How to Disable Plymouth in Mint/Ubuntu

dixiedancer · 08-20-2010, 06:59 AM

Plymouth can't be removed from Ubuntu or Mint without taking half the system with it. It's got tentacles all over the whole OS!

But surely it can be disabled with some file edit or command line. Does anyone know how?

Thanks in advance,
Robin

linus72 · 08-20-2010, 07:07 AM

you can disable the splash by editing out the word "splash" on the grub2 menu boot line
just remove the word splash and it wont show
insert the word "text" and it will boot to command line, no gdm,etc

dixiedancer · 08-20-2010, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linus72

you can disable the splash by editing out the word "splash" on the grub2 menu boot line
just remove the word splash and it wont show
insert the word "text" and it will boot to command line, no gdm,etc

Where might I find the grub 2 menu boot line?

Like please tell me /usr/share or whatever. I don't know how to edit a line in Grub if I can't find it, lol.

Thanks,
Robin

syg00 · 08-20-2010, 10:20 AM

It is almost always better to describe the problem you think you have than demand an answer you have already fixated on.

For grub2, have a look at this. If you just want to see the boot messages Plymouth insists on hiding try the <Esc> key.

linus72 · 08-20-2010, 10:24 AM

oh, sorry

you can edit /boot/grub/grub.conf
here mine

Code:

menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,3)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 24ab71de-24cf-4f92-8360-0c7a577a02b3
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=24ab71de-24cf-4f92-8360-0c7a577a02b3 ro   quiet text
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
}

as you can see in blue, I removed "splash" and inserted "text"
if you still wish to boot to GDM/login manager then just remove the word splash
you must edit it as root

to make it permanent edit /etc/default/grub

Code:

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

then do "update-grub" in terminal as root

I hope that helps...
I suggest you also remove the "quiet" parameter too

CJ Chitwood · 08-29-2010, 11:37 PM

I see this isn't a too-ancient thread...

I have a similar problem, only I already have removed the "splash" comments to no avail: I *still* get a Mint splash.

My system worked fine at home, then when I took it to work, it quit. I had to reinstall when I brought it back home, and it worked fine again. I took it to work, it continued to work fine. I brought it home, it worked fine, back to work, worked fine. Brought it back home and now it's a totally new not-working state.

It acts like a hardware problem except that the liveCD works fine and the hard drive is not corrupt and I can fully read and write whatever I need. The hardware, therefore, I can only assume is fine. After all, if there were a problem, it should fail on both the installed system and the liveCD. I'd check logs, except for whatever reason Mint shows no logs after the point where the problem started -- it mounts the drive, so why can't it log to it? I'll post a new thread when I have time to do so (so as not to hijack this one), but right now, I just want to be able to troubleshoot the system without interference from a Windows-like splash virus.

I'd like to remove Plymouth, but as OP stated, it latches on to many, many necessary parts of the system (seemingly needlessly, all for the sake of dependencies). Maybe I can remove it without checking for dependencies, or maybe just remove the binary....

macaddict01 · 10-03-2010, 02:25 AM

I'm somewhat new to Mint and Ubuntu but I find it fascinating they included Plymouth in the distros. For me it causes a huge headache during boot cycles. More times than not it seems to not do a clean handover to the GDM and I'm stuck with a black screen until I do a ctl-alt-delete. Removing the 'splash' variable from all my grub entries did seem to help. Also, I used Synaptic to uninstall the Plymouth themes except for the text them.

widget · 10-14-2010, 04:46 PM

Do;

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

remover "splash" from the instruction string.

Then;

Code:

sudo update-grub

This will get rid of the graphic part of Plymouth. You will have to live with the rest of Plymouth (libplymouth2). This will help get rid of most of the problem but probably make the slow shut down more obvious. Shutdown will not be slower, could be faster but the error messages are all there, sometimes spread diagonally across the screen.

Plymouth is not real impressive.