Why does fbsplash start so late?

[tristure]

Hi, I have installed fbsplash (via splashutils) on my box (using ck-sources 2.6.8 ).

It does work, but it starts so late that it's almost useless : most of boot / default services come before fbsplash during boot sequence, and only a few seconds after it has started x and kdm start, so I don't see my splash screen anymore.

splash service is on boot runlevel. I have tried default level but it makes splash come even later (and then startx fails).

Any ideas on this? Thanks!

[LB06]

I have the same problems, starting with linux-dev-sources-2.6.9-r8. R6 worked fine for me. So it seems to be kernel related. Can't help you, though.

[pulgitaflo]

Do you use initial ramdisk? It should then be displayed right after the kernel boot... if you have configured initial ramdisk, I'm pretty clueless what your problem might be - if not, refer to the Documentation - Good luck

[tristure]

I use genkernel, so i have an initrd (genkernel automatically generates an initrd).

[pulgitaflo]

OK, I think this explains a lot - Actually I never used genkernel, but I'm pretty sure the initrd it generates does not contain the necessary stuff for splash (pictures, helper-apps and configs)... so try (assuming you're using grub)

[LB06]

My menu.lst

[pulgitaflo]

Like I said, I never used genkernel - what's the --bootsplash option doing? Adds it support for bootsplash (which is deprecated and AFAIK no longer included in the current 2.6.x series) or does it also support fbsplash (which is obviously what you are trying to use)... your grub setup looks perfectly sane to me... might it be an udev issue in your case? fbsplash won't be started until there is a framebuffer device. Well, maybe just the right time to give udev a try to see what happens

[tristure]

My kernel was also generated by genkernel with --bootsplash option.
I don't think it adds support for fbsplash.

This might be the problem.

Now I don't know how to solve this? Genkernel generated an initrd that contains stuff, I can't delete it to replace it with a fbsplash initrd.

I'll try pulgitaflo's tip to see if it works that way!

[tristure]

I've just noticed that the latest genkernel has a --gensplash option which
will 'Install gensplash support into bzImage'.
Is it the same as fbsplash?

[LB06]

I compiled my own g-d-s 2.6.9 r9, which has the appropriate patch built-in. My menu.lst is still the same, with only some minor changes that only affects my debian install.

Still no luck, though. The progressbar comes up after 10 sec or so, and my console background image comes up only 2 seconds before I see the login prompt. Adding splash to boot instead of the default runlevel helps somewhat, but only for the console background image.

[tristure]

I recently switched to 2.6.9 nitro 4.
And the splash screen still appears as late as it would with other kernel.
I'm quite sure it's genkernel related - on my box.
I should try to compile my kernel manually.

[Evil Dark Archon]

i would use the --gensplash option, fbsplash is another name for gensplash (or the other way around, i'm not quite sure)
_________________
This post has been over explained for newb-informing purposes.

Registered Linux user 347334
Abit AV8-3rd eye, AMD Athlon64 3500+ 90nm, ATI Radeon x850 pro

[LB06]

[D1g1talS0ul]

I was having the same issue today until I added the following to my kernel.

[tristure]

Well I have the same options as you (except for the bootup logo, which I enabled, I don't know if it's a possible cause).

Anyway fbsplash does work. It's just that the switch to framebuffer console image happens so late in the boot process that it's useless.

Well I can live with that, I think.
Especially given the really awesome quality of the nitro 2.6.9 I use. I'm really impressed!

[tristure]

Another surprising thing I have just noticed : if I set my splash option to silent instead of verbose, the splash remains verbose during boot. It only switches to silent when I shut the computer down, during shutdown sequence.
Weird.

[pulgitaflo]

This might well be because splash switches to verbose if errors or warnings are displayed - I like seeing those boot messages, so I don't care too much for silent mode . But it does not explain why it is initialized so late - mine is displayed after just a few lines of kernel ouput... weird. Are all of you using udev? I'm still on devfs, this might be an idea - /dev/fb0 must be available before any framebuffer can be used IIRC and I don't know when udev is available...
It's just a shot in the dark, though....

[tristure]

I'm using devfs as well, so I don't think that's the explanation.

Verbose mode is allright for me, anyway.

[Archangel1]

[F.Ultra]

I have the same problem on a desktop I built for my wife, it seams like her graphics card is initialized at the very end of the kernel-boot and the splash isn't displayed until then. Is there a way to perhaps move the graphics driver up in the boot process? This is an i845G card.

On my laptop the graphics-card is found quite early in the boot so there is no problems.

[Evil Dark Archon]

you would have to use the old vesafb driver, that gets initialized imediately but at the expense of support for refresh rates beyond 60 hertz, and the problem of the fbsplash starting late is probably the fact that loopback, ramdisk and inital ramdisk support is probably not compiled into the kernel, at least on the unstable (~arch) baselayout it will at least start after it initializes udev (or devfs on a devfs system)
_________________
This post has been over explained for newb-informing purposes.

Registered Linux user 347334
Abit AV8-3rd eye, AMD Athlon64 3500+ 90nm, ATI Radeon x850 pro

[tristure]

Some interesting progress here, but still weird stuff.


I compiled my own kernel successfully (first time for me, whooohoo -and yes I know that it's not a huge achievement, but still).

I have no initrd, I just use the default theme as stated in the gentoo howto.

Silent mode starts right from the start.

But there is a point in the boot process when the silent splash screen disappears and I get the console display with a background - it's the same point as when the image would switch in my former configuration.

The message at this very moment is "setting console to framebuffer image [ok]" or something like that.

So now, splash works right from the start... but not until the end of the boot sequence!!!

Weird, huh?

[drescherjm]

For a few weeks (and many gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.9 versions) I was using the --gensplash option of genkernel to install my splash theme (emergence) into the kernel and it worked fine (kernel huge though) but now with the latest build (gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.10-r1 I get the late splash effect. I may go back to the initrd way as this method will not work on my amd64 boxes because the kernel compile fails with an error that the kernel is too big...
_________________
John

My gentoo overlay
Instructons for overlay

[F.Ultra]

By the strangest way I have removed my late start of the fsplash image, I simly added the default splash image for grub. I have never used the splash facility for grub before because I really liked the text version better, but somehow when grub is configured to use a splash, atleast on my system, then the fsplash image also comes up at once on boot and not until the kernel is almost finished.

I have tryed to remove the splashimage from grub and then the old behaviour was back, adding it again and it works nice again

The only problem now is that the splash switches to verbose mode before kdm kicks in its graphics, I can see the console login line some second before kdm starts.

[drescherjm]

That is interesting. I have always had a splash image with grub and still I get the late effect..
_________________
John

My gentoo overlay
Instructons for overlay