Editing Plymouth
You can edit Plymouth with a simple text editor for animations and images. This is Ubuntu version agnostic.
- Get Template
- Customize Template
- Set Custom Theme
Make a template
First you will get a template that covers all the basic aspects of a Plymouth. Change my-theme to your own personal them name.
sudo cp --recursive /lib/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-logo ~/themes/my-theme
Customize file names
Now you can change some names to help identify our theme from others.
sudo mv ubuntu-logo.plymouth my-theme.plymouth sudo mv ubuntu-logo.script my-theme.script sudo mv ubuntu-logo.grub my-theme.grub sudo mv ubuntu_logo16.png my_theme16.png sudo mv ubuntu_logo.png my_theme.png
Edit image files
Use your image editor of choice to alter the png images. I like GIMP for quick edits.
gimp my_theme.png my_theme16.png gimp progress_dot_on.png progress_dot_off.png gimp progress_dot_on16.png progress_dot_off16.png
Here is an example of my alterations:
Edit the configuration files.
- Set up theme information file.
gedit my-theme.plymouth
Edit lines 2, 7, and 8 and change ubuntu logo to you theme name.
[Plymouth Theme] Name=My Theme Description=A theme that features a blank background with a logo. ModuleName=script [script] ImageDir=/lib/plymouth/themes/my-theme ScriptFile=/lib/plymouth/themes/my-theme/my-theme.script
For 17.10+, replace /lib/plymouth/themes with /usr/share/plymouth/themes
- Start-up terminal color. (Optional)
gedit my-theme.grub
Change it from purple to something else.
Edit line 1 with RGB color code.
A good site to help you is Color-Hex. I am just going to make mine black.
if background_color 0,0,0; then
clear
fi
The script file to apply theme changes
gedit my-theme.script
There is many different aspects to this file that you can change to customize your plymouth boot theme. If you wish to do more advanced changes you should study it. I am only showing how to change the background color, logo, and status indicator.
Edit lines 169, 170, 174, and 180 to change the background gradient and images you edited earlier.
Window.SetBackgroundTopColor (0.66, 0.66, 0.66); #top
Window.SetBackgroundBottomColor (0.146, 0.146, 0.146); #bottom
bits_per_pixel = Window.GetBitsPerPixel ();
if (bits_per_pixel == 4) {
logo_filename = "my_theme16.png";
progress_dot_off_filename = "progress_dot_off16.png";
progress_dot_on_filename = "progress_dot_on16.png";
password_field_filename = "password_field16.png";
question_field_filename = "password_field16.png";
} else {
logo_filename = "my_theme.png";
progress_dot_off_filename = "progress_dot_off.png";
progress_dot_on_filename = "progress_dot_on.png";
password_field_filename = "password_field.png";
question_field_filename = "password_field.png";
}
Send your theme folder
cp --recursive ~/themes/my-theme /lib/plymouth/themes
Set Plymouth configuration to use theme.
sudo ln -sf /lib/plymouth/themes/my-theme/my-theme.plymouth /etc/alternatives/default.plymouth sudo ln -sf /lib/plymouth/themes/my-theme/my-theme.grub /etc/alternatives/default.plymouth.grub
18.04+
sudo update-initramfs -u
Restart to watch it in action.
You can get a list of themes available via the repositories through Synaptic Package Manager or through the command line via aptitude:
$ aptitude search plymouth-theme p lubuntu-plymouth-theme - plymouth theme for Lubuntu p plymouth-theme-fade-in - graphical boot animation and logger - fade-in theme p plymouth-theme-glow - graphical boot animation and logger - glow theme i plymouth-theme-kubuntu-logo - graphical boot animation and logger - kubuntu-logo theme p plymouth-theme-sabily - plymouth theme for Sabily p plymouth-theme-script - graphical boot animation and logger - script theme p plymouth-theme-solar - graphical boot animation and logger - solar theme p plymouth-theme-spinfinity - graphical boot animation and logger - spinfinity theme p plymouth-theme-text - graphical boot animation and logger - text theme c plymouth-theme-ubuntu-logo - graphical boot animation and logger - ubuntu-logo theme i plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text - graphical boot animation and logger - ubuntu-logo theme p plymouth-theme-ubuntustudio - Ubuntu Studio Plymouth theme p xubuntu-plymouth-theme - Plymouth theme for Xubuntu
You can then install the resulting packages via Synaptic or apt as normal:
$ sudo apt install plymouth-theme-solar
If you’re looking for something not in the repositories, UbuntuGeek has an excellent tutorial on how to install and create your own custom Plymouth themes.
