Configure CentOS 6 to be Verbose at Boot

Configure CentOS 6 to output more verbosely to the screen at boot.

GRUB

Have GRUB display the menu interface. GRUB will still automatically boot the default entry, unless interrupted.
Modify the GRUB configuration file /boot/grub/grub.conf. Comment out the line that contains “hiddenmenu”.

#hiddenmenu

Linux Kernel

Modify the GRUB configuration file /boot/grub/grub.conf. Remove the kernel parameters “quite” and “rhgb” from each kernel entry.
“quiet” causes the kernel to not print out messages while the kernel loads.
“rhgb” enables the Red Hat graphical boot after the kernel loads. You may see this as a logo being displayed to the screen and a progress bar.
Before:

#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title CentOS (2.6.32-431.3.1.el6.x86_64)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-431.3.1.el6.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/system-root rd_NO_LUKS LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_LVM_LV=system/root rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 crashkernel=auto rd_LVM_LV=system/swap  KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rhgb quiet
        initrd /initramfs-2.6.32-431.3.1.el6.x86_64.img
title CentOS (2.6.32-431.1.2.0.1.el6.x86_64)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-431.1.2.0.1.el6.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/system-root rd_NO_LUKS LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_LVM_LV=system/root rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 crashkernel=auto rd_LVM_LV=system/swap  KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rhgb quiet
        initrd /initramfs-2.6.32-431.1.2.0.1.el6.x86_64.img
title CentOS (2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/system-root rd_NO_LUKS LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_LVM_LV=system/root rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 crashkernel=auto rd_LVM_LV=system/swap  KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rhgb quiet
        initrd /initramfs-2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64.img

After:

#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title CentOS (2.6.32-431.3.1.el6.x86_64)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-431.3.1.el6.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/system-root rd_NO_LUKS LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_LVM_LV=system/root rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 crashkernel=auto rd_LVM_LV=system/swap  KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM
        initrd /initramfs-2.6.32-431.3.1.el6.x86_64.img
title CentOS (2.6.32-431.1.2.0.1.el6.x86_64)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-431.1.2.0.1.el6.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/system-root rd_NO_LUKS LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_LVM_LV=system/root rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 crashkernel=auto rd_LVM_LV=system/swap  KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM
        initrd /initramfs-2.6.32-431.1.2.0.1.el6.x86_64.img
title CentOS (2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/system-root rd_NO_LUKS LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_LVM_LV=system/root rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 crashkernel=auto rd_LVM_LV=system/swap  KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM
        initrd /initramfs-2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64.img

This is all you need to do. Unlike Ubuntu, you do not need to run a script such as update-grub. Future kernel package updates will not add the “rhgb” and “quiet” kernel parameters back.

My System Configuration

  • CentOS 6.5 x86 64-bit

References

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