Bring back process listing into boot screen

[tomislavmedak]

i really dislike that in the process of moving from dapper to edgy the process listing on the boot sequence screen was completely dropped. now it has turned into become a blackbox (pun intended) with a logo and a progress bar. it also sends a message - "user doesn't need to know". even the OS X lets user not some bits.

or should this be understood as an indication that one hopes to reduce the boot sequence to become so quick that it won't make any sense to send text messages?

[tom56]

My understanding is that with upstart processes are started in parallel anyway, so the text would be wrong. Contrary to that I also remember hearing that pressing esc takes you to verbose, but I can't test right now as I'm not on 6.10 yet (can't find a blank CD!).

[infinito]

If you remove the "quiet" word from /boot/grub/menu.lst you should get what you want...

[djst]

Just add the ability to press Esc to display the rubbish for anyone who desires it, but don't display it by default. I don't care about what it's doing, I care about using my computer.

[simplyw00x]

Many people at least want to see their computer is doing something; the jerky movement of the erratic 'progress' bar does not provide this IMO. I have quiet removed from my grub line and I can heartily reccommend said.

[djst]

Many people at least want to see their computer is doing something; the jerky movement of the erratic 'progress' bar does not provide this IMO.

Many people? Perhaps, but most people just don't look at the boot screen but take the opportunity to do something else while their computer is starting up.

I have quiet removed from my grub line and I can heartily reccommend said.

Good for you if you find it interesting. But recommending it to others? You need to know about the people you're recommending it to. I doubt people prefer lots of cryptic text flashing by on the screen than a polished graphics and progress bar. Personally I have too little time to stare at a boot screen, I usually start the computer while getting dressed and ready for work.

[Johnathon]

I too have found this annoying. But I tend to use it for debug purposes - its nice to see what stage in the boot process it dies. (I've yet to find a system that will never have critical problems.)

[incubus]

Many people? Perhaps, but most people just don't look at the boot screen but take the opportunity to do something else while their computer is starting up.



Good for you if you find it interesting. But recommending it to others? You need to know about the people you're recommending it to. I doubt people prefer lots of cryptic text flashing by on the screen than a polished graphics and progress bar. Personally I have too little time to stare at a boot screen, I usually start the computer while getting dressed and ready for work.

djst,

I do think a significant proportion of users like to know what's going on during boot process. Of course, Ubuntu has to accommodate both techies and non-techies. Or boot-readers and non-boot-readers, to be precise here.

I agree with you that it may not be the best idea to show a lot of kernel messages by default, but it is very important to have access to that option. And easily.

That said, removing the "quiet" option from the boot command works as discussed above. I haven't tested hitting ESC, though.

best,
incubus

[hotani]

I say no. It should be a nice image with a progress bar, but for the people that want to see the verbose stuff they should be able to set the option somewhere.

So maybe that is yes and no. :)

[ajackson]

I'm techie orientated but to be honest I don't pay much attention to my pc when it is booting up and I think the default of no text is the right one, the text could scare the inexperienced user. Anyway if you are techie minded you know that a simple tweak of /boot/grub/menu.lst is all you need.

[kanapee]

I thought I had done something wrong when I rebooted the first time after updating the uplash or whatever. :D
Now I don't pay too much attention on the bootup...

I just think there should be a simpler way to enter verbose mode than edit the GRUB commands.

One of the facts which I very much dislike in Windows OS's is that they don't let the user know what he want's to, and I don't want Ubuntu to take that direction.

Alltogether, quiet bootup should be default, but verbose should be available easily, even thought the users who want it (mostly hardcore users AFAIK) probably knows how to edit the GRUB-line...

[Topfs]

Many people at least want to see their computer is doing something; the jerky movement of the erratic 'progress' bar does not provide this IMO. I have quiet removed from my grub line and I can heartily reccommend said.

well I think that having no text by default is the right one but for the erratic progressbar i think your right, I'd like something at least running smoothly throughout the boot (As in suse for example with it's little ball that's rolling).
One thing to that is good with suse is that it doesn't have a progress bar (suse 10.0) but rather a few icons that lits up when you have got these working, a good simple and good looking way to have a person know where in the boot up the computer hangs, better than a progress bar imho

But well one could probably just change the theme for this if one wanted the said suse version. But I'd like a simple gui program for this thought, should be as simple as changing login or the GTK+ theme.

[incubus]

Looks like most of us agree that it's important to be able to see what's going on easily.

