BootSplash in Linux Mint 12 (Lisa)

[john14]

I would like to know if it's possible to change the Blackscreen BootSplash by another one (like this one:http://linuxmint-art.org/content/show.p ... ent=141387).

I try that : http://www.noobslab.com/2011/11/install ... hange.html but nothing seems to work, I always got the blackscreen.

PS: I don't if if this is the cause, but when I update i got an warning:
update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-12-generic
Warning: No support for locale: en_US.utf8

Thanks

[AlbertP]

That warning can be ignored.

Why the bootscreen won't work, I have no idea. There are more comments of people under the tutorial saying it does not work.

[john14]

OK I will ignore the warning but I want to change the black screen because the boot sequence is really slow (about 10-15 seconds)

[dwasifar]

I recommend you leave it alone. As you will note in the comments on that link you posted, it is easy to get yourself in trouble messing with the boot splash, and hard to get yourself out. Plymouth's boot splash has always been finicky, and it was disabled for a reason.

10-15 seconds is not an eternity. Are you really unable to wait that long?

[john14]

Oh, waiting is not a problem, it's just that a lot of people told me about the rapidity of Linux and I wasn't sure if it was normal that it takes so many time.

[LRC]

Oh, waiting is not a problem, it's just that a lot of people told me about the rapidity of Linux and I wasn't sure if it was normal that it takes so many time.

Speed of operation once running isn't the same as speed of booting.
Linux is a "proper" multi-user, multi-tasking operating system. You're not supposed to need to boot it on a regular basis.

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hack@the-planet:~# uptime
 15:38:10 up 1 day, 21:20,  3 users,  load average: 0.17, 0.38, 0.11

This is an old Compaq laptop, and I've not rebooted in a little while.

My experience is that development cycles for bootup go in cycles.
Linux Mint 12 is heading onto the slow side when booting on older hardware.
Give it time and there will be a big push for the devs to cut boot times.
That's going to be driven more by small new devices with power-conserving processors, than people with ageing hardware.

And, Plymouth? There be dragons!
I've hacked together one bootsplash for it on Ubuntu, but it crashed a virtual machine countless times in the process. Then, brought down the actual deployment target a few times whilst I fine-tuned it.

[LRC]

And, Plymouth? There be dragons!

Just to stress this further, I just b0rked a reasonably clean Mint 12 install (thankfully inside a VM) by trying to get a plymouth bootsplash working.

I'm going to give speeding it up a tad a go, I always end up tweaking /etc/default/grub anyways. I prefer to see the boot options and have access to a non-GUI mode to fix my mistakes.

I cannot recommend the Oracle version of VirtualBox highly enough for this sort of stuff. You can build, and wreck, a system dozens of times without ever needing to actually reboot your PC. I pick the Oracle version, as-opposed to the FLOSS one, because being able to mount a USB drive within the Virtual Machine is the simplest way to get stuff out.

[john14]

OK, weird thing I see my splash image only when I press Esc Key...is that normal?

[LRC]

OK, weird thing I see my splash image only when I press Esc Key...is that normal?

If you mean the splash where you select to run as-normal, run without X Windows, or pull up memtest, the answer is yes.
To see that, sudo edit /etc/default/grub
Comment out the GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT and GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET lines by preceding them with a hash (#).
Rebuild that part of the boot process with sudo update-grub2
You should now see the menu for as many seconds as specified in GRUB_TIMEOUT.

I've seen suggestions that setting GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="" and re-doing the update-grub2 might help bring back more of the boot details/Plymouth spash. But, as I've said elsewhere — this is something to try in a virtual machine first.

I'd not be at-all surprised if there are "other measures" within the Mint bootstrap process to keep Plymouth well out the way. It's not what I would consider production-ready software.

I'd be absolutely delighted if someone who knows more about those early stages of the boot process could offer a reliable method of simply getting the list of console messages up to X starting displayed. It would at least be an indicator of progress, even if not a pretty one.

[AlbertP]

Aren't those HIDDEN_TIMEOUT lines (etc.) are about the bootloader's background, instead of Plymouth?

[LRC]

Aren't those HIDDEN_TIMEOUT lines (etc.) are about the bootloader's background, instead of Plymouth?

Yes. But it's not 100% clear what the O.P. is looking for here.

[AlbertP]

He wants to change the Plymouth boot screen instead of Grub:

OK I will ignore the warning but I want to change the black screen because the boot sequence is really slow (about 10-15 seconds)

Grub is not an entirely black screen and also it won't last for 15 seconds.

[NeoMint]

Just FYI: "Warning: No support for locale: en_US.utf8", that can be ignored, can be fixed with...

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sudo locale-gen --purge --no-archive

[AlbertP]

You don't need to fix that. That warning appears always when updating initramfs and it's harmless.