USplash/Splashy - Current status

xabbott · 2007-01-26 23:24:53

I personally like Gensplash better too. The only thing i would see as a benefit with usplash is that it runs in user space. I've only seen USplash in Ubuntu Edgy. It was slow to start, finished way before X started, didn't look as good as gensplash, and the transitions weren't smooth at all.

I've been told Red Hat/Fedora use a different splash system that doesn't use frame buffer but starts an X server. Anyone know much about that ?

Last edited by xabbott (2007-01-27 09:44:08)

T-u-N-i-X · 2007-01-27 20:11:47

Actually, I don't know which one is better but I do use gensplash right now. The problem is, it's verbose mode is buggy (quite parameter doesn't work) and silence mode needs a lot of work. Before X is started, the image gensplash shows dissappears and a black screen is shown for about 15-20 sec.. Although I'm not able to use any progress bars to indicate the load percentage..

risky · 2007-01-28 14:19:48

The gensplash silence mode had some problem in my arch,It didn't work.....and verbose mode likes T-u-N-i-X 'S.-_-||

baze wrote:

i'm currently working on a usplash theme which fit's my ideas, but i don't have that much time atm..
here's a preview: http://mant1core.de/archlinux.png
if anyone wants to help, here's the svg i used for the mockup so far: http://mant1core.de/archlinux.svg

great!but i think the archlinux 's font should be changed...

Last edited by risky (2007-01-28 14:23:50)

Mikos · 2007-01-29 15:47:57

Isn't usplash obsolete? Splashy is _much_ better (and is also in userspace).

daedalusman · 2007-01-29 17:24:09

Mikos wrote:

Isn't usplash obsolete? Splashy is _much_ better (and is also in userspace).

Usplash is currently being developed by the ubuntu dev team. It hasn't reached version 1.0 as far as I know but it sure isn't obsolete code. I was under the impression that splashy was obsolete, maybe I should look into this.

Mikos · 2007-01-30 01:30:04

daedalusman wrote:

Usplash is currently being developed by the ubuntu dev team. It hasn't reached version 1.0 as far as I know but it sure isn't obsolete code. I was under the impression that splashy was obsolete, maybe I should look into this.

Feature-wise Usplash is indeed obsolete (in comparison with Splashy and even with old bootsplash/gensplash... for example Usplash supports only low resolution and low number of colors). Splashy is actively developed by Debian team and is AFAIK really intended as better replacement for Usplash (there has been some discussion about replacing Usplash in future versions of Ubuntu by Splashy, but I don't know what is the status). One thing is sure - Splashy is much better than Usplash.

EDIT: I have searched that discussion and found that the only reason why isn't Usplash already replaced by Splashy in Ubuntu is that Splashy needs framebuffer (standard vesafb, radeonfb, etc.), but Usplash works with vga16fb (which is somehow hardcoded to Usplash - this is why you have low resolution and low number of colors with Usplash). I think this Ubuntu's requierement (that it must work with vga16fb) is irrelevant for Arch Linux, because there isn't bootsplash enabled by default and only small number of notebooks doesn't support framebuffer. So we should IMHO really use much more advanced Splashy, not Usplash...

EDIT 2: I have just looked at Ubuntu forums - there are dozens of threads recommanding switch from Usplash to Splashy or gensplash. Usplash seems to be really hated by Ubuntu users... it's IMHO really bad choice.

Last edited by Mikos (2007-01-30 02:04:12)

daedalusman · 2007-01-30 23:15:38

Mikos wrote:

daedalusman wrote:
Usplash is currently being developed by the ubuntu dev team. It hasn't reached version 1.0 as far as I know but it sure isn't obsolete code. I was under the impression that splashy was obsolete, maybe I should look into this.
Feature-wise Usplash is indeed obsolete (in comparison with Splashy and even with old bootsplash/gensplash... for example Usplash supports only low resolution and low number of colors). Splashy is actively developed by Debian team and is AFAIK really intended as better replacement for Usplash (there has been some discussion about replacing Usplash in future versions of Ubuntu by Splashy, but I don't know what is the status). One thing is sure - Splashy is much better than Usplash.
EDIT: I have searched that discussion and found that the only reason why isn't Usplash already replaced by Splashy in Ubuntu is that Splashy needs framebuffer (standard vesafb, radeonfb, etc.), but Usplash works with vga16fb (which is somehow hardcoded to Usplash - this is why you have low resolution and low number of colors with Usplash). I think this Ubuntu's requierement (that it must work with vga16fb) is irrelevant for Arch Linux, because there isn't bootsplash enabled by default and only small number of notebooks doesn't support framebuffer. So we should IMHO really use much more advanced Splashy, not Usplash...
EDIT 2: I have just looked at Ubuntu forums - there are dozens of threads recommanding switch from Usplash to Splashy or gensplash. Usplash seems to be really hated by Ubuntu users... it's IMHO really bad choice.

