How do I enable the GRUB splash screen in Xubuntu 12.10?

I'm running XUbuntu 12.04 LTS. I went to /etc/default/grub and checked there was some time for grub start-up menu to be seen (GRUB_TIMEOUT set to more than 0).

With

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

I edited the grub settings and added

GRUB_BACKGROUND=starfleet.jpg

at the end of the file, saving the file afterwards. Then, I copied the file starfleet.jpg to /boot/grub and entered:

sudo update-grub

Among other messages, grub-mkconfig reported it found the new background file. After rebooting the system, I had the Startfleet Command logo behind the grub start-up menu.

Of course, it just appears for the time you allow the menu to be on-screen, with the countdown ticking, before grub starts the default option.

It takes way shorter to do it than to describe it. I hope this helps!

An easy way to change grub's background: -if you have any image in /boot/grub/, remove them with

sudo rm image123.jpg

-put your new picture there, copy-and-paste -refresh grub with

sudo update-grub

-Done! Reboot and see.

First of all, the GRUB splash displays behind the text of the kernel and OS selection screen that you get to by holding Shift during boot. It does not show up by default (unless you are dual booting, although I do not own a copy of windows to my name and am not sure of this) and I don't think it works as a traditional splash (like Plymouth; please someone more knowledgeable correct me here if I am wrong).

The splash in the command line determines (on Ubuntu) if plymouth is run at all. Removing it (I often do as my graphics driver does not work well with it anyway) just shuts off the blue xubuntu screen assuming it's showing at all.

To make the GRUB menu (and your picture in the background) show up you need to edit the file /etc/default/grub and change the line that says GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 to the number of seconds you want the menu to display for.

So GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=5 for five seconds. Run sudo update-grub and then reboot.

Reference: Grub 2 Basics.