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StartUp Manager

StartUp Manager, or SUM, is a gui tool for changing settings for Grub, Grub2, Usplash and Splashy.
SUM should work with recent versions of Debian and Debian-based distributions such as Ubuntu.

The current version of StartUp Manager is 1.9.12

WARNING!
If you are unlucky, this tool could make your system unable to start. USE IT ON YOUR OWN RISK!

Note
that sum might not work correctly with recent versions of Ubuntu. See this launchpad question for more info.

Note
that Ubuntu Dapper and earlier need version 1.0.2 found at http://downloads.sourceforge.net/startup-manager/startupmanager_1.0.2-2_all.deb

2007-09-25: Hosting of Startupmanager debs and source has been moved to sourceforge.

Features:

Change
  • Grub timeout
  • Default boot title
  • Number of kernels in bootloader menu
  • Enable/disable boot option for memtest86
  • Enable/disable boot option for "rescue mode"
  • If the default boot option should be automatically updated
  • Bootup resolution and color depth
  • Grub menu colors
  • Grub menu resolution(Grub2 only)
  • If Splashy should be loaded from initramfs
Create
  • Rescue floppy
Change visibility of
  • Grub menu
  • Grub menu colors
  • Grub menu background image
  • Splash screen and boot text
Password protect
  • Grub menu from editing
  • "Alternate" boot options
  • Old boot options
Themes
  • Install/change/remove Grub backgrounds
  • Install/change/remove Usplash themes
  • Install/change/remove Splashy themes
  • Preview Splashy themes

Changelog:

2008-12-23 Version: 1.9.12
Fixed Launchpad Bug #308386 Icon Hardlinked in .desktop File
Fixed Launchpad Bug #282237 Please eliminate dependency on imagemagick
Some translations added. Thanks to the translators involved
2008-05-09 Version: 1.9.11
Fixed a bug where the window icon was not shown
Fixed Launchpad Bug #224450 startupmanager crashed with Error in copyfile()
2008-01-06 Version: 1.9.10
Applied downstream patch for Launchpad Bug #179555 : startupmanager crashed with IndexError in get_default_boot()
Fixed Launchpad Bug #175497: root on (hdx,10) is bad reported in menu.lst for splashimage
Fixed Launchpad Bug #179897: Startup manager w/ splashy crash on debian Lenny
Some translations added. Thanks to the translators involved
2007-11-04 Version: 1.9.9
Changed executable location from /usr/bin/ to /usr/sbin/
Removed debian directory, .xml2po.mo and python-build-stamp-2.5 from source package after request from Debian packagers.
No translations added this time, as I have been unable to download them from launchpad.
2007-10-22 Version: 1.9.8
Fixed a small error in the desktop entries
Added check for root
Some translations added. Thanks to the translators involved
2007-10-06 Version: 1.9.7
Fixed a bug where the selected boot entry was messed up by the "Other operating systems" separator
Some refactoring in the Grub class
Some translations added. Thanks to the translators involved
2007-10-02 Version: 1.9.6
Fixed a bug where the "restore config" button was not shown
2007-09-20 Version: 1.9.5
Support for Splashy has been added
Fixed a bug where SUM crashed if Grub was not detected
Lots of code cleanup, some minor bugs fixed
Many translations added. Thanks to the translators involved
Sum is now under the MIT license
2007-09-10 Version: 1.9.0
Support for Grub2 has been added.
The main window is not shown until initialization is done.
Gregorian and German translations have been updated. Thanks to the translators involved.
2007-08-19 Version: 1.0.10
Many translations added. Thanks to the translators involved.
2007-07-16 Version: 1.0.9
Added a dependency on yelp.
Many translations added. Thanks to the translators involved.
2007-06-27 Version: 1.0.8
Fixed a bug where an incorrect locale setting prevented the application from starting.
Translations added for French, Italian, and Simplified Chinese. Thanks to the translators involved.
2007-06-22 Version: 1.0.7
Spanish translation added, thanks to Mario and Festor
Added ability to import more image formats for Grub backgrounds. Thanks to Mario for pointing this out.
Fixed a bug where spaces in file paths was not treated correctly. Thanks to Mario.
Some code cleanup, indentation is back to spaces... Python guidelines :)
Added system to handle documentation ala yelp... The only thing missing now is the documentation itself :)
Renamed the package/modules to startupmanager, startupmanager.base, startupmanager.gtk_frontend
2007-06-03 Version: 1.0.6
German translation added, thanks to Sascha Beier
2007-05-25 Version: 1.0.5
Fixed a bug in the translation system
Put calls to update-grub, update-initramfs and floppy formatting and writing into threads
Made progress dialogs for rescue floppy creation and for update-grub and update-initramfs calls
Call /usr/sbin/grub-install instead of /sbin/grub-install if present
Changed all the indentation from spaces to tabs
2007-04-28 Version: 1.0.4
Added a warning for missing "### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST" in menu.lst
Fixed a bug where the path for grub images was wrong when having a separate boot partition
2007-04-03 Version: 1.0.3
Fixed a bug in the detection of grub vga line
Changed the packaging
2007-02-22 Version: 1.0.2
Fixed a bug in the check to see if update-grub exists
Fixed a bug in the desktop entry for KDE
Accessibility improvements(Label For, Labelled by)
2007-02-17 Version: 1.0.1
Because I cannot make up my mind, the packages have been merged again. This is because the qt4 version will probably not happen. I lack interest, there are other efforts in that direction, I do not like duplication of work and I managed to lose a portion of the code I had written :(.
An option for controlling the creation of "Rescue mode" boot options has been added.
Other minor fixes has been made, and SUM has been tested and appears to work on everything from Kubuntu Breezy(Universe repos needs to be enabled for dependencies) to Ubuntu Feisty.
Because packaging is obviously harder than programming, it is required to uninstall every old version(SUM, sum, startupmanager-base, startupmanager-gtk) before installing this.
2007-01-14 Version: 1.0.0
Split the package. Added options for more grub settings, added function to create a "rescue floppy".
Made StartUp-Manager more robust(you will notice it the time sum takes to start :P ): Now it works even if the menu.lst is completely missing. It is also able to function on systems where usplash is not installed.
2006-12-29 Version: 0.9.9
Earlier, sum wrote a textfile to know what usplash theme was active. Now, it instead checks symlinks.
Also, sum used to simply link the themes directly. Now it uses update-alternatives instead.
If you have installed any usplash theme using an earlier version of sum, please uninstall and reinstall them with sum. Otherwise you will not be able to switch to those themes.
2006-12-28 Version: 0.9.8
This is another major rework of the code. I have changed it around to create a base module that can be used from both the gtk and the future qt version. Some of the code is a bit messy right now, but it works.
Another change is the GUI. I have changed it a fair bit and am quite proud of the result :)
Also added a check to warn the user if menu.lst lacks the "### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST" line.
2006-12-17 Version: 0.9.7
Fixed a bug where a missing color line in menu.lst would make SUM crash.
2006-12-03 Version: 0.9.6
SUM now writes the grub password in encrypted form instead of in cleartext, so now it does actually provide some security.
Working directory is changed to /tmp
SUM is now able to handle missing lines correctly
SUM can now filter out needed info from a line better.
For example, earlier a line like this: timeout=0 would cause SUM to crash because it tried to read in "=0" as a number.
Now SUM ignores the "=" and overwrites it with double tabs if the value is changed in the gui.
Fixed a bug where SUM would crash if /etc/usplash.conf was missing.
2006-11-29 Version: 0.9.5
Added option for removing timeout.
Added option for password protecting the recovery mode.
Some gui cleanup.
Fixed a bug in the new "blink" options.
2006-11-28 Version: 0.9.4
Made SUM able to understand the "blink-" color option.
Fixed a bug where:
If no usplash theme had been chosen, sum could not disable usplash.
2006-11-24 Version: 0.9.3
New, better looking icon(a shameless reverse-engineering of the ubuntu system/settings one, since I lack artistic skills)
Fixed dependencies
Internationalized sum and added localization for swedish language
Removed package SUM.tar.gz:
I believe that the rewrite of SUM is now at least as stable as the old version. The uninstall script has been extracted and added to the "pre-install" section below.
2006-11-22 Version: 0.9.2
Fixed a bug where:
If the "defoptions" line lacked "vga=" caused menu.lst corruption. Before installing and using this updated version, please check so your "defoptions" line is not corrupted.
Example:
Here is a corrupted "defoptions" line:
# defoptions=quiet splash locale=sv_SEvga=775ptions=quiet splash locale=sv_SE
To fix it, just remove the last part so it looks like this:
# defoptions=quiet splash locale=sv_SE
Fixed a bug where:
If, in menu.lst, the option "default" had value "saved" instead of a number, sum would bomb out.
2006-11-20 Version: 0.9.1
This is a major rewrite of the code, but with very few visible changes in the gui.
The reason for the rewrite are, among others:
A bit better design, easier to make changes in the future.
More sane variable names.
Do not edit the menu.lst file in memory and write it at shutdown, instead edit it in place directly on user event. This is (hopefully) less prone to bugs when adding lines and at simultaneous editing by other tools. Otherwise SUM would just overwrite the file at exit, regardless of if it has been changed while sum was running.
Make more controls, instead of making assumptions of how it "should" be.
Some known bugs have been fixed, but there may also be new ones caused by the rewrite. Therefore, the old package is also still provided. Another reason for providing the old package also, is so the uninstall script can be accessed. Before installing the new package it is recommended to run the uninstall script from the old package, if the old version has been installed previously.
Changes:
Major code rewrite.
Packaged as .deb for easy installation/uninstallation.
Removal of the "revert" button, because it is not really (in my opinion) needed, plus it is illogical to be able to revert some things, but not all.
Added option to remove usplash screen completely from boot.
Added icon.
Changed locations of files to more "linux-standard" ones