• Gtk 2
• Plymouth boot
• Backup
• Kernel Tuning
• Rogue Password

How the Plymouth boot screen (splash screen) works

This was accurate for my system in October 2013.

SuSE 12.3 repositories contain a stable version, check here if you want to look at the latest version from the developers.

I called my theme "quickboot" for ease of reading and understanding this page. I have used "quickboot" in all these examples. Once you are up and running, you can call your plymouth screen whatever you want.

Here is a summary, with links to the details :

• All plymouth files, including images you wish to display, are stored in /usr/share/plymouth/themes/quickboot.
• There are two main plymouth files, quickboot.plymouth and quickboot.script. After you have created quickboot.plymouth (which is easy), all your development changes will be in quickboot.script.
Code for quickboot.plymouth :

[Plymouth Theme]
Name=quickboot
Description=My plymouth splash screen
ModuleName=script

[script]
ImageDir=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/quickboot
ScriptFile=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/quickboot/quickboot.script

[script-env-vars]
example_env_var=example env var value
	

• I couldn't find a way to test my changes without rebooting. Attempts made a mess of my graphics display. It has worked in the past for other users, according to their blogs.
• After modding the quickboot.script file, you need to compile it into the linux boot file initrd, then reboot the computer. This is a right royal pain.
Code to compile into initrd :

#
# # NOTE : Use this to compile plymouth into the initrd
#
# su - root
#
# cd /usr/share/plymouth/themes/quickboot
#
# plymouth-set-default-theme quickboot -R
#
#
	

• Since the plymouth daemon is started from the initrd boot file, the service "/usr/lib/systemd/system/plymouth-start.service" becomes redundant and can be disabled. (I chose to leave it enabled, but make it return false. This gives me a neat message in my logfiles, to remind me that it's out of action.)
My plymouth-start.service file :

paul@sheldon:~/linuxtips/plymouth> cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/plymouth-start.service
[Unit]
Description=Show Plymouth Boot Screen
DefaultDependencies=no
Wants=systemd-ask-password-plymouth.path
After=systemd-vconsole-setup.service systemd-udev-trigger.service
Before=systemd-ask-password-plymouth.service
ConditionKernelCommandLine=!plymouth.enable=0

[Service]
ExecStart=/bin/false
paul@sheldon:~/linuxtips/plymouth> 

	

• The plymouth daemon (/usr/sbin/plymouthd) is called automatically by several hooks (eg Plymouth.SetBootProgressFunction (boot_progress_callback)), and manually by one hook (/usr/bin/plymouth display-message --text="Your text to display on the bootup screen")
• The default bootloader for SuSE 12.3 is grub2. This makes the bootup program /etc/init.d/boot.cycle redundant, so this is an ideal place to write a message to the plymouth splash screen.
My /etc/init.d/boot.cycle file :

paul@sheldon:~/linuxtips/plymouth> cat /etc/init.d/boot.cycle 
#! /bin/sh
#
# Copyright (c) 2003 SuSE Linux AG, Nuernberg, Germany.
# All rights reserved.
#
# File: /etc/init.d/boot.loadmodules
# Author: Werner Fink 
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          boot.cycle
# Required-Start:    boot.localfs
# Should-Start:      boot.loadmodules
# Required-Stop:     boot.localfs
# Should-Stop:       boot.loadmodules
# Default-Start:     B
# Default-Stop:
# Description:       Set default boot entry if called
### END INIT INFO

# PAUL : This seemed to rewrite the OLD grub (menu.lst) boot
# process with that old "last one booted is now default" chestnut.

local_text=$(/usr/local/bin/reformat_confucious -l 45 -t "$(/usr/bin/fortune)")

/usr/bin/plymouth display-message --text="$local_text"

	

• /usr/bin/fortune is a lovely program from the 70s that prints a random saying to stdout. I fancied it on my splash screen, but the spacing wasn't always suitable. I chose to write a small c program, which I called reformat_confucious, and put in /usr/local/bin. The code is here, compile it using "cc reformat_confucious.c" and moving the a.out file.
  

# This is a quick plymouth boot screen.
#
#

bgimage.image = Image("new_plymouth_bg.png");
my_background.sprite = Sprite(bgimage.image); 
my_background.sprite.SetX(0);
my_background.sprite.SetY(0);
my_background.sprite.SetOpacity(1.0);


#############
# callbacks #
#############

##########
# status #
##########

statusmsg.sprite = Sprite();
counter_statusmsg = 0;

fun update_status_callback (text)
	{
     counter_statusmsg++;
     status.image = Image.Text(counter_statusmsg + " - " + text, 1, 1, 1, 1, "droidsansmono", "left");
     statusmsg.sprite.SetImage(status.image);
     statusmsg.sprite.SetX(150);
     statusmsg.sprite.SetY(660);
     statusmsg.sprite.SetOpacity(1.0);
}
Plymouth.SetUpdateStatusFunction(update_status_callback);
    

###########
# message #
###########

# This is called from the shell scripts, using the 
# plymouth command
# plymouth display-message --text="".
#

messagemsg.sprite = Sprite();

fun message_callback (text) 
{
  message.image = Image.Text(text, 1, 1, 1, 1, "droidsansmono", "left");
  messagemsg.sprite.SetImage(message.image);
  messagemsg.sprite.SetX(900);
  messagemsg.sprite.SetY(80);
  messagemsg.sprite.SetOpacity(1.0);
}
Plymouth.SetMessageFunction(message_callback);

#################
# Boot Progress #
#################

# 
# Boot Progress : Show the time and %age progress
#

bootprogressmsg.sprite = Sprite();

fun boot_progress_callback (time_taken, percentage_progress)
{
    progress.image = Image.Text("Time : " + time_taken + "\nProgress : " + percentage_progress, 1, 1, 1, 1, "droidsansmono", "left");
    bootprogressmsg.sprite.SetImage(progress.image);
    bootprogressmsg.sprite.SetX(1000);
    bootprogressmsg.sprite.SetY(600);
    bootprogressmsg.sprite.SetOpacity(1.0);

    if (Plymouth.GetMode () == "shutdown")
        {
        statusmsg.sprite.SetOpacity(1.0);
        bootprogressmsg.sprite.SetOpacity(1.0);
        }
}
Plymouth.SetBootProgressFunction (boot_progress_callback);

########
# quit #
########

fun quit_callback () {
	statusmsg.sprite.SetOpacity(1.0);
	my_background.sprite.SetOpacity(1.0);
	bootprogressmsg.sprite.SetOpacity(1.0);
	messagemsg.sprite.SetOpacity(1.0);
}

Plymouth.SetQuitFunction(quit_callback);