Arch Linux

SpookyET

Member

Registered: 2008-01-27

Posts: 410

RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

I wonder if it's possible to get this running under ARCH.
This is probably the best looking graphical boot. The reason is simple, it runs under X in tty8.

Screenshot

dongiovanni

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2006-10-06

Posts: 110

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

Can you give me a url where I can find the source code or more information then the artwork?

FeatherMonkey

Member

Registered: 2007-02-26

Posts: 313

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

I maybe wrong but if this the same as Suse think its Gfxboot a tut for Ubuntu and achieving Suse way.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=208855

SpookyET

Member

Registered: 2008-01-27

Posts: 410

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

I maybe wrong but if this the same as Suse think its Gfxboot a tut for Ubuntu and achieving Suse way.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=208855

That looks like the grub part. I was talking about the boot splash. And yes, Suse are using the RHGB, which runs under X11, making it pretty and supporting all resolutions. If want to make a package for that, I'll support you.

RGHB Link (the first one in the list is the source).

I think that it might require a patched kernel. There is some text before boot and gdm because X on tty8 has to start and shut down. But, it's totally worth it.

RHGB is a few years old. It's mature. It's not buggy like fbsplash, splashy, etc. And, since it's using tty8, it doesn't interfere with tty7. Splashy is buggy if started early (no text). You'll see artifacts in your x-session.

Suse is the prettiest distribution. They've done some really good eye candy in 11.0 Alpha 2.
On the backend side, they've done good patches, example pm-utils-opensuse, which I've taken.  It's the only way my laptop suspends.

From what I've been seeing, Suse and Fedora are the leaders and Ubuntu is catching up with their Hardy release. I'm not advocating that Arch goes eyecandy by default. I do think the option should be available.

If we can assemble a few good packages, we could create a meta package pacman -S eyecandy

Last edited by SpookyET (2008-02-24 17:36:13)

dongiovanni

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2006-10-06

Posts: 110

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

I will have a look at it, but since it uses X, it uses a lot of resources during bootup...:/

Edit:
The documentation is _really_ poor. I also can't see anything of a kernel patch or stuff like that.

Last edited by dongiovanni (2008-02-24 17:54:45)

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

I do think the option should be available.

The option is available, and this thread is the first step. Someone here can create the package, put it in the AUR, and there you have it - an available option. It might also be of interest to a TU, and become a community package.

If you mean an officially-supported available option, maintained by an Arch dev, that's unlikely to happen IMO.

autonymous

Member

Registered: 2008-02-24

Posts: 31

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

I'd like to assist in making this happen. YES, it uses X during boot, which uses resources, but it also gives a big, pretty face on what is arguably the best distro out there. SURE, there's fbsplash/splashy/usplash. As mentioned before, none of those are as mature, or as flexible as RHGB. I support this option.

[rant]
I swear, in my own little superficial way, not having a working, decent splash (like all the other well-known distros), combined with not having an eye-candy fbcondecor, keeps me from being able to show Arch off to my Fedora/Ubuntu/Suse-loving friends/coworkers. There's big power in Pacman and AUR, but people only see what's on the surface. Arch's surface right now is limited to some colors during boot and discovering KDEMOD.
[/rant]

[evangelism/preaching to the choir]
That being said, I'm typing this from a Fedora 9 test install. Yeah, it looks great. But IMHO it sucks compared to the "build to your own specifics" nature that I've come to appreciate with Arch. Believe me, if we can get some sort of cohesive effort on artwork, we can creep up Distrowatch in a big way. And maybe steal a few Ubuntu fanboys in the process.

I'll be reinstalling Arch in a few minutes. Tradeoff: Fedora looks good, but Arch's Core/Extra packages are BUILT better. Friggin HPLIP on Fed9 doesn't support my printer's network faxing. Unacceptable. And no knock to the standard Arch kernel devs, but the Kernel26zen I built just before installing Fedora was tits. And simple. Did I mention I like things simple. Fortunately, Arch/Pacman has gotten to be SIMPLE to me, versus tacking down bugs/problems in RPM/DEB distros and waiting on bug fixes 6 months from now. Don't like an Arch package, fire up ABS or get the source and do it yourself with one PKGBUILD. Doesn't get much better than that.
/evangelism/preaching to the choir]

Keeping with the simple theme...I'll give my two cents on splashes/RHGB. I found THIS PAGE via theGoogle. What that says to me is that RHGB is being called from /etc/sysinit: essentially an X server with a special config, and run on display :1, tty8, so as not to interfere with normal X startup on TTY7. When all init messages are done, /etc/rc.d/rc kills it and normal X takes over on display :0 tty7.  Yes, I know I'm over-simplifying things, but that's the nuts, now let's get to the bolts of putting it on Arch.

