Linux Desktop

Even experienced Linux users might question why this chapter exists. Talk to any longtime Linux aficionado, and he'll boast that one of the biggest advantages Linux has over that "other" popular x86 desktop operating system is that you almost nev...

Knowing how to configure your bootloader is almost requisite for using a Linux system. You also need to understand the bootloader if you want to configure your system to boot more than one operating system. Within the exciting bootloader world ...

The MBR is a 512-byte segment at the very beginning (the first sector) of a hard drive. This segment contains two major parts: the boot code in the first 446 bytes and the partition table (plus a 2-byte signature) in the remaining 66 bytes. Whe...

Of all the fantastic things you can do with your Linux box, one of the most nerve-wracking activities is changing or upgrading a kernel. This not only involves the archaic process of compiling the kernel itself [Hack #88], but it also requires ...

Most people use either the time-honored LInux LOader (LILO), or the GRand Unified Bootloader (GRUB). This hack shows you how to download a LILO splash screen and configure it to appear with LILO when you boot your machine. This hack assumes your...

You can easily start from scratch and create any kind of LILO boot splash background. Just make sure you consider the following: The image resolution must be 640x480.The image must be a bitmap.The image must comprise 255 colors or less, and it mu...

By default, the GRUB bootloader looks rather bland. It's a menu in a box with some instructions below the menu. It is possible, however, to customize GRUB to display a graphical background. This hack blends nicely with other custom screen hacks ...

The default GRUB bootloader screen is rather bland, but you can spice it up a little by creating your own custom graphical background screen for the bootloader. GRUB imposes a number of limitations on the image size and number of colors. It also ...

Here's how to add a graphical boot splash to your Debian distribution, the only popular Linux distribution that lacks a built-in boot splash. Windows and Mac OS X have a graphical boot process, as do all the most popular versions of Linux, includi...

Ever since kernel 2.2, this popular feature has graced many a Linux boot sequence. To the untrained eye, it simply looks like a penguin, but to the trained technical eye, it is a cunning use of the Linux frame buffer. A frame buffer is an abstr...