Guide how to install and use plymouth

[Dixxe]

Hello there! I hope it’s okay to post guide made by newbie for newbies
But here it is!

Small guide how to setup plymouth in EOS.

I’m nvidia user and don’t know how do it using amd gpu

First of all small plan:

• Download plymouth
• Change configs for dracut*
• Enable splash in boot options
• Customize plymouth
• Rebuild initramfs using dracut*

Downloading plymouth

First of all: download.

1. Open terminal and run

yay plymouth

2. Select package:
   if you’re using KDE plasma you can install plymouth-kcm (You will be able to change plymouth settings using GUI)
   else install plymouth

Change configs for dracut*

A small clarification: plymouth will work without it, but will appear too late in boot process

1. Open terminal and create a new config file for dracut

sudo nano /etc/dracut.conf.d/nvidiaload.conf 

2. Paste inside file:

force_drivers+=" nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm "

Enabling splash in boot options

To see plymouth we need add quiet splash to kernel parameters
System-md:

1. Open terminal and go to kernel parameters
   Be carefull! Don’t delete or change something!

sudo nano /etc/kernel/cmdline

2. Add quiet splash after rw
   

Nice job we almost done!

Customization!

Plymouth allows you choose and create own themes for boot animations. But in guide I will use theme from AUR.

Non-KDE:

1. I hope you don’t close terminal? So we will install our theme! Run:

yay endeavouros

Our theme will be near the end

Install it and then

2. Change plymouth config

sudo nano /etc/plymouth/plymouthd.conf

3. Insert in config

[Daemon]
Theme=endeavouros

(to list all installed themes: plymouth-set-default-theme -l)
For KDE users:

1. Go to the system settings and you will found new menu (if you installed plymouth-kcm)
   (Furthermore you can stop following this guide. It settings is pretty easy and has user-friendly GUI)

Rebuild initramfs*

In this guide I will use dracut, because I’m familiar with it

1. Open terminal and run

dracut rebuild

2. Reboot

---

Nice! I hope my guide helps and you actually see boot animation! I decided to make this guide, because I don’t found one in forum (I probably bad searcher) and make it more clear. I will be glad to receive corrections and advice. Have a nice day

[chikenf00t]

Would be cool to have a Plymouth entry in the Wiki. Thanks for the share

[linus]

Does this work on encrypted setups?

[Miguel1964]

And for those of us who don’t have nvidia but ati/amd?

[dalto]

@Miguel1964

And for those of us who don’t have nvidia but ati/amd?

Use:

force_drivers+=" amdgpu "

Also, if you are using grub, you don’t edit /etc/kernel/cmdline, you make that change to the kernel cmdline in /etc/default/grub

[Patrick_F]

Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for these explanations. This will allow me to install it correctly.

[CarlLaFong]

Is any optimization recommended for Intel modesetting? Ivy Bridge i5, if it matters…

Probably force_drivers+=" i915 "

[DenalB]

I hope it is okay to post here … ?

Tried to install Plymouth that way. I did the following steps.

yay -S plymouth

sudo nano /etc/dracut.conf.d/amd.conf
<--- Add --->
force_drivers+=" amdgpu "
<--- Save and Finish --->

sudo nano /etc/default/grub
--> GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=" ... quiet splash"

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

yay -S plymouth-theme-endeavouros

sudo nano /etc/plymouth/plymouthd.conf
<--- Add --->
[Daemon]
Theme=endeavouros
<--- Save and finish --->

sudo dracut rebuild

No matter where I add “quiet splash” into the parameters of “GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT“, the only thing I get is a Plymouth screen when shutting down the system. When starting the system, nothing is shown.

@Dixxe

Add quiet splash after rw

I don’t have “rw” as a parameter. This is how my parameters look like:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT='nowatchdog nvme_load=YES resume=UUID=93dc97f2-b21c-4bb6-a58c-6722bd0c17ed quiet splash loglevel=3 modprobe.blacklist=sp5100_tco'

Any idea what I did wrong?

[MyNameIsRichard]

When I’ve used Plymouth, I’ve always had quite splash as the last two parameters, I don’t really know if it will make a difference though.

[DenalB]

Moved both “quiet” and “splash” to the end of all the parameters. But it still doesn’t work on startup.

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT='nowatchdog nvme_load=YES resume=UUID=93dc97f2-b21c-4bb6-a58c-6722bd0c17ed loglevel=3 modprobe.blacklist=sp5100_tco quiet splash'

[Charlie_1963]

Perhaps point 2.1 of the Archwiki Plymouth could help?

I just installed Plymouth under systemd-boot and it works perfectly. This file can be found in endeavouros as /etc/ostree-mkinitcpio.conf.

To the experts: if I am wrong, please correct me.

[thefrog]

@Charlie_1963

mkinitcpio

I don’t know maybe this is correct since I don’t use Plymouth I do know we use dracut and not mkinitcpio so I’m not sure if that has much affect on your plymouth.

[Charlie_1963]

I think you’re right. As a layman, I should probably hold back a little and read the manual properly myself…

[cactux]

@Charlie_1963

I just installed Plymouth under systemd-boot and it works perfectly. This file can be found in endeavouros as /etc/ostree-mkinitcpio.conf.

/etc/ostree-mkinitcpio.conf belongs to the package ostree which is a dependency of flatpak.

I don’t think it will have any relevance, in this particular case, for a regular Archlinux which may be using mkinitcpio or dracut (in case of EOS).

The file relevant for this case, if mkinitcpio is used, should be /etc/mkinicpio.conf.

[Charlie_1963]

Thank you for the explanation.

As I said, as a layman, I should hold back a little. I didn’t remember ever installing Flatpak, but it’s true.

Thank you again for pointing that out.

ps: Since I don’t use Flatpak, I uninstalled it. This also removed the ostree-mkinitcpio.conf file.

[Cphusion]

What is is system-md ?

[DenalB]

I tried some more, but I gave up and removed all that Plymouth stuff. It’s ok like it is without that.

[Charlie_1963]

Since I uninstalled flatpak and thus also ostree-mkinitcpio.conf and ran dracut again, plymouth no longer works. The Arch Wiki states that I should edit the myflags.conf file in /etc/dracut.conf.d/, but this file does not exist.

[MyNameIsRichard]

Normally in that situation, you create the file.

[Charlie_1963]

@MyNameIsRichard Thanks for the tip, I had already tried that without success.

Addendum:

The following message always appeared during boot-up:

Nevertheless, I was able to enter the luks password as normal and the computer worked as expected.

This error message pointed to the Realtek LAN adapter. I then reinstalled the Realtek firmware. As a result, Plymouth now also starts as expected. It seems to be working, but I can’t explain the connection with Plymouth.