Grub2 Font size of Grub2 menu too small

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1

I have come back to Linux after 10+ years of absence. I used to config the old Grub which was easy. But Grub2 in Fedora leaves my head spinning.

Problem:
Grub2 Font size of Grub2 menu too small. (You need a magnifying glass to read it).

Laptop config:
Also, secure boot is enabled

OS: Fedora Linux 43 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) x86_64
Host: Laptop 16 (AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series) (A9)
Kernel: Linux 6.18.9-200.fc43.x86_64
Display (NE160QDM-NZ6): 2560x1600 @ 1.4x in 16", 165 Hz [Built-in]
DE: KDE Plasma 6.5.5
WM: KWin (Wayland)
WM Theme: Blur-Glassy-Aurorae-6
Theme: Windows (BlurGlassy) [Qt], Breeze [GTK2/3/4]
Icons: Breeze-Noir-Black-Blue [Qt], Breeze-Noir-Black-Blue [GTK2/3/4]
Font: Noto Sans (10pt) [Qt], Noto Sans (10pt) [GTK2/3/4]
Cursor: Breeze_Light (24px)
Terminal: konsole 25.12.2
Terminal Font: Noto Sans Mono (14pt)
CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (24) @ 5.16 GHz
GPU: AMD Radeon 890M Graphics [Integrated]
Memory: 6.95 GiB / 62.08 GiB (11%)
Swap: 0 B / 8.00 GiB (0%)
Disk (/): 102.25 GiB / 928.93 GiB (11%) - btrfs
Battery (FRANDBA): 68% (4 hours, 36 mins remaining) [Discharging]
Locale: en_AU.UTF-8

Here are the things I have tried to no avail:
Current Grub2 config modified:

********@fedora:~$ cat /etc/default/grub
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=“$(sed ‘s, release .*$,g’ /etc/system-release)”
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=true
GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=“gfxterm”
GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x800x32
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=“rhgb quiet”
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY=“true”
GRUB_ENABLE_BLSCFG=true

Changing the screen resolution nor increasing the font size to the above showed any change.
Any help will be greatly appreciated

2

I assume you’re rebuilding the grub menu when you’ve made changes to the grub config file.

If not, then you need to; it’s not read dynamically.

3

Yes, I did.

4

Ah well, that rules that out.

Amusingly (for me, probably not for you) my grub menu is comparatively huge on my monitor; if I were remotely interested in it, I’d be looking for ways to increase the resolution and reduce the text size.

5

These 2 lines in /etc/defaults/gbub work for me on my 4k monitor.

GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="gfxterm"
GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768

The mode I choose is a VESA standard mode, not sure about 1280x800.
Also I wonder if the tailing x32 breaks parsing.

Let us know if this help please.

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6

Also you may need video=1024x768 in your GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX= line so that you can read the boot up kernel/systemd messages.

7

Unbelievable…that fixed it :grinning_face: :+1:
I chose the 1280x800 resolution as it is a standard VESA mode. My Framework 16 Laptop uses a 16:10 ratio screen size, compared to the more standard 16:9 ratio.
Font size x32 was added later as

GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x800

had no effect.

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