howto manually set boot screen?

ExecutorElassus · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 10:25 am Post subject: howto manually set boot screen?

ok, so I'm kinda dumb with grub.cfg files, BUT I also write them manually (because, for whatever reason, grub2-mkconfig never properly identifies my LVM partitions and I end up having to rewrite the UUIDs anyway).

I would like the bootup screen (the part with the text scroll checking off each part of the bootup process) to have a decent resolution, and maybe a nice background. What is the syntax for having this manually set in my grub.cfg file? I don't see instructions for it in the gentoo handbook, and every guide I've found online so far just tells me to use grub2-mkconfig (which is also not hardcore), which I'm trying to avoid.

Thanks for the help!

EE

Roman_Gruber · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 10:52 am Post subject:

https://www.google.at/search?q=screen+grub2.cfg&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=kbIsVpoHhf9oiKGnyA4#q=grub2+boot+resolution

ExecutorElassus · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 11:44 am Post subject:

Hey, thank you for the info. However, /etc/grub.d/00_header is the file used by grub2-mkconfig to generate /boot/grub/grub.cfg, not grub.cfg itself. Are those two lines copied verbatim into grub.cfg, or do they follow a different syntax there?

This is my problem: I can find plenty of guides to edit the files in /etc/grub.d/ to generate my grub.cfg, but none to tell me how to write crub.cfg myself from scratch. It's the latter that I'm trying to do.

Cheers,

EE

jonathan183 · Guru Joined: 13 Dec 2011 Posts: 318

ExecutorElassus · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 1:57 pm Post subject:

thanks for the links! I'll look into them.

Do you have lines in your grub.cfg file that specify a background image for the boot sequence? That is, after you select a boot option? Is that different from the one set for grub's menu screen? How would I set that manually?

Cheers,

EE

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 2:17 pm Post subject:

ExecutorElassus,

Heh. Others have answered the question you asked about grub but from the way you asked it, it was the wrong question.
Thu grub image is only displayed until grub hands over to the kernel.

I think you intended to ask about framebuffer splash, or boot splash, or whatever its called today.This gives you a nice console graphic during the boot process.
The liveDVD uses it.

You can have both if you want. A custom image behind grub and a custom image during boot.
It can even be the same image all the way through to your Xorg wallpaper.
Setting that up is left as an exercise for the reader :)
_________________
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

ExecutorElassus · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 2:26 pm Post subject:

Neddy, why do you hate my happiness??

That's exactly what I've been trying to figure out! Sigh, I guess I'll go back to searching for sample grub.cfg files to see how they do it

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 2:47 pm Post subject:

ExecutorElassus,

Grub doesn't do it. Here's the process in outline, end to end.

Grub loads and displays its menu over an image of your choice. It usually user 640x480 as that all it can be sure the display offers.
The kernel starts and clears the screen. It actually switches to using a different region of video RAM for the pixel buffer.
If you use a framebuffer console, you can decorate the console with an image of you choice.
Its usual to tell the kernel and boot sequence not to output text progress messages, or send them to another console as they make a mess of your image.
Instead, you add graphics icons as boot progresses, they actually overwrite part of the image but you don't want it back, so that's OK.

When xorg starts it may use a different resolution and yet another area of video RAM.

You know how to do the grub bit.
The framebuffer bit is from the wiki.

The very hard bit (I've never seen it) is to make the transisitions from grub/framebuffer/Xorg seamless.
You would need something to draw the framebuffer image before the grub image was removed.
That sounds like a kernel patch.
You would need to draw the Xorg image before switching away from the framebuffer image.
That sounds like an Xorg patch.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

jonathan183 · Guru Joined: 13 Dec 2011 Posts: 318

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 7:18 pm Post subject:

jonathan183,

You answered the question that was asked. ExecutorElassus didn't ask the right question.

Asking the right question is very difficult when you don't know exactly what you want.
Then its always better to describe the problem to be solved, rather than ask about the perceived solution.

You get to keep your boot messages and have the eye candy.
The boot messages can be sent to another console.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

cboldt · Veteran Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 1046

FWIW, I use the "Gentoo cycle" image on my bootscreen, passing the following to the kernel:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 7:26 pm Post subject:

cboldt,

cboldt · Veteran Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 1046

Whether or not the decoration is on top or behind is configurable. On the kernel line, "splash=verbose" puts the decoration behind.

/usr/share/doc/splashutils-*/kernel_parameters.bz2

As for handover, I have no idea. Boot via lilo, which is decoration free ;-)

. The Gentoo cycle appears before the fsck in my initramfs routine runs.

ExecutorElassus · Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 8:49 am Post subject:

So, I've been (slowly) setting up my bootsplash, and I have some questions.

I followed Neddy's guide for setting up an initrd (back when that was necessary to get around /usr being on a separate vg; is this still necessary?) to pre-mount my /usr and /var partitions. Now, though, the bootsplash guide is telling me to append the fbsplash stuff to an "initramfs".

Is this the same thing? Do I need to append the bootsplash stuff to the initrd.cpio.gz file that's sitting in /boot? Or somewhere else?

Thanks for the help!

EE

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 7:10 pm Post subject:

ExecutorElassus,

It all depends when you want framebuffer splash to start.

To put the image on the screen as early as possible in the boot process, the image goes into the initrd and the instructions to use it are kernel command line parameters.
The kernel needs the fbdecor stuff either built in or in the initrd too, so you start the framebuffer and decorate it before root is mounted.
Most people do it this way.

You can also start your framebuffer and decorate it once root is mounted and you can read modules and images from root.
If you do this you get several seconds of blank screen between grub going away and root being mounted to start the framebuffer.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

ExecutorElassus · Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 7:19 pm Post subject:

I'm all for early-as-possible eyecandy. In that case, where the guide says:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 7:34 pm Post subject:

ExecutorElassus,

I've never done the initrd update. On my netbook, the eye candy was the only reason for the initrd.
It booted equally well (except the splash) with or without the initrd.

You can make your own themes.
I didn't quite go that far but there were no 1024x600 themes, so I had to crop one.
There may be a selection of themes on the liveDVD too. Ask about that in #gentoo-ten on freenode.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

ExecutorElassus · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 5:55 pm Post subject:

okay, so I rebooted into the new kernel, and holy crap! I finally have a pretty-looking bootup! Huzzah!

However, while the resolution sets to 1920x1200 as requested while the initrd is still going through its pre-mounting checks of /var and /usr, the actual image does not get set until much later in the process, after handing off to "real" / and right before entering 'init 3'.

Did I do something wrong with setting it up? My grub.cfg line looks like this:

ExecutorElassus · Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 1:23 pm Post subject:

ran into another issue:When I am at the login screen (which is lightdm in my case), if I try to quit to console, it spits me back to the nice framebuffer background, but there's just a blinking cursor, with no prompt or anything. I can't input any commands, thus can't re-start the X server or do anything else besides reboot the thing from an ssh session from my smartphone.

This is super annoying. Is there some reason this might be happening?

Cheers,

EE

khayyam · Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 1:57 pm Post subject:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 4:50 pm Post subject:

khayyam.

Not CNTL+ALT+{Fn} ?
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

khayyam · Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 7:21 pm Post subject:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 7:34 pm Post subject:

khayyam,

When Xorg is running, its ctrl-alt-Fn here, when its not, I don't need the alt.
ctrl-alt-n does not work for me with Xorg running. I'll try it at the console later.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

khayyam · Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 9:25 pm Post subject:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:06 pm Post subject:

khayyam,

Ctrl-Alt-F1 for VT1 ... Ctrl-Alt-F7 for VT7 (Xorg)
Not the Fn key itself.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.