Bootsplash on Gentoo Linux

November 17, 2008 · Posted in Gentoo

There are many guides about this one but most of them are way too complicated to deal with.

I am gonna show you in simple steps how to add a bootsplash on your gentoo machine

1) Required Packages

First emerge

media-gfx/splashutils

media-gfx/splash-themes-gentoo

media-gfx/splash-themes-livecd

The first package installs severals usefull scripts to deal with splash themes, while the second and third one provide us some extra themes

2) Create image

Enter on splash themes directory

cd /etc/splash/

Choose the theme you want ( use ls command to see all the themes ) and then create initrd file with

splash_geninitramfs  -g <place> -r <resolution> -v <theme>

Where:

place: Type the place to put your initrd file ( usually /boot/<theme_name>

resolution: Prefered resolution ( The supported resolutions for each theme can be found under /etc/splash/<theme>/)

theme: Themes’ name

eg. Lets say i want to create an 1280×800 bootplash for natural_gentoo theme I should type

splash_geninitramfs -g /boot/natural_gentoo -r 1280x800 -v natural_gentoo

And this is the output

 o Creating directory structure..

o Copying //sbin/fbcondecor_helper..

o Copying themes..

  - natural_gentoo

o Creating initramfs image..

3) Configure Grub

This is my grub.conf ( or menu.list file )

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-gentoo-r2-evil-inside

root=/dev/sda5 resume=/dev/sda2 init=/sbin/bootchartd

quiet video=intelfb:1280x800-32@60 vga=792 splash=silent,fadein,theme:natural_gentoo

console=tty1 initrd /boot/natural_gentoo

I assume you understand the first two lines so im gonna explain what is going on from the third line

quiet: Means to hide bootinformation while we are on bootsplash screen

video:Set your framebuffer driver (choose yours from /usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb/ ). Also set your resolution, color depth and the Hz of your monitor

vga: Set the color depth of your monitor . A google search will help you to understand this number

splash: Several splash screen options. Silence stands for quiet ( you can ommit it if you have set quiet before). Fadein is just an effect :). Theme is the name of your choosen theme ( you can omit it if you have set an initrd file )

console: Type the console in which you want to apply the bootsplash. Usually you set the first tty console

Initrd: Put the path for the previously created initrd image file

4) Reboot

All done. Reboot your machine and you will face a beautyfull Dark Gentoo Bootsplash :)

If something went wrong please leave a comment so we can solve it :)

Thanks

Tags: bootsplash, Gentoo, splash

Comments

9 Responses to “Bootsplash on Gentoo Linux”

Vasilis on November 26th, 2008 6:45 pm

Nice tips Markos.

However, I tried to install gentoo-blue using the procedure above and it did not work. No background image is displayed until 1-2 seconds before the two penguins are displayed and init starts the boot process. Any ideas?
Markos on November 27th, 2008 5:12 pm

Hello Vasilis

Make sure that you have proper kernel configuration concerning bootsplash

Take a look here about the kernel configuration http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/Bootsplash
Vasilis on December 1st, 2008 8:24 pm

Still I cannot make it work with a bootsplash theme. I enter vga=795 as a kernel parameter and the framebuffer starts at 1280×1024-16bit@60Hz fine. I generate the initramfs image and enter it in menu.lst, but no theme is displayed until the two penguins and the init process takeover after 3 seconds (or so). That is, the problem is displaying the bootsplash theme and not the fb setup.

Where can I look some more?
Vasilis on December 1st, 2008 8:26 pm

Akyro.

I will look some more in the wiki link you gave me above. Thanks. :)
Markos on December 1st, 2008 9:56 pm

Well actually, the same thing happens here. I can see the two penguins, some stuff from openrc boot init process and after that the bootsplash image appears. Im not if the bootsplash should appear before the two penguins
Vasilis on December 2nd, 2008 6:15 pm

Oh ok. Then in my case, the bootsplash theme never appears, either before or after the two penguins.

Would you mind attaching here your kernel configuration to see the options that you have enabled?
Markos on December 2nd, 2008 6:36 pm

Sure,

Take a look here

http://hwoarang.silverarrow.gr/wp-content/uploads/kernel

Try to use the natural_gentoo theme. It works for me. If it doesnt on you , we ll know for sure that there is something wrong with the configuration. Maybe the theme you are trying is broken somehow… ;)
Albert on January 6th, 2009 4:57 pm

I had the same problem. Solved it by following this guide:

http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/Fbsplash

In short, I emerged splashutils with the fbcondecor USE-flag. Then I recompiled the kernel with FB_CON_DECOR checked (Support for the Framebuffer Console Decorations). At last I re-run splash_geninitramfs and bingo, it works. In grub I have:

splash=verbose,fadein,theme:Emergance,tty:12 console=tty1

and no quiet flag.
Dima.Kruchuev on March 8th, 2010 4:55 am

Полностью согласен со всеми положительными отзывами о блоге, хотя отрицательных практически нет.