Drop usplash in Squeeze? Move to plymouth?

[Petter Reinholdtsen]

Should we drop usplash from our package lists in Squeeze? It is as
far as I can see dead upstream, as Ubuntu moved to plymouth as their
boot progress bar, to get flicker free boot.

It is also the cause of many problems with the video setup on several
hardware models, and it would be nice to avoid such problems in
Squeeze.

I guess we should investigate plymouth, but I doubt I will find time
to do it any time soon.

Comments?

Happy hacking,

[Andreas B. Mundt]

Post by Petter Reinholdtsen
Should we drop usplash from our package lists in Squeeze? It is as
far as I can see dead upstream, as Ubuntu moved to plymouth as their
boot progress bar, to get flicker free boot.
It is also the cause of many problems with the video setup on several
hardware models, and it would be nice to avoid such problems in
Squeeze.

I tried to improve it when I refurbished kdm and the kde-splash
screen. I investigated a bit but got the impression that it's better
to spend the time on something that will also exist for squeeze+1.

So I absolutely agree.

Post by Petter Reinholdtsen
I guess we should investigate plymouth, but I doubt I will find time
to do it any time soon.

I looked at the plymouth package, unfortunatelly it's stuck in NEW,
but I think it's well maintained and might already work (ubuntu is
using it). For the time being I do not mind seeing some boot messages
(we want to educate and learn, so why not show a bit from the stuff
behind the scene?)

Regards,

Andi

[Holger Levsen]

Hi Petter,

thanks for bringing this up.

Post by Petter Reinholdtsen
Should we drop usplash from our package lists in Squeeze? It is as
far as I can see dead upstream, as Ubuntu moved to plymouth as their
boot progress bar, to get flicker free boot.
It is also the cause of many problems with the video setup on several
hardware models, and it would be nice to avoid such problems in
Squeeze.

I agree.

Post by Petter Reinholdtsen
I guess we should investigate plymouth, but I doubt I will find time
to do it any time soon.

I'm working on it, also getting it through NEW nowish. (0.7 is in sid, but is
blocked from squeeze. 0.8 is stuck in NEW and should go into squeeze.)


cheers,
Holger

[Petter Reinholdtsen]

[Holger Levsen]

Post by Holger Levsen
I agree.

OK. This patch should do it. Not applying it, as it will also drop
usplash from the lenny DVD build, and I guess we are still hoping for
a new release.

Post by Holger Levsen
I'm working on it, also getting it through NEW nowish. (0.7 is in
sid, but is blocked from squeeze. 0.8 is stuck in NEW and should go
into squeeze.)

Great. I guess we need to integrate our artwork into that package
too, to get a flickerfree boot. :)

Index: debian/changelog
===================================================================
--- debian/changelog (revision 64277)
+++ debian/changelog (working copy)
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@

[ Petter Reinholdtsen ]
* Update Standards-Version from 3.8.3 to 3.8.4. No changes needed.
+ * Drop debian-edu-artwork-usplash and usplash from common and
+ thin-client task as it is dead upstream and a replacement is needed.

[ Holger Levsen ]
* Provide source/format and set it to 1.0.
Index: tasks/thin-client
===================================================================
--- tasks/thin-client (revision 64277)
+++ tasks/thin-client (working copy)
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
NeedConfig: no

Depends: debian-edu-artwork
-Recommends: usplash, debian-edu-artwork-usplash
Why: Packages needed to get our look on the client.
Responsible: Petter Reinholdtsen
NeedConfig: no
Index: tasks/common
===================================================================
--- tasks/common (revision 64277)
+++ tasks/common (working copy)
@@ -119,11 +119,6 @@
Responsible: Petter Reinholdtsen
NeedConfig: no

-Recommends: debian-edu-artwork-usplash, usplash
-Why: Nice boot splash screen artwork.
-Responsible: Holger Levsen
-Needconfig: no
-
Depends: cpufrequtils
Why: Reduce power consumption, useful on laptops and others to
reduce the power bill.

Happy hacking,

[Holger Levsen]

Hi,

Post by Petter Reinholdtsen
OK. This patch should do it. Not applying it, as it will also drop
usplash from the lenny DVD build, and I guess we are still hoping for
a new release.

Yes, another lenny release (at least one, rather two or three :) are still on
my agenda.

How can we apply this patch and keep the lenny builds working as they should?

Post by Petter Reinholdtsen
Great. I guess we need to integrate our artwork into that package
too, to get a flickerfree boot. :)

Yup :)


Thanks for the patch Petter & cheers,
Holger

[Xavier Oswald]

Post by Petter Reinholdtsen
Should we drop usplash from our package lists in Squeeze? It is as
far as I can see dead upstream, as Ubuntu moved to plymouth as their
boot progress bar, to get flicker free boot.
It is also the cause of many problems with the video setup on several
hardware models, and it would be nice to avoid such problems in
Squeeze.
I guess we should investigate plymouth, but I doubt I will find time
to do it any time soon.

plymouth seems a good choice.

Some times is needed to do a debian-edu theme, I got a look about how it works
and it is not that simple...

There is 4 or 5 existing themes where you can directly replace the default logo
by the debian-edu logo.

I have done a package for my goals and setted it up for the custom debian Im
working on for my company.


If you want to give a try:
==========================

0. Install v86d package.

1. /etc/default/grub
Replace GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="..."
by GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x1024-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap"
Replace #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480
by GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x1024

Notice that grub2 supports different resolutions so you can put there a list
and grub2 will choose the first working one. (debian-edu grub background
image should be updated)

2. /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
Add a line containing: uvesafb mode_option=1280x1024-24 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap

3. echo FRAMEBUFFER=y | sudo tee /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash

4. sudo update-grub2
sudo update-initramfs -u

Now you have the default setted theme.

sudo /usr/sbin/plymouth-set-default-theme --list (list available themes)
sudo /usr/sbin/plymouth-set-default-theme THEME (change theme)
sudo update-initramfs -u (apply to initramfs)
===

Plymouth is currently in sid but build fine under squeeze.
So I have rebuilt it on squeeze with a small modification in debian/local by
giving another logo (default is debian-logo.png.uue), update debian/rules for
decode my new logo and update debian/local/plymouth.hook to do the copy of this
new logo.

Greetings,