* EDIT * - Due to several people reporting problems on thier setups with this, and new distro releases, etc... I would advise that the wiki article be considered before this topic, as I can no longer test or troubleshoot this method, myself (though, I can't test the wiki method either.) The wiki article is here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/US...omizationHowto
I wrote this HOWTO because I've noticed that myself and some other people have trouble reading the default usplash screen, and also because I wanted mine to be blue. I've included a few files as attachments, one for the default brown usplash, one that's color-shifted to be blue, and one with a custom olive palette. All are optimized for brighter text and a more obvious progress bar background, and each will still use the default red failure color for failed steps.
This HOWTO was derived from the wiki page found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/USplashCustomizationHowto , but modified for a bit more user-friendliness (I hope,) and to accomodate ease of use with the files that I made. This was written with usplash (0.1-22) in mind, as future versions of usplash may be subject to change.
If you wish to try one of the usplash image replacements that I have attached below, the process takes only a few minutes, and is relatively painless. Note that step one, installing the gcc and libbogl-dev packages, may install a few development packages as dependencies, and may take awhile on dial-up connections.
Download either the usplash-fix.png, usplash-blue.png, or usplash-olive.png (see attachments at the bottom of this post) file to your ~/ (home) directory, and open a terminal (it should start you in your ~/ directory, but enter cd ~/ if you're not sure.) Then follow these steps:
1. Install the GCC and BOGL packages needed:
Code:
sudo apt-get install gcc libbogl-dev
2. Enter only the line below that matches whichever file that you downloaded:
Code:
cp usplash-fix.png usplash-artwork.png
cp usplash-blue.png usplash-artwork.png
cp usplash-olive.png usplash-artwork.png
3. Now enter each of these steps to build your usplash:
Code:
pngtobogl usplash-artwork.png > usplash-artwork.c
gcc -Os -g -I/usr/include/bogl -fPIC -c usplash-artwork.c -o usplash-artwork.o
gcc -shared -Wl,-soname,usplash-artwork.so usplash-artwork.o -o usplash-fix.so
4. Copy your usplash to the usplash directory and create a new link to it:
Code:
sudo cp usplash-fix.so /usr/lib/usplash/usplash-fix.so
sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/usplash/usplash-fix.so /usr/lib/usplash/usplash-artwork.so
5. Regenerate the initramfs:
Code:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure linux-image-$(uname -r)
* EDIT * - Please note that the output of the last step may include the message "splash image... none found, skipping...", which does not affect usplash in any way. It is a function of the /sbin/update-grub script which is executed while reconfiguring the linux-image package, and only displays if you've never previously set up the optional grub splash image, which would display before usplash would, and is an entirely separate splash image meant for the grub menu alone.
DONE! The resulting usplash file will be /usr/lib/usplash/usplash-fix.so, and the next time you boot ubuntu, you should see the new usplash.
You'll be left with 4 extra files that you can delete in ~/ if you wish:
Code:
rm usplash-artwork.o usplash-artwork.c usplash-artwork.png usplash-fix.so
If you change your mind, then you can revert it back to the default usplash, by following these steps:
Code:
sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/usplash/usplash-default.so /usr/lib/usplash/usplash-artwork.so
sudo dpkg-reconfigure linux-image-$(uname -r)
If you're interested in further modifying your usplash, and wish to know what I did, here's a summary:
* Downloaded the source, available from this page: http://packages.ubuntu.com/breezy/misc/usplash
* Took the original usplash-artwork.png file and swapped the palette entries to increase the visibility of entries 2, 4, and 8 (described below.) Swapped 2 with 7, then 4 with 7, and 8 with 9. Saved the resulting file as usplash-fix.png.
* For the usplash-blue.png, I simply hue-shifted the entire palette of the usplash-fix.png so that thier RGB values swapped the R and B values.
Guidelines for the image format:
* The PNG must be: 640x480 16 colours.
* Some palette entries are used for particular purposes:
Code:
Palette Index | Used For
-----------------------------------------
0 | Background color
0 | Text background color
1 | Progress bar foreground color
2 | 'Ok' text foreground color
4 | Progress bar background color
8 | Description text foreground color
13 | 'Failed' text foreground color
The attachments (right-click > Save Link As...):
Brown:
usplash-fix.png
Blue:
usplash-blue.png
Olive:
usplash-olive.png
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