Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

Hombremaledicto · 2014-03-12 21:57:45

Hi all!
I installed arch on this notebook:

Lenovo Essential g500S, i5-3230M CPU @ 2.60GHz, nVidia geForce GT 720M 1GB

I'm using gummibot as bootloader, it runs fine, but it's somehow relegated to the upper-left edge of the screen. In brief, the resolution is not correct(current res it's 1366x768 if KDE systemsettings is not wrong). I've searched on the wiki and also on google, with no results. So, do you know any way to fix this?

Also, adding the quiet paramenter to the kernel boot line seems not working anymore. Plymouth doesn't work either (don't know whether it's supported or not by gummiboot though). Suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Last edited by Hombremaledicto (2014-03-12 22:03:14)

Padfoot · 2014-03-13 05:49:08

Gummiboot is a very basic boot manager. There is no way to control the boot resolution with it. EFI systems vary with the ability to boot at native resolutions or not, but from the sounds of it, yours can thus relegating the small menu to the top left corner.

I would suggest trying REFind - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/REFInd
REFind is much more configurable and allows you to adjust the boot resolution. You can even theme it to match your plymouth theme.

Regarding plymouth, you need to provide some more information. Are you using the plymouth, plymouth-git or plymouth-release package? You mentioned having an nvidia card, so are you using the nouveau driver with early kms or nvidia blob? These will all affect your experience with plymouth.

Both the plymouth and plymouth-git packages are using the git code repo, which is currently broken. The plymouth-release package is using the most recent stable version and is working correctly.

If you are using nouveau, ensure you have early kms enabled as per the wiki - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Plymouth and everything should work without issue. If you are using nvidia, your system should be using an EFIfb on boot, which should also work fine with plymouth, resulting in a short "flicker" when X is launched and starts the nvidia driver to replace the EFIfb.

Cheers.

ijanos · 2014-03-13 12:40:49

Is it like this? http://i.imgur.com/yReSrd7.jpg

If yes then the firmware set the wrong resolution. A bios upgrade solved this on my HP laptop.

Hombremaledicto · 2014-03-13 18:46:15

@Padfoot: i could also move to REFInd (somehow i always forget about this boot manager) . Question: after uninstalling gummiboot, and moving REFInd configs to my boot partition as explained in the wiki page, should i remove the configs created by gummiboot too?

I was using the plymouth package, but today i dropped it in favor of plymouth-git
Actually i'm using the integrated intel graphics, the nVidia is disabled by bbswitch, so i added intel:

MODULES="i915"

And the plymouth hook:

HOOKS="base udev plymouth autodetect modconf block filesystems keyboard fsck"

To my mkinitcpio.conf.
And the relative parameters at the kernel line in /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf:

title    Arch Linux
linux    /vmlinuz-linux
initrd   /initramfs-linux.img
options  root=/dev/sda8 rw quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=legacy

@ijanos: Yes, exactly the same! In fact i remember that i had this problem also on my Asus. So i'll look for this solution, before to try with REFInd

Padfoot · 2014-03-14 05:13:27

No need to remove the gummiboot configs, as if you go back to it after trying refind, you will still have your configs and not have to set it up again.

By the looks of the screenshot, the computer is setting native resolution on boot, it's just that the gummiboot menu is not taking advantage of that. That's why I suggested REFind, as it will make use of the full resolution.

Regarding plymouth, I recommend using plymouth-release, as git is currently broken.

Cheers.

WonderWoofy · 2014-03-14 05:18:28

@padfoot, you should really ask TaylorChu to orphan the plymouth package so that you can maintain it. It seems as though you have more interest in the stable release than he does.

ijanos · 2014-03-14 09:03:39

Padfoot wrote:

By the looks of the screenshot, the computer is setting native resolution on boot, it's just that the gummiboot menu is not taking advantage of that. That's why I suggested REFind, as it will make use of the full resolution.

Not exactly. Gummiboot uses textual console mode and refind uses the graphical mode. It is a console mode bug in the firmware and not a gummiboot bug.

http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/s … 15055.html

Padfoot · 2014-03-14 09:44:24

WonderWoofy wrote:

@padfoot, you should really ask TaylorChu to orphan the plymouth package so that you can maintain it. It seems as though you have more interest in the stable release than he does.

Already done. About one week left for a response before I can ask the TU's to orphan the package. In the meantime, I have uploaded plymouth-release to the AUR for those wanting stable.

ijanos wrote:

Gummiboot uses textual console mode and refind uses the graphical mode. It is a console mode bug in the firmware and not a gummiboot bug.

Ah, ok. Not having used gummiboot myself, I was only assuming based on the provided visual and the wiki page........that will teach me for assuming and not investigating gummiboot more thoroughly.
Personally I prefer the graphical mode of REFind, as I now have the same theme and background from REFind, through plymouth to the DM (lightdm-gtk2-greeter-devel) and into my desktop, and all at native resolution.

Cheers.

