Bdtyktl

When I boot in GRUB2 and press c, I have access to GRUB shell.

How to change the keyboard layout (language) of this GRUB shell?

Note that I'm booting an Ubuntu VM inside Virtualbox.

First, check that you're using GRUB 2 (GRUB 0.x works differently).

grub-install --version

Generate a GRUB keyboard layout file. Below is the command for a french keyboard. For other languages, check /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/. Filename choice is not important (you can change bepo).

sudo grub-kbdcomp -o /boot/grub/bepo.gkb fr

Edit /etc/default/grub with root rights to have:

#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0

GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT="at_keyboard"

Edit /etc/grub.d/40_custom with root rights to have:

#!/bin/sh

exec tail -n +3 $0



insmod keylayouts

keymap /boot/grub/bepo.gkb

Finally:

sudo update-grub

Note: Forget immediately about using the Shift key to display GRUB menu! It may be normal that terminal_input at_keyboard make this key not work anymore. So make sure #GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 is properly commented.

Fine-tuning my grub (2.02-2ubuntu8.3), on an old fully functional Asus N73JF (multiboot Windows 7, Windows recovery, Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 18.04...) a custom menu was not an option for me.

sudo grub-kbdcomp -o /boot/grub/layouts/laptop.gkb fr

(Ubuntu's grub2 uses /boot/grub/layouts from 15.10).

Next, I don't open /etc/default/grub nor /etc/grub.d/40_custom: I edit /etc/grub.d/00_header where I replace

    cat << EOF

  set gfxmode=${GRUB_GFXMODE}

  load_video

  insmod gfxterm

EOF

with

    cat << EOF

  set gfxmode=${GRUB_GFXMODE}

  load_video

  insmod gfxterm

  insmod terminal

  terminal_output gfxterm

  insmod keylayouts

  insmod at_keyboard

  terminal_input at_keyboard

  keymap laptop

EOF

Thanks to KrisWebDev for his question-answer: I learn a lot looking inside /boot/grub/i386-pc/.