Free menu.lst software for linux

GRUB Splash Images package contains a collection of splashimages which can be used for GRUB.

If youd like your splashimage in this package send them to mcgrof@ruslug.rutgers.edu.

Quick tips for the impatient:

convert -resize 640x480 -colors 14 image.png image.xpm && gzip image.xpm

Quick tip for debian users: Use "unstable" packages in your /etc/apt/sources.list in order to get the latest GRUB with splashimage support

Quick tip to install GRUB (only Debian users do the apt-get line):

# using the unstable tree
apt-get install grub
grub-install /dev/hda
# Go edit/make a menu.lst file and put it in /boot/grub/menu.lst
grub
# then on the grub prompt run:

# The partition that has the boot partition
root (hd0,0)
install /grub/stage1 (hd0) /grub/stage2 p /grub/menu.lst
quit

PHLAK is a modular live security Linux distribution. PHLAK comes with two light guis (fluxbox and XFCE4), many security tools, and a spiral notebook full of security documentation. PHLAK is a derivative of Morphix, created by Alex de Landgraaf.
PHLAK is distributed freely. Some of the software included with PHLAK may not be GPL/GNU but can be distributed freely.
The developers of PHLAK express no warranty of any kind. Creators of PHLAK are not responsible or liable for an damages, criminal activity, misuse, or misrepresentations of PHLAK. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Enhancements:
- removed XPDE and XFCE4
- removed security documentation
- removed all under /usr/share/doc/
- removed other unnecessary packages
- added iDesk to fluxbox
- updated fluxbox menus
- upgraded all applicable packages
- added usb modules to linuxrc script in miniroot.gz and new path for usb booting
- updated grub menu.lst, options.lst, and lang.lst files
- updated grub message
- updated bootsplash
- removed debian orphan packages
- purged all removed package data
- cleaned up minimod
- removed unnecessary files from base module
- modified usb pen drive install script for PHLAK compatibility
- modified PHLAK Security Panel tools and Control Panel tools

GSchange project is a Grub Splash Screen Changer.

This application will change your grub (boot loader) spash screen every time you run it: If you add it to your startup apps it will change your grub splash screen every time you boot. It does not requires root privileges!

Before using this app you must add manually this line to /boot/grub/menu.lst:

splashimage

(hd0,1)/home/smart7/Desktop/GSchange/GSchangesplash.xpm.gz

where /home/smart7/Desktop/GSchange/ is the directory where is GSchange.class

Usage:

java GSchange /home/smart7/SPLASHS/

where /home/smart7/SPLASHS/ is the directory where are the splash screens (only *.xpm.gz files)

Bootchart is a software for performance analysis and visualization of the GNU/Linux boot process. Resource utilization and process information are collected during the boot process and can later be displayed in a PNG, SVG or EPS-encoded chart.

The boot process is modified to start the boot logger (/sbin/bootchartd) instead of /sbin/init. The boot logger will run in background and collect information from the proc file system (/proc/[PID]/stat, /proc/stat and /proc/diskstats).

The statistics are logged to a virtual memory file system (tmpfs). Once the boot process completes (denoted by the existence of specific processes), the log files are packaged to /var/log/bootchart.tgz.

The log package can later be processed using a Java application which builds the process tree and renders a performance chart. The chart may then be analyzed to examine process dependency and overall resource utilization. A renderer web form is also available on the project web site.

The chart can then be analyzed to examine process dependency and overall resource utilization.

Runing:

1. Install bootchartd and the bootchart renderer. See INSTALL for details.

2. Modify your boot loader (GRUB/LILO) if necessary. Alternatively, change the kernel command line interactively upon reboot.
Reboot.

3. Verify that /var/log/bootchart.tgz was created and contains the log files.

4. Render the chart by running:

$ java -jar bootchart.jar

Alternatively (if no Java Development Kit is installed to build the JAR package), the web renderer may be used.