To be sure, let me give an example. When I installed Edgy on my laptop, the boot process was taking a very long time. Sure I can read the output of dmesg, but being able to see what the OS is doing tells me quickly where the problem is.

What I have in mind is really the new users: are we going to tell them to edit GRUB and read "dmesg" just to start troubleshooting a boot problem?

Something simple like "Press F2 for verbose mode", for example, would help a lot in my opinion. Somebody mentioned that ESC does that, I haven't tested it myself, but if that's the case, it should say so somewhere there.

incubus

[amgeex]

Just do a search for "Beautiful text boot" or something like that in the forums and you should come up with a guide to completely remove the splas screen. :)

[David Corrales]

Do it like fedora... you click to show/hide the details and it looks awesome.

[elamericano]

ESC and F2 don't let you see the text. I think the default is right. Even I don't need to see it most of the time, but locking me out during boot is going too far. :mad:

BTW, does anyone know how to change the color of the text under the progress bar? I'm getting a dark blue that's hard to read and clashes with the progress bar.

[giffypop17]

Do it like fedora... you click to show/hide the details and it looks awesome.

I can't believe it tooks someone so long to say that...I was about to, right before I read your post... As far as displaying verbose information, I don't see anyway you can make it more elegant or easier than how Fedora 6 does it...

regarding the progress bar...I can't remember which distro/DE it was from, but my favorite had a series of steps represented by icons in a row, executed from left to right, that would bounce when that step was being performed, and I think they lit up or something when it was done...

I know the bouncing icon may be cheesy to some (and a rotating one, a blinking one, etc would be cheesy to others), but it was a simple way to display what step it was, and that it was still working.

as far as progress indicators go, I also like SUSE's installer that shows exactly how long you have left and how long until you reach certain steps (in this case, changing discs), but hopefully, a boot sequence wouldn't be so long that this would be necessary...

[Xgen]

...BTW, does anyone know how to change the color of the text under the progress bar?
Replace "quiet" in the menu.lst text with vga=792 or vga=789. It should give you orange text instead of blue...it does for me. Incidentally, the latest updates change the usplash boot screen logo and progress graphic slightly.

[Amaranth]

Do it like fedora... you click to show/hide the details and it looks awesome.
Fedora uses a hack that involves putting an X server in the initrd and starting it right away to show the boot progress then loading the real X server for normal usage.

[lexxonnet]

Well... I like the present system, because it loads the splash screen quickly(without loading X or whatever) and hence boots really quick. I have quiet turned off personally, but I think it should be a simple progress bar for the new user.

IIRC, you can show the text behind by hitting ctrl+alt+F1 since all this should be taking place in the first virtual console anyway
*edit*
Actually, Ctrl+Alt+F1 only shows you everything if you have quiet mode turned off...

[jethro10]

djst,

I do think a significant proportion of users like to know what's going on during boot process. Of course, Ubuntu has to accommodate both techies and non-techies.
best,
incubus

Nope,
Ubuntu is for Human Beings, not Techies.
You can still get what you want either with Ubuntu or elsewhere.
Jeff

[kanem]

Nope,
Ubuntu is for Human Beings, not Techies.
You can still get what you want either with Ubuntu or elsewhere.
Jeff
What species of animal are techies?

[jethro10]

What species of animal are techies?

In the context of Ubuntus catchphrase "Linux for Human Beings", meaning the larger non technical group of nearly everyone.

Techies must be...well... Dunno. My Mother in Law certains thinks I'M not human..

Does that Help?

:)

[rabid emu]

I went a step further to see what goes on during startup: I boot in runlevel 3. It shows no logo or bar, it is entirely terminal showing the text of what happens during bootup. When it finishes, it starts X like normal. I personally think it's cooler to see the streaming text than to see a dumb progress bar. It's what has always distinguishes linux from windows or OS X for me; I was always impressed when I saw the streaming text with the [OK] on the right for each step, on my mom's Redhat box when I was a kid.

[Next.Step]

I think bootup is quicker with no text on the boot screen. Developers at Redmond simplifyed the Vista bootscreen for exactly the same reason.

[vincentvee]

Many people? Perhaps, but most people just don't look at the boot screen but take the opportunity to do something else while their computer is starting up.



Good for you if you find it interesting. But recommending it to others? You need to know about the people you're recommending it to. I doubt people prefer lots of cryptic text flashing by on the screen than a polished graphics and progress bar. Personally I have too little time to stare at a boot screen, I usually start the computer while getting dressed and ready for work.
me, i just don't like the new boot screen