8

In Ubuntu 14.04, I was able to change my Plymouth Theme simply by going to /lib/plymouth/themes and copy my theme in there.

Then, by simply typing sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth (choosing the accordingly number of my theme) and sudo update-initramfs -u, I was able to change my Plymouth theme.

In Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, the folder /lib/plymouth/themes does not even exist.

By seraching in Nautilus, I was able to find the folder /usr/share/plymouth and place my theme under themes. Then, by typing in the shell the commands above, I was, theorically, able to change my Plymouth theme to my pre-copied one.

The truth is that, after changing the Plymouth theme to my own and after several reboots, no Plymouth theme is showed at boot. Just a black screen appears and then lightdm shows up and I login to my account...

I'm using burg as my default bootloader.

terdon
  • 104,119
Gonçalo Fernandes
  • 81

4 Answers4

2

I ran into a similar thing. After using synaptic to find the default plymouth theme, I hit properties to see what files were installed. That listed most files going into this directory

/usr/share/plymouth/themes

put all you files there then run

update-alternatives --install /usr/share/plymouth/themes/default.plymouth default.plymouth /usr/share/plymouth/themes/"path/to-your-plymouth.plymouth" 100
Mike
  • 31
2

These changes are read from the disk during shutdown, which is why that works.

On bootup, however, they are read from the initial in-memory file system image - initramfs, which you haven't updated with your changes. This is necessary because your regular file system isn't yet available.

Here's what I did to solve that in Ubuntu 14.04, so I can't guarantee it works for 16.04, but this command won't do any damage so it's worth a try.

If you run:

sudo update-initramfs -u

your changes will be put into place.

Braiam
  • 69,112
FrankO
  • 81
0

Open Nautilus as root by executing:

sudo -H nautilus

in the terminal and just go to /usr/share/plymouth/themes/ and then open the theme's folder and edit the .plymouth file using gedit.

In the .plymouth file, change the

[script]
ImageDir=/lib/plymouth/themes/themename
ScriptFile=/lib/plymouth/themes/themename/themename.script

to 

[script]
ImageDir=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/themename
ScriptFile=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/themename/themename.script

replacing themename with the name of the theme.

For example the theme's name is darwin so the edits should be:

[script]
ImageDir=/lib/plymouth/themes/darwin
ScriptFile=/lib/plymouth/themes/darwin/darwin.script

to 

[script]
ImageDir=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/darwin
ScriptFile=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/darwin/darwin.script
Zanna
  • 72,312
Daksh Tyagi
  • 1
0

Have a look at Unable to use a custom splash screen in Ubuntu 16.04LTS (waTeim and mac answers). It should work.

For more info, Check this out for installation and troubleshoot of plymouth themes in Ubuntu 16.04. http://rajeshksv.blogspot.in/2017/02/customize-ubuntu-linux-plymouth-splash.html (I have added all installation and troubleshooting at one place since many blogs in internet are outdated)

Community
  • 1
mac
  • 4,001