Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

robby · 2016-09-15 05:57:39

I would like a custom picture to be loaded while my system boots. I have installed Plymouth https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Plymouth to do this for me. However, I do everything the wiki says, yet, I don't see any custom animation. So below are the exact steps I took in order to try and get Plymouth to work.

Plymouth primarily uses KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) to display graphics. If you can't use KMS (e.g. because you are using a proprietary driver) you will need to use framebuffer[broken link: invalid section] instead. In EFI/UEFI systems, plymouth can utilize the EFI framebuffer, otherwise Uvesafb is recommended as it can function with widescreen resolutions.

So I have no clue if I have KMS? Is there a way to check for this?

If you also use GDM, you should install the gdm-plymouthAUR, which compiles gdm with plymouth support.

Okay, so I use Gnome and GDM. So I ran

yaourt -S gdm-plymouth

Everything seemed to go fine. Next the wiki told me to add the plymouth hook: This is what my /etc/mkinitcpio.conf looks like:

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

Next I set my kernel command line to have quiet and splash by changing /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
intelrd /intel-ucode.img
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=PARTUUID=7d2b248c-7b93-4ac0-bacd-84eb956635be rw quiet splash

Lastly I rebuilt my initrd image and restarted by running

mkinitcpio -p linux

Did I miss something? Thank you in advance for any help provided.

nahte · 2016-09-15 09:09:00

*I AM NEW - JUST GIVING MY THOUGHTS*
I've been having similar problems today, what you seem to be missing is the theme.
plymouth-set-default-theme -R <theme>

Try adding 'glow' where <theme> is.

*Just clarifying I am very likely to be incorrect, I probably shouldn't be saying anything at all.

Last edited by nahte (2016-09-15 09:10:01)

robby · 2016-09-16 16:54:54

plymouth-set-default-theme -R glow

does seem to work. It boots the animation. However, Arch Linux will not boot after that. Also, I can't even see the output of where it hangs because I have quiet splash in my kernel params.

nahte · 2016-09-17 02:14:57

This issue could just be that your system boots too fast for plymouth to play it's animation. Though seeing as whats happening, I doubt that is the case. I can't see why a splash screen stops you from booting. "Arch linux will not boot after that", are you implying that you are not being greeted by gdm, or not booting at all?

robby · 2016-09-18 20:29:47

I see the animation just fine. However, the animation never goes away. GDM never boots after the animation plays. That is my current issue. I can not even use FN+F2+CTRL+ALT to get to another terminal.

robby · 2016-09-20 16:55:09

Still having the current problem. I can get the animation to show, but then my computer doesn't boot. If I turn off the animation, then my computer boots fine.

dillebidum · 2016-09-21 12:52:58

You installed gdm-plymouth, but didn't enable it.
First of all, reinstall GDM.

sudo pacman -S gdm

Then execute the following commands. Get to a TTY by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F7. The F7 can be replaced with another F-key, I just suggested it because it's usually not occupied.

Disable GDM.

sudo systemctl disable gdm.service

Now you can reinstall gdm-plymouth, which will automatically remove gdm.

yaourt -S gdm-plymouth

Then enable gdm-plymouth.

sudo systemctl enable gdm-plymouth.service

Set your plymouth theme.

sudo plymouth-set-default-theme -R foo # foo is a theme, themes can be listed with plymouth-set-default-theme -l

Rebuild your kernel image.

sudo mkinitcpio -p linux

And reboot.

sudo reboot

By the way, you can check for kernel modesetting (KMS) by using

journalctl -b

and checking for a message like this one.

Sep 21 15:44:02 foo kernel: [drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled.

This message may vary between graphics card manufacturers. This message is for ATI/AMD cards. Keep in mind that you cannot use KMS with a proprietary graphics card driver, which means you'll only be able to use text-only themes. No graphical themes.
That should be enough, assuming you don't use something like encrypted volumes.
If GDM doesn't load after that, it's probably another issue. Press the "Home" button to view systemd's messages.

Last edited by dillebidum (2016-09-21 14:14:07)

ewaller · 2016-09-21 14:15:54

Moving to AUR issues

robby · 2016-09-23 15:47:12

Thank you for your reply, dillebidum. I believe I have made some progress. I have followed your guide exactly. Please have a look at my
/var/log/boot.log
https://gist.github.com/robbyjj/2f4b901 … 0f5259dae4
Most importantly:

[[0;32m  OK  [0m] Started Show Plymouth Boot Screen.
[[0;32m  OK  [0m] Started Dispatch Password Requests to Console Directory Watch.
[[0;32m  OK  [0m] Reached target Paths.
[[0;32m  OK  [0m] Started Tell Plymouth To Write Out Runtime Data.
[[0;32m OK [0m] Reached target System Initialization.

