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Hans de Goede c09c651afe Merge branch 'simpledrm-coldplug-fix' into 'main'
ply-device-manager: Also ignore SimpleDRM devs in coldplug enumeration path

See merge request plymouth/plymouth!200
2022-10-03 09:10:57 +00:00
docs docs: fix man page cross-reference 2020-05-30 13:51:47 +02:00
images ship bizcom unconditionally 2008-06-22 00:49:24 -04:00
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src ply-device-manager: Also ignore SimpleDRM devs in coldplug enumeration path 2022-09-28 15:41:58 +02:00
systemd-units systemd: Add plymouth-switch-root-initramfs.service to switch back to initramfs on shutdown 2021-04-06 13:45:41 +02:00
themes spinfinity: use logo file passed to configure 2022-01-11 14:28:45 +00:00
.gitignore gitignore: Add plymouthd-fd-escrow to gitignore 2022-02-28 16:28:41 +01:00
.gitlab-ci.yml ci: Don't run uncrustify on debian 2022-08-30 09:54:51 -04:00
acinclude.m4 [configure] Add AS_AC_EXPAND for configured dirs 2009-08-07 16:32:32 -04:00
AUTHORS Add Peter to AUTHORS 2008-06-10 21:59:10 -04:00
autogen.sh build-goo: get rid of warnings related to non-GNU systems 2013-12-11 13:32:54 -05:00
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configure.ac Fix build after README changes 2022-09-10 15:12:11 -04:00
COPYING initial import 2007-05-08 17:48:00 -04:00
INSTALL build-goo: Remove vestigial remnants of old GDM integration code. 2020-03-07 00:36:54 +08:00
Makefile.am Update Makefile.am 2022-09-07 18:07:31 +00:00
NEWS initial import 2007-05-08 17:48:00 -04:00
ply_header.svg Add README in .md format. 2022-09-07 18:07:31 +00:00
README.md Add README in .md format. 2022-09-07 18:07:31 +00:00
TODO Add hack to make maintenance mode probably work when 2008-06-30 17:55:15 -04:00
VERSION autogoo: Determine project version from date 2022-01-11 10:38:28 -05:00

header image

Overview

Plymouth is an application that runs very early in the boot process (even before the root filesystem is mounted!) that provides a graphical boot animation while the boot process happens in the background.

It is designed to work on systems with DRM modesetting drivers. The idea is that early on in the boot process the native mode for the computer is set, plymouth uses that mode, and that mode stays throughout the entire boot process up to and after X starts. Ideally, the goal is to get rid of all flicker during startup.

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).

In either text or graphics mode, the boot messages are completely occluded. After the root file system is mounted read-write, the messages are dumped to /var/log/boot.log. Also, the user can see the messages at any time during boot up by hitting the escape key.

Installation

Plymouth isn't really designed to be built from source by end users. For it to work correctly, it needs integration with the distribution. Because it starts so early, it needs to be packed into the distribution's initial ram disk, and the distribution needs to poke plymouth to tell it how boot is progressing.

Binary Files

plymouth ships with two binaries:

  • /sbin/plymouthd and
  • /bin/plymouth

The first one, plymouthd, does all the heavy lifting. It logs the session and shows the splash screen. The second one, /bin/plymouth, is the control interface to plymouthd.

It supports things like plymouth show-splash, or plymouth ask-for-password, which trigger the associated action in plymouthd.

Plymouth supports various "splash" themes which are analogous to screensavers, but happen at boot time. There are several sample themes shipped with plymouth, but most distributions that use plymouth ship something customized for their distribution.

Current Efforts

Plymouth isn't done yet. It's still under active development, but is used in several popular distros already, including Fedora, Mandriva, Ubuntu and others. See the distributions page for more information.

Code of Conduct

As with other projects hosted on freedesktop.org, Plymouth follows its Code of Conduct, based on the Contributor Covenant1. Please conduct yourself in a respectful and civilized manner when using the above mailing lists, bug trackers, etc:

References