How to change booting screen with our own image?

Support & Help Requests
#1

hi all,
is it possible to change the booting screen of ubuntu mate with our own image or animation?
i am using ubuntu mate 16.04

Thanks is advance
Neenu E S

#2

You would need to create a dedicated Plymouth theme, which is not the simplest thing to do. Alternatively, you can install an existing one (the one from Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc. or from a third-party project like Numix) to replace the one from Ubuntu MATE.

To be a bit more specific, a Plymouth theme is a set of graphics and a script (I’m not sure in which programming language but the syntax looks pretty straightforward if you’re able to code in general) that sets various parameters (colors and such) and has functions to create the animation from the graphics.

If you want to experiment, try searching for “custom plymouth theme” or “create plymouth theme” on Google, you’ll find dev docs and various blog posts. I don’t think it has changed a lot in recent years, so even old doc will likely still be relevant.

#3

Thank you for helping

#4

Hi @neenues, I’m a little hesitant to describe what I’ve found with the existing theme and scripts that comes in Ubuntu-MATE 16.04. I’m hesitant because I’d hate to have someone end up unbootable.

But it is actually quite simple to add a graphic to the grub background. It doesn’t change the Plymouth theme and quite frankly, I’ve never attempted that. It works with the 16.04 grub scripts that already exist. It goes like this:

  1. As root, place a compatible image in /boot/grub .
  2. Run sudo update-grub . You should see the image be detected.

That’s it!

A compatible image is a key. I tested incompatible images and they simply don’t show with no other issue. PNG almost always works but JPG must be 256 colors which isn’t common. This is probably why themes include these backgrounds.

I specifically tested:
/usr/share/backgrounds/ubuntu-mate-xenial/ubuntu-mate-bubble.png

Another detail is how it displays. It will stretch/distort a wide-screen graphic into the 4:3 format grub is probably in. The above graphic looks pretty bad with the MATE logo no longer a circle, a more advanced topic I won’t get into at this time. It’s probably easier to make a graphic that fits grub than configure grub to accept wide-screen images.

I’m debating a HowTo but outside of 16.04 I haven’t experimented at all. Grub scripts are sort of a moving target I’ve avoided.

HTH

#5

GRUB is different from Plymouth: it’s the menu (that doesn’t always appear) where you select the OS to boot or other options while Plymouth is the screen that you get during the boot process (to hide the various technical steps), with the logo and the progress animation (dots or similar). GRUB is customizable too but it’s a different part of the OS boot process.

I’m not sure if GRUB can override Plymouth but in any case, I don’t think it’s supposed to.

A somewhat “easy” way to have a custom Plymouth theme would be to take an existing one and just replace the graphic files but it would be very advisable to be able to understand how it works overall. Especially as the files hierarchy are not completely fix (i.e. a theme is installed in /lib/plymouth/themes but from there, it’s up to the theme creator to organize the files as he wants).

#6

I see what you mean and the OP does say “booting” screen, possibly implying the Plymouth graphics, and not the grub screen which is the only thing changed with the simple procedure I mentioned.

@neenues, I’m curious exactly what screen(s) you refer? You may not even see the grub menu depending on your setup.

#7

As @neenues is talking about an animation, it’s quite likely that the question is about Plymouth. :wink:

#8

Plymouth can also be used for images?

Kernel logo not appearing on boot despite me compiling it enabled
#9

The boot process of Ubuntu MATE can be divided in three parts (at least visually):

  1. GRUB (only appears under specific conditions): allows you to select the OS to boot from (in case of multiboot) or other options (recovery mode, Memtest…); (here is an example of the GRUB screen;)

  2. Plymouth: when the OS is booting, Plymouth displays a nice logo with a small animation rather than a black screen with a lot of technical infos as text; (here is an example of the Ubuntu Plymouth screen;)

  3. LightDM: the login screen, where you enter your credentials to access the desktop. (Here is an example of the Ubuntu MATE old LightDM screen.)

All three parts are customizable to some extent, each with its own way to do it (and limitations) and specific theme format. As your original question is about replacing the booting screen with your own image or animation, I’m assuming that you’re talking about the Plymouth part, so as I said above, you’d have to make a custom Plymouth theme (or modify an existing one).

BTW, I just saw that as an answer to a similar question on AskUbuntu, someone provided an illustrated example with a simple script (the “Getting started guide”, which is currently the third answer in the thread). If you want to experiment, it might be a good starting point.

#10

Thank this is very helpful.