Hombremaledicto · 2014-03-14 21:25:52

@Padfoot: maybe i've got what causes troubles with plymouth. I've just installed the linux-ck kernel along with its relative nVidia driver, then rebooted into it. Plymouth was working! Although, i had the same issues that i experienced before to install & set up bumblebee: tearing & a little lag with some desktop effects on kwin, also black screen with the desktopgrid effect. It seems it's a problem with early KMS(and the intel driver par sè, while using it without disabling the nVidia device) then. I installed plymouth-release this morning: playmouth and plymouth-git were both not working on my machine. So that plymouth-release. Must be related to intel(or bumblebee?) then, if i got it right.

Still haven't touch the bootloader or upgraded my bios, had not time. I'll keep you up to date on this, meanwhile, thank you all for your help

Last edited by Hombremaledicto (2014-03-14 21:27:27)

Hombremaledicto · 2014-03-17 20:16:08

@Padfoot: ok, in the end i installed rEFInd. At the beginning it wasn't booting correctly into linux. Then came the surpise. If i got it correctly, it is able to detect any device connected and boot into it...Am i correct? Afterall, since i had problems to boot into arch, i plugged in an USB with an arch live. And what the hell! rEFInd detected the live ISO, and offered me a nice selection from its menu!!! This is something i'm not used to at all!
Anyway, i managed to repair the broken boot (it seems that the PARTUUID within the refind_linux.conf was not correct) and now i'm writing you from my archlinux system.
Anyway: i see in the wiki there is a script, with a relative service for systemd to update rEFInd. Should i create them?

P.s. Still no plymouth...Must be a problem with bublebee in my humble opinion. What do you guys suggest? And in case you need details, please, tell me what command to use to provide you useful infos.
Thanks

EDIT: i ran

 kdesu kate /usr/bin/refind-install

To create the script mentioned in the wiki. But it seems that there's an already existing file! Please, let me know what i have to do!

Last edited by Hombremaledicto (2014-03-17 20:24:16)

WonderWoofy · 2014-03-17 21:47:47

Hombremaledicto wrote:

 kdesu kate /usr/bin/refind-install 
To create the script mentioned in the wiki. But it seems that there's an already existing file! Please, let me know what i have to do!

You don't need to create this script at all. It ships with the refind package. Just run it as root and it will install rEFInd for you. To update, I think you just run the script again.

Hombremaledicto · 2014-03-17 21:52:04

@WonderWoofy: so i just need to run

refind-install

Whenever refind is updated, right?
I know from your message is pretty obvious, but just in case i need to ask it again
So, all it remains is to fix plymouth, whatever it causes it to not be displayed.

Last edited by Hombremaledicto (2014-03-17 21:53:46)

Padfoot · 2014-03-19 05:29:27

For plymouth, install plymouth-release. This is the stable package and is working. plymouth and plymouth-git are broken at the moment.

Good to see you have REFind working. I hope that is keeping you at native resolution throughout your boot now.

Cheers.

[EDIT] Apologies, I see you have installed plymouth-release. Please post your /etc/mkinitcpio.conf. You are using the intel video driver yes?

Did you set a theme in /etc/plymouth/plymouthd.conf?

Did you execute

# mkinitcpio -p linux

after setting up plymouth?

How have you got REFind set up with booting your initramfs?
Is is booting /boot/initramfs-linux.img or /boot/efi/EFI/<initramfs directory>/initramfs-linux.efi?

All these could have a bearing on why plymouth is not working. And by not working, do you mean you are getting just a blank screen? What are you seeing on boot?[/EDIT]

Last edited by Padfoot (2014-03-19 05:40:44)

WonderWoofy · 2014-03-19 22:41:21

Padfoot wrote:

For plymouth, install plymouth-release. This is the stable package and is working. plymouth and plymouth-git are broken at the moment.

I see you are now the maintainer of the plymouth package as well. Good work padfoot. You should now ask to have the plymouth-release comments and votes moreged into your plymouth package.

Padfoot · 2014-03-20 05:09:33

WonderWoofy wrote:

Padfoot wrote:
For plymouth, install plymouth-release. This is the stable package and is working. plymouth and plymouth-git are broken at the moment.
I see you are now the maintainer of the plymouth package as well. Good work padfoot. You should now ask to have the plymouth-release comments and votes moreged into your plymouth package.

Already done!

Cheers.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-03-12 21:57:45

Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#2 2014-03-13 05:49:08

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#3 2014-03-13 12:40:49

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#4 2014-03-13 18:46:15

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#5 2014-03-14 05:13:27

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#6 2014-03-14 05:18:28

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#7 2014-03-14 09:03:39

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#8 2014-03-14 09:44:24

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#9 2014-03-14 21:25:52

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#10 2014-03-17 20:16:08

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#11 2014-03-17 21:47:47

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#12 2014-03-17 21:52:04

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#13 2014-03-19 05:29:27

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#14 2014-03-19 22:41:21

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

#15 2014-03-20 05:09:33

Re: Gummiboot resolution and plymouth

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