Task #88: Replace Splashy with Plymouth, or not… - Migration to Squeeze - DoudouLinux project life

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Task #88

open

Task #1: Define the list of applications

Task #4: Identify which packages can be replaced

Replace Splashy with Plymouth, or not…

Added by Jean-Michel Philippe about 13 years ago. Updated over 11 years ago.

Status:

Ready for test

Priority:

Normal

Assignee:

Jean-Michel Philippe

Category:

Programming

Target version:

DoudouLinux CD - 2012-08

Start date:

08/01/2011

Due date:

09/30/2012 (over 11 years late)

% Done:

100%

Estimated time:

5:00 h

Spent time:

4:30 h

Description

Splashy is not in Debian Squeeze anymore, but is back to Debian testing/unstable. On the other hand, another package, Plymouth, is available to show a nice animated boot screen at system startup. A thread on the Debian live list highlighted several issues with Plymouth:

http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-live@lists.debian.org/msg07087.html

We have to evaluate which solution is to be chosen:

use the official Plymouth package
backport the current version of Splashy from testing

Related issues 3 (2 open — 1 closed)

Related to DoudouLinux CD - Feature #148: start-stop-msg has to use an alternative shutdown image on CD's

New

03/28/2012

09/30/2012

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Related to DoudouLinux CD - Task #452: Import best practices from Tails distro

Closed

Jean-Michel Philippe

01/20/2012

01/31/2012

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Related to Graphic design - Task #479: Design an animated boot for Plymouth

New

Elisa de Castro Guerra

12/03/2011

11/30/2012

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Issue # Delay: days Cancel

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Updated by Jean-Michel Philippe almost 13 years ago

Due date set to 08/22/2011
Category set to Installation
Status changed from New to In Progress
Assignee set to Jean-Michel Philippe
% Done changed from 0 to 10

We need to add a hook script to configure Plymouth, according to the following page:

http://blog.thelinuxfr.org/Plymouth-sous-Squeeze.html

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Updated by Jean-Michel Philippe over 12 years ago

It seems Plymouth is using KMS to show during early boot. As there is currently no KMS driver for ATI video cards, plus many old/low brand video chipsets, this would mean that graphical boot would not succeed for these graphical configurations. We have to check this point but, if it is confirmed, we will have to use a backport of Splashy. See:

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/Plymouth

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Updated by Jean-Michel Philippe over 12 years ago

Backporting Splashy may not be so hazardous since the version has not evolved so much between Lenny and Wheezy: 0.3.13-5.1 against 0.3.13-3. At a first glance dependencies should just require that we backport splashy and libsplashy.

But what about support for Splashy in the live initramfs of Squeeze? Further investigations are required, certainly on the debian-live mailing list.

http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/splashy
http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/libsplashy1

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Updated by Jean-Michel Philippe over 12 years ago

Due date changed from 08/22/2011 to 11/21/2011
Target version changed from Squeeze to 2011-11
Start date changed from 06/20/2011 to 08/01/2011
% Done changed from 10 to 20

Task moved to November due to technical issues.

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Updated by Jean-Michel Philippe over 12 years ago

It seems Plymouth is able to use a frame buffer interface as well, which may solve the case of video drivers not managed by KMS:

“For systems that don't have DRM mode settings drivers, plymouth falls back to text mode (it can also use a legacy /dev/fb interface).”

(copied from http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/Plymouth)

We need a computer with an old video card since many Ati, Intel and nVidia cards are managed by KMS:

http://wiki.debian.org/KernelModesetting

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Updated by Jean-Michel Philippe over 12 years ago

I've just tested the framebuffer option for an nVidia card using the proprietary driver (which requires to disable the KMS compatible driver nouveau). This works fine, setting procedure is detailed on this page:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=60019

Note that it's no use changing the Grub resolution as indicated with GRUB_GFXMODE=1400x1050 in file /etc/default/grub. I don't know whether Plymouth can switch to framebuffer automatically when KMS isn't available or if we need to always use framebuffer.

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Updated by Jean-Michel Philippe over 12 years ago

% Done changed from 20 to 30

There are some known troubles to put Plymouth on Debian Live, with several solutions:

http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.devel.live/11037

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Updated by Jean-Michel Philippe over 12 years ago

% Done changed from 30 to 70

I managed to have a Plymouth start with a slightly modified spacefun theme in VirtualBox, thus with framebuffer instead of KMS. We now have to look at how to translate messages and… designing an animated theme :).

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