Ahh, ok thanks for correcting me on this. Personally I don't much care for the splash screens as my current setup doesn't work well with the vesafb. I have an nvidia card and right now the best resolution I can get to work with the nvidia drivers is 800x600 with 16 colors. If vesafb-ng were more stable things would be different and I would probably use a boot splash utility.

baze · 2007-02-03 00:50:50

just in case anybody manages to get splashy running, i changed my theme a bit and made a splashy theme out of it: http://www.mant1core.de/archlinux-splashy.tar.gz

dongiovanni · 2007-03-16 19:03:00

Hi, are there any news about splashy? I don't like usplash, because it doesn't work with my 1280x1024 resolution very good....

iBertus · 2007-03-16 19:18:02

T-u-N-i-X wrote:

iphitus, is usplash the continue project for splashy ? And is it better than gensplash ? or what's the benefits of using usplash ? Will it be default with the 0.8 Voodoo release ? and are we going to have it with the default kernel after a normal upgrade ?
I'm using gensplash with beyond right now but not very happy with it since it's has some problems.. :S

I don't think including a splash by default is very Arch-like. I would expect that you would need to install this youself after the inital install. I personally would not like having it installed by default and I'm guessing that many other Arch users would agree.

dongiovanni · 2007-03-16 20:11:54

I also think, that it isn't very good by default, but there aren't any packages to install later. Unfortunately I'm not able to edit the initscripts myself, else i would make me a package myselfe!

baze · 2007-03-17 14:40:19

splashy doesn't compile on arch atm. sad but true. i'd like to have splashy aswell.

iphitus · 2007-03-17 23:45:03

Splashy is the way forward, consider my usplash work abandoned. I might look into splashy sometime, it all just depends on time.

James

djclue917 · 2007-04-15 17:34:58

Splashy works in Arch... But hell, a lot of work was needed to make that happen. I basically modified ALL the scripts that came with the Splashy package because none would actually work in Arch. And there are still a lot of work remaining in testing/fixing/perfecting the scripts (because I was very excited about this and didn't really care about testing that much. )

Anyway, here it is: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?d … 1&ID=10211
There are still a lot of bugs but it's working (at least in my machine) so why not try it?

I made a HOWTO here:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Splashy

Some observations/info/comments/blah:
I run Splashy from initramfs because I want it to run as early as possible (enjoy it as long as possible). BTW, I don't think that there is any other better way (i.e., init script) of running Splashy on boot other than from initramfs because Arch doesn't have the fancy symlinks of Debian and co.. That is, when you put 'splashy' in the beginning of the DAEMONS array, there is no way for you to "start" it first upon shutdown so that the splash screen appears again because the order of execution of scripts in dependent on the positioning in the DAEMONS array.

boot up: splashy (start Splashy) syslog-ng ... ... ...
shutdown: ... ... ... syslog-ng splashy (stop Splashy) <leftover daemons>

but from initramfs...

boot up: initramfs -> Splashy starts, /etc/rc.d/splashy start -> stop Splashy (when it hasn't been stopped by splashy_update_progress)
shutdown: /etc/rc.d/splashy stop -> start Splashy, then Splashy terminates when it "sees" the "Sending SIGTERM To Processes" message.

