30 votes

TIL that you can have a "chiptunes" like music play when GRUB (bootloader) loads

Posted by riz

I had to use the Arch Linux live boot usb today and I was pleasantly surprised to hear a short beepy music play when it got booted. It felt quite welcoming!

In my particular case, it served quite useful too as my laptop currently does not have an internal display, and nothing shows up on the external HDMI monitor until after the OS boots up, so it was quite reassuring as well.

I have now configured my GRUB to play a small sound as well (since I have multiple bootloaders installed).

How To

  1. You need to edit the config file /etc/default/grub.
  2. If you simply un-comment the line starting with GRUB_INIT_TUNE, it will enable the default tune which is a single and very short "beep" sound.
  3. Or, you can edit that line to have it how you want. Some suggestions: https://jdnash.com/api-makers/grub_init_tune-necropolis/
  4. Then update the grub config (requires root): grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

And you're done.

Relevant Arch Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB/Tips_and_tricks#Play_a_tune

14 comments

  1. [11]
    sajoarn
    (edited )
    Link
    I gave this a shot and I'm sad to say it didn't work for me. If it plays through a special motherboard speaker rather than standard audio out speakers, then I'm probably out of luck. This is on a...

    I gave this a shot and I'm sad to say it didn't work for me. If it plays through a special motherboard speaker rather than standard audio out speakers, then I'm probably out of luck. This is on a crappy Asus ultrabook running Ubuntu which I doubt has the boot-beep speaker like most desktops have.

    Of course it's also possible I'm just doing something wrong. Half of my problems of the PEBCAK sort.

    3 votes
    1. [9]
      knocklessmonster
      Link Parent
      You would need a pc speaker, which is basically just a piezo buzzer connected to a specific motherboard slot.

      You would need a pc speaker, which is basically just a piezo buzzer connected to a specific motherboard slot.

      6 votes
      1. [8]
        Akir
        Link Parent
        Oh man, I completely forgot that there are computers being made without these anymore. Now I feel sad and old.

        Oh man, I completely forgot that there are computers being made without these anymore. Now I feel sad and old.

        11 votes
        1. [2]
          ButteredToast
          Link Parent
          If I recall correctly the past two or three motherboards I've bought didn't include them, but that might've been because they're models with status LEDs and/or segment displays. The header is...

          If I recall correctly the past two or three motherboards I've bought didn't include them, but that might've been because they're models with status LEDs and/or segment displays. The header is still there though, so it should be possible to buy one to plug in.

          1 vote
          1. Akir
            Link Parent
            I know that at least the last two that I bought didn't have them either, but I'm not sure if both of them had a header for one. But I doubt that many laptops still have them.

            I know that at least the last two that I bought didn't have them either, but I'm not sure if both of them had a header for one.

            But I doubt that many laptops still have them.

        2. [6]
          Comment removed by site admin
          Link Parent
          1. Akir
            Link Parent
            Ha! It's much more likely that they just didn't want to sacrifice limited board space for it. They got tiny over time, but they're still speakers; they can only get so small before you can't hear...

            Ha!

            It's much more likely that they just didn't want to sacrifice limited board space for it. They got tiny over time, but they're still speakers; they can only get so small before you can't hear them anymore.

            4 votes
          2. [4]
            Gummy
            Link Parent
            How often do normal people's pcs crash? I use windows on my gaming pc just because gaming on Linux is more of a pain than it's worth most of the time. I can't even remember the last time I saw it...

            How often do normal people's pcs crash? I use windows on my gaming pc just because gaming on Linux is more of a pain than it's worth most of the time. I can't even remember the last time I saw it crash. I know general users probably don't do much maintenance, but what is everyone doing to make windows crash so often?

            Maybe I'm taking a joke about windows too seriously. It just seems unfair to call out windows for crashing still when windows 10 seems as unlikely to crash as any other OS unless I'm doing something like overclocking thats expected to eventually crash. Windows 8 was nothing but bluescreens though.

            I also completely shutdown my windows machine every night so I suppose it could just be long uptimes windows struggles with.

            1 vote
            1. [3]
              sLLiK
              Link Parent
              It does generally happen less for contemporary versions of Windows on contemporary hardware, though the ratio of those crashes compared to my experiences with my Linux gaming rig are still notably...

              It does generally happen less for contemporary versions of Windows on contemporary hardware, though the ratio of those crashes compared to my experiences with my Linux gaming rig are still notably different.

              1. [2]
                Gummy
                Link Parent
                I guess my question is just, what are you doing when you have windows crash? Because I can't recall a single time I've had this windows machine blue screen and it wasn't directly my bad OC...

                I guess my question is just, what are you doing when you have windows crash? Because I can't recall a single time I've had this windows machine blue screen and it wasn't directly my bad OC judgement. Windows 10 has been a pinnacle of system stability for me, though I do mostly just use it as a steam machine and to work on a few .Net projects. Not like I really ever see Linux crash either though unless it's a nvidia driver going crazy again.

                1. sLLiK
                  Link Parent
                  For me, it's almost always been a game that's gone south so badly that Windows can't gracefully recover and pukes blue instead. The other scenario is usually file corruption through fragmentation....

                  For me, it's almost always been a game that's gone south so badly that Windows can't gracefully recover and pukes blue instead. The other scenario is usually file corruption through fragmentation. The corruption creeps around with minimal impact until it eventually eats a driver or critical OS DLL, then kaboom.

                  I almost never have those problems on Linux. The occasional game might crap itself, but when it does, it never takes the OS with it. I just get to a shell, one way or another, kill the running game, and drive on. If it's so bad that X is locked up, Alt-F6 saves the day. Kill the game, switch back to my X session, relaunch game. :)

    2. riz
      Link Parent
      Sorry I'm not being able to offer help on your situation, but in my case it plays through the AUX out speakers without any additional tweaks. If I even unplug the speakers, it plays through the...

      Sorry I'm not being able to offer help on your situation, but in my case it plays through the AUX out speakers without any additional tweaks. If I even unplug the speakers, it plays through the built-in laptop speakers. :/

      2 votes
  2. [3]
    takeda
    Link
    Amiga was able to do it almost 30 years ago with SysPic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYGKp9MNh0I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRfDGYsJPJg I wish there were better videos though. I loved...

    Amiga was able to do it almost 30 years ago with SysPic:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYGKp9MNh0I
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRfDGYsJPJg

    I wish there were better videos though.

    I loved that computer it was so easy to tinker and personalize it.

    3 votes
    1. riz
      Link Parent
      Excellently nice! Reminds me of Steam Deck's boot screens. These in the video are all Valve made, but you can definitely have custom ones too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EPSfhkT6qk

      Excellently nice!

      Reminds me of Steam Deck's boot screens.

      These in the video are all Valve made, but you can definitely have custom ones too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EPSfhkT6qk

      1 vote
    2. sLLiK
      Link Parent
      Amigas were the bomb. I still regularly listen to Amiga tunes from old games, intro screens, and demos.

      Amigas were the bomb. I still regularly listen to Amiga tunes from old games, intro screens, and demos.

      1 vote