I no errors, but I am still not able to see a picture at boot. I chose to enable the solar theme.

Last edited by robby (2016-09-23 15:47:42)

robby · 2016-09-23 16:00:01

If I install updates, the theme shows! Very exciting! Now, I have narrowed the problem down further. The solar theme displayed perfectly for a few seconds, and even said "installing updates, this could take a while" at the upper left hand side of my screen. However, if I just do a plain old reboot without installing updates, the theme does not show at all. here is the
/var/log/boot.log this time.
https://gist.github.com/robbyjj/c17948b … 93388f9899

[[0;32m  OK  [0m] Started Show Plymouth Boot Screen.
[[0;32m OK [0m] Started Tell Plymouth To Write Out Runtime Data.

robby · 2016-09-23 19:41:03

Okay, Even closer! Now, I see the boot image every time I restart the computer, however, if I change etc/plymouth/plymouthd.conf from

[Daemon]
Theme=spinner
ShowDelay=1

to

[Daemon]
Theme=spinner
ShowDelay=5

the image does not display.. No clue why. Any thoughts? Thank you!

robby · 2016-09-23 20:23:57

Wow. I can't believe I am having so much trouble with this. So, my ulimate goal here is to just have this .png file showed while booting for like 3 seconds without anything else on the screen until GDM tells me to log in. So I replaced arch-logo.png with this png and renamed it to arch-logo.png and then rebooted my system. Of course, it didn't work. So, I switched the images back and rebooted. Still nothing worked. Now, I can't even get the old image back on the screen. Is there any logs that Icould take a look at to see what is going wrong? Thank you guys sorry for the many posts.

Last edited by robby (2016-09-23 20:24:11)

dillebidum · 2016-09-24 16:59:00

I belive it's because of the ShowDelay value being 5. If you don't have a good reason for changing that to 5, it's best you leave it at 1. I am not sure, but I think that setting the ShowDelay variable to a higher value makes it show up later. Adding one to the ShowDelay variable makes it show up 1 minute later. And if your PC doesn't take at least a minute to turn off, you're not going to see it.

robby · 2016-09-30 15:21:48

Update, I have changed nothing. Now when I boot my PC. The regular dark linux boot image is displayed. It's pretty buggy though. I don't have a complete silent boot which could be why the image isn't displaying properly. I will look into how to achieve a complete silent boot.

dillebidum · 2016-10-01 12:50:35

I may not be able to help you more than this, but...resize the PNG to the size of the original arch-logo.png with something like ImageMagick or Gthumb.
An example with ImageMagick:

convert arch-logo.png -resize fooxbar arch-logo.png # replace foo and bar with height and width, won't suggest because I don't use Plymouth anymore.

dillebidum · 2016-10-20 12:01:07

Okay. I got another idea.
In your /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, add your graphics driver to MODULES= to make it start as fast as possible. This is probably needed as Plymouth has to start at a really early time in the boot process.
It's i915 for Intel graphics, radeon for "legacy" AMD/ATI cards, amdgpu for current AMD/ATI cards, and noveau for nVidia cards. Again, you cannot use it with the non-free drivers provided by nVidia and AMD.
After you've done that, rebuild your initcpio.

sudo mkinitcpio -p linux # you might need to change linux if not using vanilla kernel

Last edited by dillebidum (2016-10-20 12:04:15)

robby · 2016-10-31 15:05:22

Thank you for your continued support. I will update later today as I research and try your suggested solutions.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-09-15 05:57:39

Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#2 2016-09-15 09:09:00

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#3 2016-09-16 16:54:54

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#4 2016-09-17 02:14:57

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#5 2016-09-18 20:29:47

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#6 2016-09-20 16:55:09

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#7 2016-09-21 12:52:58

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#8 2016-09-21 14:15:54

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#9 2016-09-23 15:47:12

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#10 2016-09-23 16:00:01

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#11 2016-09-23 19:41:03

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#12 2016-09-23 20:23:57

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#13 2016-09-24 16:59:00

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#14 2016-09-30 15:21:48

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#15 2016-10-01 12:50:35

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#16 2016-10-20 12:01:07

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

#17 2016-10-31 15:05:22

Re: Plymouth Custom Picture at Boot Not Loading

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