vimix-matter-hq

vimix-matter-hq is a GRUB theme for 1920x1080px display that I created using Matter editor with Vimix background by also applying some out of Matter's scope improvements. As the layout looks cleaner and better to me than most of the publicly available themes, and I also used some options that I haven't been able to find in other repos, I decided to share my config to make your loading screen hopefully more pleasant, while also making the process of setting it up easier.

How to use?

First, check if you have Matter's dependencies installed: these are python (version 3.6 or higher), grub-mkconfig and grub-mkfont, which are standart components of Ubuntu installations, so you should have them, and also inkscape, which you may have to install (sudo apt install inkscape).

Next, clone or download+extract this repo, then enter the vimix-matter-hq directory. Get your GRUB entries list using ./matter.py and select which icons you want to have displayed next to them (find the material design icons you want here and use their IDs). Set the vmhq.sh script as executable (chmod +x vmhq.sh) and run it with root privileges (so it could write to /boot/grub) passing the icons list: sudo bash vmhq.sh <icon_1> <icon_2> ... <icon_X>.

For example, this is how to get the same loading screen as on the screenshot above, supposing that you have the same menu item order:

git clone https://github.com/ivantor0/vimix-matter-hq
cd vimix-matter-hq
./matter.py
chmod +x vmhq.sh
sudo bash vmhq.sh microsoft-windows ubuntu folder _ _ _ _ microsoft-windows cog

Following Matter's readme, I should note that updates to your system will sometimes change the GRUB menu (for example, the number of available items). For this reason you'll have to rerun sudo bash vmhq.sh from time to time, so consider not to delete the repository folder or be ready to repeat this procedure.

What's changed from Matter?

• Prebuilt image. While Matter focuses on providing the means to compose your desired image from the modules of your selection, I instead decided to share a layout that I find aesthetically pleasant and facilitate the process of cloning this specific image. This means that, in case you have a 1920x1080 display and wish to have the same image as presented above, the process is quite simple — just follow the instructions above. If, however, you wish to change some components, you should refer to the next chapter or just use Matter — that would be easier to start from in case you want to replace the majority of my assets.
• No stuttering when switching between menu items. This is achieved by adding transparent pixmaps for the corners of inactive menu items with the same dimensions as the selected item ones.
• Wider menu items. This allows to display the full names for the majority of items, while also not obstructing the background image.
• Prerendered Roboto font. While some conversion results I got were pretty glitchy and ugly, Roboto seemed quite fine (see screenshot), even if still grainy — which, in fact, cannot be changed.
• Some other stuff. I changed some font settings including size and color (to match that of Acer's logo) and used Vimix background picture (obviously).

How do I change anything?

Depending on what you want to have changed, here are some useful tips for you. Please make any change before running vmhq.sh script.

• Icons. You are, in fact, required to list them — this is covered in How to use? section above. Find the material design icons you need and list their IDs in correspondence with the menu items listed by ./matter.py.
• Background picture. Just change the background.jpg in the Matter folder (mind the extension and resolution).
• Item order (how did you get yours?). This is a little bit tricky — you have to install and run grub-customizer (follow these instructions). Booting timer is also changed via grub-customizer.
• Text color. Run python helper.py color <general_color> <selection_color>; sudo bash vmhq.sh.
• Font. Get a .ttf file and then run grub-mkconfig -v -n <font_name> -s <font_size> <font_ttf_file> -o font.pf2. Note the font name appearing in the output of previous command and pass it to helper.py as such: python helper.py font "<Your font name>"; sudo bash vmhq.sh (mind the hyphens).
• Screen resolution. Uh oh — I only tested the theme on my 1920x1080 display. My best advice would be to get the appropriate media from Vimix repo corresponding with your resolution (and possibly scale it with GIMP), recreate the transparent inactive_* pixmap PNGs with your proper resolution using GIMP, overwrite the media files in Matter folder and then probably play with font size in Matter using provided fonts/Roboto.ttf file and -fs option (e. g. ./matter.py --buildonly -ff ./fonts/Roboto.ttf -fn "Roboto Regular" -fs 24). Please keep in mind that this process might require several trial-and-error iterations and feel free to open a pull request with your results should you succeed!
• Other changes. You might consider playing around with some Matter arguments (e. g. to change icon color), tweaking theme.txt (this is the best guide I could find), replacing media in Matter folder or straightforward editing /boot/grub/grub.cfg otherwise (which is, of course, not recommended). Note that GRUB is quite a basic and low-level tool (as intended), so there might be not too many options to play with.

Note

I am not planning to actively maintain this repo – the motivation to create this fork was just to share what I came up with in my environment. While I may add some additional fixes (probably as a result of running into any problems on my machine), I do not aim to expand the project and such. I will, however, look up to any pull requests that may be proposed and merge them. Please feel free to propose fixes or extensions to this fork!