LinuxMCE Splash Screen - an end in sight

[phenigma]

Although I've seen some concept art, I have not yet seen a functional boot splash screen for LinuxMCE.  I had some spare time so I learned a little debian packaging and played (a little) with The GIMP.  The result, a splash screen for LinuxMCE to test.  This is by no means a finished product, and I am not a graphic designer by any stretch of the imagination, but I want to know how well it works for people.  Try it out and let me know!

Grab the .deb here: http://www.4shared.com/file/RtI1aYPs/usplash-theme-linuxmce_02-1_i3.html

Install (as root):

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dpkg -i usplash-theme-linuxmce_0.2-1_i386.deb

update-initramfs was updating an older kernel on my system so I had to execute the following to force it to build a new initrd.gz for the kernel I'm using:

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update-initramfs -k $(uname -r) -u

If you run an nvidia card.... I had to add a vga=xxx line to defoptions in /boot/grub/menu.list and run update-grub to have a working splash on shutdown.  My EeePC didn't need this worked without a vga=xxx line,

The package is simply the xubuntu-artwork-usplash repacked in a new .deb with new images/throbber location (which is centered at the bottom of the image but not shown in the attached file).

It's likely to change but if you don't like it or don't want to keep it you can 'apt-get remove' the package and you'll return to the kubuntu splash.

J.

[pw44]

Really cool... I did like it

[RayBe]

awesome work phenigma,
looks stunning,

br,
Raymond

[phenigma]

I'm glad you like it.  The image is the lmce logo from the wiki, ddamron posted the logos originally.  I simply applied a single effect to it and moved the progress bar to the bottom.

Because I only have a very limited amount of hardware to test, could you share with me:
1. what video card you use (intel xxxx, nvidia xxx, etc...)
2. The video connection method (vga, hdmi, dvi, svga, ...)
3. The avwizard resolution you use
2. is the splash screen garbled or showing correctly on shutdown

Thanks!

J.

[nite_man]

Nice work! I thought about replacing Ubuntu splash screen by some LinuxMCE logo long time ago. But I'm too lazy to do something like you Thanks!

[phenigma]

Your welcome.  I'm trying to remove the kubuntu specific branding from the boot/shutdown screens (and ultimately the dvd install) and I'm going to see if I can tackle any of the other issues mentioned by Thom here: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=9726.0

J.

[Murdock]

Nicely done

[RayBe]

phenigma,

i didn't had a chance to actually try the Splash Screen just yet.
after a long time of testing i finally got my core up and running.
now i use my time to get things going 1 by 1, step by step.
at the moment i am getting all my dvd's and cd's on the core (and figuring out whats the best way for me)
when i have time i will try your splash screen,
by the way does this splash overwrite any files or is there a option to select?

anyway, i really like your work,
br
Raymond

[phenigma]

It doesn't overwrite any files.  You can choose your splash screen from the console with:

Code: [Select]

update-alternatives --config usplash-artwork.so
To remove it from your system you can apt-get remove the package.

J.

[phenigma]

A new version, very much improved in my mind.  New throbber (progress bar) inspired by merkur2k's design (http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=8280.msg55004#msg55004) of more than a year ago now.

New preview is attached.

Download: Follow the link in the first post.
http://uploading.com/files/337e24da/usplash-theme-linuxmce_0.2-1_i386.deb/

Install:

Code: [Select]

# dpkg -i usplash-theme-linuxme_0.2-1_i386.deb
You can switch between installed themes like this:

Code: [Select]

# update-alternatives --config usplash-artwork.so
# update-initramfs -u -k all
I'm going to try to wrap this up, submit it to svn and add the package definition to the database.  I've tested adding it to the dvd installer and it works great there as well so I'll try to add the changes for that over the next couple of days as well.  Seperately I think I've solved the remaining splash/boot issues posted by TSCHAK (http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=9726.0) and I'll try to wrap that up into svn as well.  

J.

[fastie81]

Hi

Thanks for this
I just tried it and it install, But when I rebooted it did not show the new splash.
After doing this again it worked..
# update-alternatives --config usplash-artwork.so
# update-initramfs -u -k all
I am trying it on my 50" LG over HDMI and it look great.. wish we could get it to stay on until it had it over to X. But looks great

C

[phenigma]

Thanks fastie81 for trying it out!  You had to run the update-initramfs because lmce is not updating the kernel symlink in / to the newest kernel (only if you've done a dvd install, a net install should not exhibit this problem).  I believe I know why but have to test a couple things to get that fixed.

As for extending the bootsplash right until Xwindows starts.  I\ve got that done as well but the changes are not part of the bootsplash image itself so they'll be added to svn seperately.  I have my system booting with the splash screen on until X starts, no spurious terminal switches or boot text showing.

J.

[huh]

This really looks good- great job. 

Someone else was working on a splash screen and posted a patch- here's the link:
http://svn.linuxmce.org/trac.cgi/ticket/656

[phenigma]

thanks huh.  Yes, I saw that ticket, castlec did some good work.  The 'full source' link isn't working for me and the splash included in the tarball in the ticket didn't work completely.  Nice idea though, has the progress bar on Tux's screen... I learned a lot from it. 

J.

[huh]

sweetness- when you finish will be one more ticket down from 810 release.  Thanks for doing this!