I migrated from grub2 to syslinux. When using grub2 I manually edited grub.cfg. I removed all the useless crap from grub.cfg and never used the config for the config and all that auto-configuration features of grub2. However, I've got a dual head setup and syslinux isn't able to display the menu on my HDMI LCD monitor, if the VGA CRT monitor is connected, but turned off. Apart from this I dislike chainloading and sync of /boot when maintaining other Linux installs in a systemd-nspawn container is a PITA. IOW syslinux is far away from being perfect, OTOH syslinux.cfg is clean and self-explaining: [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ cat /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg # http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Doc/menu PROMPT 0 TIMEOUT 600 UI menu.c32 MENU HIDDEN MENU CLEAR MENU COLOR screen 0;30;40 MENU COLOR border 0;30;40 MENU COLOR title 1;37;44 MENU COLOR unsel 0;37;40 MENU COLOR hotkey 1;37;40 MENU COLOR hotsel 7;37;40 MENU COLOR sel 7;37;40 MENU COLOR disabled 1;37;40 MENU COLOR scrollbar 0;30;40 MENU COLOR tabmsg 0;30;40 MENU COLOR cmdmark 0;31;40 MENU COLOR cmdline 0;37;40 MENU COLOR timeout_msg 0;37;40 MENU COLOR timeout 1;37;40 # Used hotkeys: ^8 ^A ^C ^e ^H ^M ^P ^Q ^R ^t ^V DEFAULT Rt MENU TITLE HAL 9000 LABEL Toolbox MENU LABEL Toolbox MENU DISABLE MENU SEPARATOR LABEL Hardware MENU LABEL ^Hardware Detection COM32 hdt.c32 LABEL Memtest MENU LABEL Memtest^86+ LINUX /.boot/ubuntu_moonstudio/boot/memtest86+.bin LABEL Reset MENU LABEL R^eset COM32 reboot.c32 MENU SEPARATOR MENU SEPARATOR LABEL Arch Menu MENU LABEL Arch Linux MENU DISABLE MENU SEPARATOR LABEL Threadirqs MENU LABEL Arch Linux ^threadirqs LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux APPEND root=LABEL=archlinux ro threadirqs INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img LABEL Pussytoes MENU LABEL Arch Linux Rt ^Pussytoes LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux-rt-pussytoes APPEND root=LABEL=archlinux ro INITRD ../initramfs-linux-rt-pussytoes.img LABEL Cornflower MENU LABEL Arch Linux Rt ^Cornflower LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux-rt-cornflower APPEND root=LABEL=archlinux ro INITRD ../initramfs-linux-rt-cornflower.img LABEL Rt MENU LABEL Arch Linux ^Rt LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux-rt APPEND root=LABEL=archlinux ro INITRD ../initramfs-linux-rt.img LABEL Arch MENU LABEL ^Arch Linux LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux APPEND root=LABEL=archlinux ro INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img MENU SEPARATOR MENU SEPARATOR LABEL Other Menu MENU LABEL Other Linux MENU DISABLE MENU SEPARATOR LABEL Moonstudio MENU LABEL Ubuntu X ^Moon Studio lowlatency LINUX /.boot/ubuntu_moonstudio/boot/vmlinuz-lowlatency APPEND root=LABEL=moonstudio ro INITRD /.boot/ubuntu_moonstudio/boot/initrd.img-lowlatency LABEL Light MENU LABEL Ubuntu ^Q LightScribe Rt LINUX /.boot/ubuntu_q/boot/vmlinuz-3.6.5-rt14 APPEND root=LABEL=q ro nomodeset INITRD /.boot/ubuntu_q/boot/initrd.img-3.6.5-rt14 LABEL Suse MENU LABEL ^Vintage SUSE 11.2 Rt LINUX /.boot/suse11.2/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.6-rt19 APPEND root=LABEL=suse11.2 INITRD /.boot/suse11.2/boot/initrd-2.6.31.6-rt19