Missing Plymouth splash screen during bootup after kernel upgrade

[Claus7]

Hello,

there are two different things that I was able to notice: i) you are using virtualbox ii) your version is a 32bit one. I do not know if these somehow affect the final behavior.

You might want to change from lightdm to gdm3 and back again in case this fixes your issue.

Regards!

[faubuntu]

Uncommented the following line in GRUB to see if forcing a resolution would make a difference.

GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

to no avail.


By the way, there's no differences in GRUB between the working version and the non-working one.

[faubuntu]

Hello,

there are two different things that I was able to notice: i) you are using virtualbox ii) your version is a 32bit one. I do not know if these somehow affect the final behavior.

You might want to change from lightdm to gdm3 and back again in case this fixes your issue.

Regards!

Thanks Claus7,

I have just tried installing and switching to gdm3, unfortunately it did not make a difference, and neither does switching back.

Since I'm trying different installs to try and pinpoint where the issue originates from, I'll probably try the 64 bit version as well. I still need to use VirtualBox though.

[CatKiller]

The kernel versions of ubuntu 18.04 are 5.x, so I do not understand why you still have 4.x ones.

The kernel version for 18.04 and 18.04.1 is 4.15. The kernel version for 18.04.2 and 18.04 with the Hardware Enablement Stack is 4.18. 5.0 will come with the next Hardware Enablement Stack update with 18.04.3.

[faubuntu]

The kernel version for 18.04 and 18.04.1 is 4.15. The kernel version for 18.04.2 and 18.04 with the Hardware Enablement Stack is 4.18. 5.0 will come with the next Hardware Enablement Stack update with 18.04.3.

Thanks CatKiller,

this would actually be consistent with what I had read on It's Foss in this article https://itsfoss.com/linux-kernel-5/

Some rolling release distributions like Arch Linux will start to provide Kernel 5.0 in a few days (or hours perhaps). Check your Linux kernel version and see if it’s already updated to the new kernel with the last system update.


But most other distributions like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, Debian etc won’t provide this release anytime soon (or ever).

[faubuntu]

Update: I have installed images from lubuntu-18.04-desktop-i386.iso and lubuntu-18.04.2-desktop-i386.iso, with various install options (i.e. minimal/full, download/don't download drivers, etc.) but in all cases I got the missing graphical splash screen right from the start, i.e. with a clean install.

$ uname -a
Linux drupalpro-VirtualBox 4.15.0-20-generic #21-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 24 06:15:38 UTC 2018 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux

Kernel version appears to be the same as the initial version of the alternate image, where I do not experience the issue.

This seemed inconsistent with my initial assumptions that the kernel version might be responsible for the issue. Also, this would have left the 'Alternate' image as the only one not presenting the issue right after a clean install.

I decided to perform another clean install of the 'Alternate' image again. Interestingly enough, the issue was present from the start this time, which I found confusing.

I then realized that I had upgraded Virtualbox version, from VirtualBox-5.2.28-130011-Win to VirtualBox-5.2.30-130521-Win.

So, by downgrading Virtualbox back to version 5.2.28 the issue is no longer there.


This is still somewhat confusing: if I leave the image as a clean install Plymouth will behave as expected during boot-up. But if I perform any software update that involves a kernel upgrade Plymouth will not show the splash screen anymore.

[faubuntu]

Also, I tried a 64-bit install which did not work from the start (graphical issues). Given I did this for troubleshooting purposes, I am going to assume that all the other 64-bit versions present this problem and will no longer pursue this branch.

[CatKiller]

I mean, you can clearly see the difference:

[main.c:926]           plymouth_should_show_default_splash:checking if plymouth should show default splash
[main.c:954]           plymouth_should_show_default_splash:using default splash because kernel command line has option "splash"
[ply-device-manager.c:766]                 create_devices_from_terminals:checking for consoles
[ply-device-manager.c:544]                        add_consoles_from_file:opening /sys/class/tty/console/active
[ply-device-manager.c:552]                        add_consoles_from_file:reading file
[ply-device-manager.c:590]                        add_consoles_from_file:console /dev/tty1 found!
[ply-device-manager.c:378]                         watch_for_udev_events:watching for udev graphics device add and remove events
[ply-device-manager.c:282]                  create_devices_for_subsystem:creating objects for drm devices
[ply-device-manager.c:299]                  create_devices_for_subsystem:found device /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/drm/card0
[ply-device-manager.c:306]                  create_devices_for_subsystem:device is initialized
[ply-device-manager.c:315]                  create_devices_for_subsystem:found node /dev/dri/card0
[ply-device-manager.c:229]                create_devices_for_udev_device:device subsystem is drm
[ply-device-manager.c:232]                create_devices_for_udev_device:found DRM device /dev/dri/card0
[ply-device-manager.c:679] create_devices_for_terminal_and_renderer_type:creating devices for /dev/dri/card0 (renderer type: 1) (terminal: /dev/tty1)
[ply-renderer.c:236]                      ply_renderer_open_plugin:trying to open renderer plugin /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/plymouth/renderers/drm.so
[./plugin.c:609]                                create_backend:creating renderer backend for device /dev/dri/card0
[./plugin.c:701]                                   load_driver:Opening '/dev/dri/card0'
[ply-terminal.c:603]                             ply_terminal_open:trying to open terminal '/dev/tty1'
[ply-terminal.c:396]                 ply_terminal_refresh_geometry:looking up terminal text geometry
[ply-terminal.c:410]                 ply_terminal_refresh_geometry:terminal is now 100x37 text cells
[ply-terminal.c:447]                                 get_active_vt:Remembering that initial vt is 1

