How to display blank lines in the Grub4dos menu.lst display?

[oldaolgeezer]

How to Display blank lines in the Grub4dos menu.lst display

Is it possible to have blank lines to separate groups of choices
in the grub4dos display screen for easy reading?

I tried several google searches for how to do this but most merely mentioned
blank lines in the text of menu.lst or disliked what Windows Notepad did
to menu.lst with carriage returns, etc.

Finally, even though it looks strange, I found a way that worked as shown
on this web site:

https://www.technibble.com/forums/threa ... enu.16809/

Here is my example of a file menu.lst with this technique
(note the spelling of "kernal"):

# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.9.1
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black
#splashimage=/splash.xpm
timeout 10
default 0

# Frugal installed Puppy

title Puppy slacko 5.7a (sda2/slacko57a)
uuid XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
kernel /slacko57a/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=slacko57a pfix=fsck
initrd /slacko57a/initrd.gz

#this is for a blank line
title
kernal
initrd

title Puppy slacko 5.7 (sda2/slacko57)
uuid XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
kernel /slacko57/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=slacko57 pfix=fsck
initrd /slacko57/initrd.gz

#this is for a blank line
title
kernal
initrd

title Lupu 528 (sda2/lupu_5.2.
uuid XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
kernel /lupu_5.2.8/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=lupu_5.2.8 pfix=fsck
initrd /lupu_5.2.8/initrd.gz

#this is for a blank line
title
kernal
initrd

title Puppy precise 5.5 (sda2/precise_5.5)
uuid XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
kernel /precise_5.5/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=precise_5.5 pfix=fsck
initrd /precise_5.5/initrd.gz

#this is for a blank line
title
kernal
initrd

# Windows XP SP2
# this entry searches Windows on the 2nd partition HDD and boots it up
title Windows XP SP2\nBoot up Windows if installed
root (hd0,1)
errorcheck off
root (hd0,1)
chainloader /ntldr

# Advanced Menu
title Advanced menu
configfile /menu-advanced.lst
commandline



But is there a better way to do this ?

Any help or other suggestions are appreciated.

[ally]

it's just a text file so you can add blanks line or text symbols

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

for example

[oldaolgeezer]

ally:

I have attempted to attach a photo of a grub4dos video screen
which has the "strange" extra lines add to menu.lst

#this is for a blank line
title
kernal
initrd

as suggested by the previously mentioned web site.

I feel that it makes the grub4dos video screen easier to
understand, especially when many operating system
names can be chosen from within a group.

[oldaolgeezer]

How to Display blank lines in the Grub4dos menu.lst display

perhaps another better way to do this ....

Thanks to bigpup for suggesting this (a more than you'd
ever want to know about grub4dos ! ) website:

http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/grub ... lor-values

That webpage says (almost half way down the page under the
topic "More about menu entries and numbering"):

If you want your menu to have a gap in the menu entries
to group the items, you can use the following two lines:

title
root

to create a blank line in the menu.

I have tried this and it also works.

[oldaolgeezer]

I have begun to add the "blank line" commands to the menu.lst files
on several computers I have around the house and I was please
with the improved readability of the grub4dos display until I tried
the change on one more PC.

When I rebooted that PC, I expected grub4dos to boot the
usual default version of Puppy Linux, but when I turned
around, I saw a different wallpaper than what I was expecting !

I found that menu.lst on my other PC's all had a "default 0"
command, where as the final test PC had a "default 4" command
in its menu.lst file as seen below:

# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.9
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black
splashimage=/splash.xpm
timeout 10
default 4

# Frugal installed Puppy

title Lupu 528 (sda1/puppy528)
uuid 0410B40710B3FDAC
kernel /puppy528/vmlinuz psubdir=puppy528 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /puppy528/initrd.gz

title
root

title Puppy luki 23 (sda1/saluki)
uuid 0410B40710B3FDAC
kernel /saluki/vmlinuz psubdir=saluki pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /saluki/initrd.gz

title
root

title Obprecise 14.07.26 (sda1/chrome)
uuid 0410B40710B3FDAC
kernel /chrome/vmlinuz psubdir=chrome pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /chrome/initrd.gz

title
root

title Puppy tahr 6.0 (sda1/puppytar60)
uuid 0410B40710B3FDAC
kernel /puppytar60/vmlinuz psubdir=puppytar60 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /puppytar60/initrd.gz

title
root

title Puppy slacko 5.7 (sda1/slacko57)
uuid 0410B40710B3FDAC
kernel /slacko57/vmlinuz psubdir=slacko57 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /slacko57/initrd.gz

title Puppy slacko 5.7 Safe Mode(sda1/slacko57)
uuid 0410B40710B3FDAC
kernel /slacko57/vmlinuz psubdir=slacko57 pmedia=atahd pfix=ram
initrd /slacko57/initrd.gz

title
root

title Puppy slacko 6.3.0 (sda1/slacko630)
uuid 0410B40710B3FDAC
kernel /slacko630/vmlinuz psubdir=slacko630 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /slacko630/initrd.gz

title
root

# Windows
# this entry searches Windows on the HDD and boot it up
title Windows XP SP2\nBoot up Windows if installed
.......
.......

I found that I had to change the "default 4" to be "default 8".

It seems that the grub4dos "default" command counts title
lines starting at zero.

[Sailor Enceladus]

I did this before too, I think I just used this for a blank line

title
boot

You can actually select the blank space I think, but meh.... works.

[bigpup]

I found that I had to change the "default 4" to be "default 8".

It seems that the grub4dos "default" command counts title
lines starting at zero.

default
tells what entry to auto start if you do not select one.

default 0
This says to auto start the first entry.

default 4
This says to auto start the fifth entry.

default 8 probably falls back to auto starting the first entry, because you only have seven entries.

[amigo]

The new empty sections count just like the real ones vis-a-vis the default.

[rufwoof]

necro-bumping a old thread (just because I happened across it) ... you can also include a range of commands in your menu.lst, such as ...

clear
cat /a-file.txt
echo hello && pause
echo -n hello && pause
pause --wait=5 Pausing, just because I can

Any such commands before title ... entries are shown before the 'menu', any placed after title ... are shown after a title entry has been selected.

You can even set a password and/or restrict the menu so that you can't edit things (only select one of the options) ..etc.

You can also chain ... to load consecutive menus.

Code: Select all

timeout 5
default 0

title go to menu1 submenu
find --set-root /menu1.lst
configfile /menu1.lst

title
root

title
root

title Re-show this menu
find --set-root /menu.lst
configfile /menu.lst