Fixing Plymouth (boot splash) in Ubuntu 10.10 aka. Maverick Meerkat


If you’ve recently installed Ubuntu 10.10 and have installed Nvidia and/or ATI drivers — or installed ubuntu under emulation — you’ll end up with a (butt) ugly splash screen. In my case under parallel 6.0 I ended up with a text boot screen that just read “Ubuntu 10.10″……Ughhh. Here is a quick tutorial on how to get a nice splash restored. This procedure also works in 10.04. Keep in mind that I’m doing everything with 1280×1024 screen size. your mileage might vary (ie: you might want 1024×768). You’ll need to get a terminal session opened for this:

  • Get the nice splash screen installed
    sudo apt-get install v86d
  • Edit your grub config file and add the following
    sudo vi /etc/default/grub
  • Look for this line:
    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
  • and replace it with this (note: 1280×1024 screen res…..your mileage might vary):
    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x1024-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap"
  • Still in the same file look for this line:
    #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480
  • and replace it with this (note: 1280×1024 screen res…..your mileage might vary):
    GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x1024

Your /etc/default/grub file should look like this once you’re done (partial screenshot):

  • Save the file and issue the following command to start editing /etc/initramfs-tools/modules file:
    sudo vi /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
  • The file should be mostly commented out. At the end of the file insert the following line (note: 1280×1024 screen res…..your mileage might vary):
    uvesafb mode_option=1280x1024-24 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap

Your /etc/initramfs-tools/modules file should look like this once you’re done:

  • Save the file and issue the following command:
    echo FRAMEBUFFER=y | sudo tee /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash
  • Finally issue the following two command to update grub:
    sudo update-grub2
    sudo update-initramfs -u

Reboot and Enjoy :-)

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2 responses to “Fixing Plymouth (boot splash) in Ubuntu 10.10 aka. Maverick Meerkat”

  1. it’s nice only at startup, when shutting down, it just showed the ubuntu logo “in square” and the progress bar, no purple background..

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