vs

[main.c:926]           plymouth_should_show_default_splash:checking if plymouth should show default splash
[main.c:954]           plymouth_should_show_default_splash:using default splash because kernel command line has option "splash"
[ply-device-manager.c:814]                 create_devices_from_terminals:checking for consoles
[ply-device-manager.c:592]                        add_consoles_from_file:opening /sys/class/tty/console/active
[ply-device-manager.c:600]                        add_consoles_from_file:reading file
[ply-device-manager.c:638]                        add_consoles_from_file:console /dev/tty1 found!
[ply-device-manager.c:414]                         watch_for_udev_events:watching for udev graphics device add and remove events
[ply-device-manager.c:315]                  create_devices_for_subsystem:creating objects for drm devices
[main.c:2400]                                          main:entering event loop
[ply-boot-server.c:388]             print_connection_process_identity:connection is from pid 248 (plymouth --ping) with parent pid 235 (/bin/sh /etc/init.d/apparmor start)
[ply-event-loop.c:1060]   ply_event_loop_handle_disconnect_for_source:calling disconnected_handler 0x452b90 for fd 10
[ply-event-loop.c:1064]   ply_event_loop_handle_disconnect_for_source:done calling disconnected_handler 0x452b90 for fd 10
[ply-event-loop.c:1144]   ply_event_loop_free_destinations_for_source:freeing destination (1, 0x452d00, 0x452b90) of fd 10
[ply-event-loop.c:643]             ply_event_loop_remove_source_node:failed to delete fd 10 from epoll watch list: Bad file descriptor
[ply-boot-server.c:388]             print_connection_process_identity:connection is from pid 252 (/bin/plymouth show-splash) with parent pid 1 (/sbin/init splash plymouth:debug)
[ply-boot-server.c:484]                ply_boot_connection_on_request:got show splash request
[main.c:896]      plymouth_should_ignore_show_splash_calls:checking if plymouth should be running
[main.c:998]                                on_show_splash:no displays available to show splash on, waiting...
[ply-event-loop.c:1060]   ply_event_loop_handle_disconnect_for_source:calling disconnected_handler 0x452b90 for fd 10
[ply-event-loop.c:1064]   ply_event_loop_handle_disconnect_for_source:done calling disconnected_handler 0x452b90 for fd 10
[ply-event-loop.c:1144]   ply_event_loop_free_destinations_for_source:freeing destination (1, 0x452d00, 0x452b90) of fd 10
[ply-event-loop.c:643]             ply_event_loop_remove_source_node:failed to delete fd 10 from epoll watch list: Bad file descriptor

It's just not able to set up the card to draw the splash screen in.

Since one rarely needs to reboot, and it's a VM anyway, I personally wouldn't spend any time on it at all. Maybe it's a Grub configuration glitch, maybe it's an apparmor configuration glitch, maybe it's just changing how it interprets the pretend graphics card for the VM; it's just not that important, I'd say.

[faubuntu]

It's just not able to set up the card to draw the splash screen in.

Since one rarely needs to reboot, and it's a VM anyway, I personally wouldn't spend any time on it at all. Maybe it's a Grub configuration glitch, maybe it's an apparmor configuration glitch, maybe it's just changing how it interprets the pretend graphics card for the VM; it's just not that important, I'd say.

I appreciate that. It's just that I find this specific glitch puzzling and enjoyable to troubleshoot at the same time, although you are right that it's probably just cosmetic, and happens only during boot time.


I'm going to put it on the backburner for now, coming back to it occasionally. Thanks for the contribution.

[Claus7]

Hello,

The kernel version for 18.04 and 18.04.1 is 4.15. The kernel version for 18.04.2 and 18.04 with the Hardware Enablement Stack is 4.18. 5.0 will come with the next Hardware Enablement Stack update with 18.04.3.

Thanks CatKiller,

this would actually be consistent with what I had read on It's Foss in this article https://itsfoss.com/linux-kernel-5/

mea culpa! You are both correct. Working with 19.04 as well and facing for a brief amount of time the same issue with that version as well caused the confusion.

There can be some issues about virtualbox and booting procedures, in cases when some latest update shows up. A newest version of virtualbox might fix it soon.

Regards!