To use the web renderer from a script, run:
curl --form format=svg --form log=@/var/log/bootchart.tgz
http://bootchart.klika.si:8080/bootchart/render > bootchart.svgz

(optionally replacing the svg/bootchart.svgz pair with png/bootchart.png or eps/bootchart.eps.gz)

5. View the generated image and analyze the chart.
SVG images may be viewed using any of the following programs:
- rsvg-view (librsvg; GNOME)
- svgdisplay (ksvg; KDE)
- Gimp (using the gimp-svg plugin)
- Inkscape
- Squiggle (Batik; http://xml.apache.org/batik/)

To get help for additional options, run:

$ java -jar bootchart -h

How it works:

Logger Startup

The boot logger (/sbin/bootchartd) is run by the kernel instead of /sbin/init. This can be achieved by modifying the GRUB or LILO kernel command line, e.g.:

/boot/grub/menu.lst
[...]
title Fedora Core (2.6.10) - bootchart
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.10 ro root=/dev/hda1 init=/sbin/bootchartd
initrd /initrd-2.6.10.img

The installation script and RPM package will try to add the boot loader entry automatically.

The boot logger will start itself in the background and immediately run the default init process, /sbin/init. The boot process will then continue as usual.

Data Collection

Since the root partition is mounted read-only during boot, the logger needs to store data in memory, using a virtual memory file system (tmpfs).

As soon as the /proc file system is mounted — usually early in the sysinit script — the logger will start collecting output from various files:
/proc/stat system-wide CPU statistics: user, system, IO and idle times
/proc/diskstats system-wide disk statistics: disk utilization and throughput
(only available in 2.6 kernels)
/proc/[PID]/stat information about the running processes: start time, parent PID, process state, CPU usage, etc.

The contents of these files are periodically appended to corresponding log files, every 0.2 seconds by default.

The logger will try to detect the end of the boot process by looking for specific processes. For example, when in runlevel 5 (multi-user graphical mode), it will look for gdmgreeter, kdm_greet, etc. As soon as one of these processes is found running, the logger will stop collecting data, package the log files and store them to /var/log/bootchart.tgz.

Optional Process Accounting

In most cases, the output from /proc/[PID]/stat files suffices to recreate the process tree. It is possible however, that a short-lived process will not get picked up by the logger. If that process also forks new processes, the logger will lack dependency information for these "orphaned" processes — meaning that they might get incorrectly grouped by the chart renderer.

When truly accurate dependency information is required, process accounting may be utilized. If configured, the kernel will keep a log file with detailed information about processes. BSD process accounting v3 includes information about the process PID and parent PID (PPID) — effectively enabling an accurate reconstruction of the process tree.

To enable process accounting, the kernel needs to be configured to include CONFIG_BSD_PROCESS_ACCT_V3, under:

[ ] General setup
[ ] BSD Process Accounting
[ ] BSD Process Accounting version 3 file format

The GNU accounting utilities (package psacct or acct) also need to be installed. The boot logger will use the accton command to enable process accounting; it will include the accounting log in the tarball.

Visualization

The log tarball is later passed to the Java application for parsing and rendering the data. The CPU and disk statistics are used to render stacked area and line charts. The process information is used to create a Gantt chart showing process dependency, states and CPU usage.

A typical boot sequence consists of several hundred processes. Since it is difficult to visualize such amount of data in a comprehensible way, tree pruning is utilized. Idle background processes and short-lived processes are removed. Similar processes running in parallel are also merged together.

Finally, the performance and dependency charts are renderer as a single image in either PNG, SVG or EPS format.

Splashy for Edgy project paints graphic images directly to framebuffers using libdirectfb.

Splashy is a boot splash program that doesnt require patching the Linux kernel. Splashy project paints graphic images directly to framebuffers using libdirectfb.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
VGA settings
-----------------------------------------------------------------
640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024
256 colors 768 771 773 775
32K colors 784 787 790 793
64K colors 785 788 791 794
16M colors 786 789 792 795
-----------------------------------------------------------------

For 1024x768 at 16bit (64K colors or "thousands of colors") you could pass an argument to the kernel like:

vga=791

These values could be used in base16 also (hexadecimal) like:

vga=0x317

To pass arguments to the kernel, you would need to edit your boot-loader:

1. Grub /boot/grub/menu.lst
hint, in debian, look for "#kopt" and append vga=0x317 to that line. Then run update-grub. Other distros edit the kernel root= line appropriately
2. Lilo /etc/lilo.conf
hint, look for the default image= and edit append= by appending vga=0x317 to it
3. Quik /etc/quik.conf
on PPC machines. Append vga=0x317 to the kernel argument line