There's no special kernel hacks, but I'm sure there's hacks to the standard system init scripts. I'll keep digging, and if anyone with the technical chops really wants to take this on, I'm willing to help in any way I can.

Why can't Arch be fast AND powerful AND easy AND beautiful? We got the first three covered. Let's get the last one in order.

autonymous

Member

Registered: 2008-02-24

Posts: 31

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

Interesting reading: Red Hat is replacing RHGB with something new for Fedora 10: Plymouth

Maybe following Plymouth development may be a better option?!?!?

[edit] It's all based around GDM...not sure how this plays out for SLiM and KDM. I'll keep reading up.[/edit]

Last edited by autonymous (2008-08-01 02:42:06)

autonymous

Member

Registered: 2008-02-24

Posts: 31

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

I'm blogging this...there's some REALLY juicy stuff going on behind the scenes with DRI2, Kernel-Based Mode Setting, ATI/Intel Drivers and Red Hat's attempt to pull it all together.

http://dumdeedum.wordpress.com/2008/07/ … boot-rhgb/

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

Keep at it - scratching your own itches is what it's all about. If others feel the same, better still.

not having a working, decent splash (like all the other well-known distros), combined with not having an eye-candy fbcondecor, keeps me from being able to show Arch off to my Fedora/Ubuntu/Suse-loving friends/coworkers.

I wouldn't worry about that - if the only thing that impresses them is eye-candy, they'll never "get" Arch anyway.

Believe me, if we can get some sort of cohesive effort on artwork, we can creep up Distrowatch in a big way. And maybe steal a few Ubuntu fanboys in the process.

Personally, I don't really care about Distrowatch ratings, how many users we have, or of which distro they used to be fanboys. If people find that Arch suits them, great - if they don't, there's a world of choice out there. Tacking on complicated eye-candy just to get more users is about as far away from the Arch way as you can get, so this will only ever be a community add-on.

Why can't Arch be fast AND powerful AND easy AND beautiful? We got the first three covered.

I reckon the many Archers who fill out the monthly screenshot threads would say we score 4 out of 4 easily.

fukawi2

Ex-Administratorino

From: .vic.au

Registered: 2007-09-28

Posts: 6,222

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Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

Personally, I don't really care about Distrowatch ratings, how many users we have, or of which distro they used to be fanboys. If people find that Arch suits them, great - if they don't, there's a world of choice out there

Well said

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tommed

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From: Berkshire, Engalnd

Registered: 2009-06-10

Posts: 54

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Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

From FreeDesktop.org: (http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/Plymouth)
"Plymouth isn't really designed to be built from source by end users. For it to work correctly, it needs integration with the distribution. Because it starts so early, it needs to be packed into the distribution's initial ram disk, and the distribution needs to poke plymouth to tell it how boot is progressing."

Can we do something like this in an AUR package?

Last edited by tommed (2009-06-10 08:56:21)

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

Possibly. Remember that 'we' includes 'you'

tommed

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From: Berkshire, Engalnd

Registered: 2009-06-10

Posts: 54

Website

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

Lets hope not for your sake! You seriously don't want me poking around with your ram-disk!

Last edited by tommed (2009-06-10 13:58:08)

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

Well, it doesn't affect me - in the context of this thread, 'we' means Arch users who want to use this stuff. I don't qualify.

crayxt

Member

Registered: 2008-12-19

Posts: 37

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

AFAIK, Next Ubuntu will include it. And how about Mandriva, it uses Plymouth?

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Heller_Barde

Member

Registered: 2008-04-01

Posts: 245

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

check that page from time to time. I talked to halfline, a main plymouth dev, and we got plymouth to work under archlinux. now all there is to do is to put it into the initscripts and initrd and stuff. i'll keep that wiki page up to date and will provide a link to the git for the plymouth PKGBUILD as soon as i consider it somewhat usable.

cheers Barde

fijam

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Registered: 2009-02-03

Posts: 244

Website

Re: RHGB (Red Hat Graphical Boot)

That's great news, Barde!