme’d GRUB menu, which isn’t even guaranteed with the latest BIOS update for your laptop.