Last edited by djclue917 (2007-04-15 18:00:44)

deficite · 2007-04-15 19:42:51

i'm currently working on a usplash theme which fit's my ideas, but i don't have that much time atm..
here's a preview: http://mant1core.de/archlinux.png

I like that a lot. I'm not sure I like the off-color box around the progress bar, but I really like the idea of the theme. Gave me a bit of deja vu lol

baze · 2007-04-15 20:26:42

djclue917 wrote:

Splashy works in Arch...

it works indeed, but switching themes does not. at least splashy always used the default theme, no matter what i tried (renamed theme dirs or image files aswell o_0)

i always end up with the same default theme which was a bit annoying. anyway, great work!

djclue917 · 2007-04-16 00:38:00

baze wrote:

djclue917 wrote:
Splashy works in Arch...
it works indeed, but switching themes does not. at least splashy always used the default theme, no matter what i tried (renamed theme dirs or image files aswell o_0)
i always end up with the same default theme which was a bit annoying. anyway, great work!

Changing the theme works. When you change the theme via splashy_config -s [theme name], you should regenerate (via mkinitcpio) the kernel image to make the changes take effect. That is because the Splashy that actually runs on your system at boot is actually from initramfs and is not running from /sbin as you may have expected.

baze · 2007-04-16 05:08:27

aaah i didn't rebuild the initramfs image! i'll try again. thanks for that hint.

works fine now and i made some corrections to my splashy theme: http://www.mant1core.de/arch-1.2.tar.gz

Last edited by baze (2007-04-16 05:43:55)

beza1e1 · 2007-04-16 10:52:02

Beautiful work, baze!

Splashy does a little flickering and much debug output, though. I wonder wether it really uses error, suspend and resume images?

I made an error background from your svg file, where i colored the blue gradient in red.

djclue917 · 2007-04-16 13:05:37

beza1e1 wrote:

Beautiful work, baze!
Splashy does a little flickering and much debug output, though. I wonder wether it really uses error, suspend and resume images?
I made an error background from your svg file, where i colored the blue gradient in red.

That's the reason why you'll find a lot of "2>/dev/null" in the scripts.

baze · 2007-04-16 20:14:47

with 0.3.2-3 i noticed that the progress bar sometimes starts to get filled at "activating swap". it's getting filled completely with a linear speed, so that the daemons are started whenthe progress bar is already completely full. sometimes the progress bar is only filled when the daemons are started, as it was with the -2 package.

and with 0.3.2 sometimes the boot process hangs when the networkmanager daemon is started. i have to shut down my laptop by using the power button. i never had this issue with any other daemon, the -2 version of splashy or without splashy. this started to happen with splashy 0.3.2-3

djclue917 · 2007-04-16 23:38:28

Can you please send me the contents of /var/lib/splashy? djclue917@gmail.com
I'm guessing that this is an upgrade issue. I've changed how Splashy calculates the boot time progress bar steps. The -2 package might have left something behind.

beza1e1 · 2007-04-17 16:12:28

Little bit off-topic: I made a gdm theme from bazes splashy theme.
http://beza1e1.tuxen.de/files/gdm-arch-theme.tar.gz

baze · 2007-04-17 16:32:57

cool, thanks
but you used an old version of the svg, here's the version i used for the splashy theme: http://www.mant1core.de/background.svg

beza1e1 · 2007-04-17 18:35:54

Ok, i updated it.

Should i contact the gdm-themes packager or build my own package for this?
Or should we build a all-arch-theme package?

Arch Linux

#26 2007-01-26 23:24:53

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#27 2007-01-27 20:11:47

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#28 2007-01-28 14:19:48

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#29 2007-01-29 15:47:57

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#30 2007-01-29 17:24:09

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#31 2007-01-30 01:30:04

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#32 2007-01-30 23:15:38

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#33 2007-02-03 00:50:50

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#34 2007-03-16 19:03:00

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#35 2007-03-16 19:18:02

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#36 2007-03-16 20:11:54

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#37 2007-03-17 14:40:19

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#38 2007-03-17 23:45:03

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#39 2007-04-15 17:34:58

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#40 2007-04-15 19:42:51

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#41 2007-04-15 20:26:42

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#42 2007-04-16 00:38:00

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#43 2007-04-16 05:08:27

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#44 2007-04-16 10:52:02

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#45 2007-04-16 13:05:37

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#46 2007-04-16 20:14:47

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#47 2007-04-16 23:38:28

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#48 2007-04-17 16:12:28

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#49 2007-04-17 16:32:57

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

#50 2007-04-17 18:35:54

Re: USplash/Splashy - Current status

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