Why don't changes to source code take effect?

Question

linux

I edited the grub2 source files grub-core/menu.c and grub-core/menu-entry.c (namely, changed the control with the up and down buttons). Then, I compiled everything with the standard:

./configure
make

After which I made an .efi file using grub-mkimage:

grub-mkimage -O i386-efi -o grubia32.efi -p "" --config=init.cfg part_gpt part_msdos ntfs ntfscomp hfsplus fat ext2 normal chain boot configfile linux multiboot ls cat echo configfile search search_fs_file search_fs_uuid search_label usb

Then I copied it to my other computer, booted from the resulting grub, and nothing has changed. I tried to generally comment out the part where the menu navigation is written using the up and down keys, that is, in theory, after that, the horn should stop responding to pressing them on the keyboard, but everything worked anyway.
It is very possible that I made a stupid mistake somewhere or missed something, but I have been trying to achieve at least some changes for 3 hours now.
Many thanks in advance for your help!

Answer 1

So it seems that GRUB does not sew up all of itself into an efi file, i.e. you need to put the converted GRUB binary on the second computer.