Customizing the Raspbian Bootsplash: A Guide to Setting Up Plymouth on Raspberry Pi”Raspberry Pi Raspbian Bootsplash: Setting Up Plymouth

I still remember the evening when I decided to transform my trusty Raspberry Pi into a media powerhouse. It had been sitting idle for weeks, and the idea struck me while reading a blog about personal media servers. Inspired, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

First, I flashed Raspbian onto a microSD card — my Pi’s lifeline. Booting it up felt like waking a dormant machine, full of untapped potential. With a stable OS in place, I dove into CasaOS, a sleek, user-friendly interface that made managing my Pi an absolute breeze. Its app store made it ridiculously easy to install and manage services.

Then came the pièce de résistance — Plex. Setting it up felt like opening a treasure chest. My movies, music, and photos were now seamlessly organized and accessible from anywhere. Watching a movie on my TV while knowing it was streaming from my own server was a deeply satisfying moment.

By the end of the day, my Raspberry Pi was no longer just a small computer; it was a central hub for entertainment and creativity. It felt rewarding to have recalled that blog and extended it into a story of my own.

I wrote a detailed guide on setting up a bootsplash for Raspbian using Plymouth a while back. You can find it here: Raspbian Bootsplash: Setting Up Plymouth.

The Raspberry Pi is a powerful and versatile single-board computer, widely used for projects ranging from media centers to IoT devices. However, the default boot sequence of Raspbian (now known as Raspberry Pi OS) often features a verbose display of kernel messages and text logs, which, while informative, may not be suitable for all applications. For those aiming to create a more polished, user-friendly experience, setting up a custom bootsplash screen using Plymouth is a great solution.

This blog will guide you through the process of configuring a bootsplash on your Raspberry Pi running Raspbian, leveraging Plymouth to replace the default boot text with a sleek graphical screen.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Plymouth
2. Why Customize the Boot Sequence?
3. Pre-requisites
4. Installing Plymouth
5. Configuring Plymouth
6. Setting Up the Splash Screen
7. Testing Your Setup
8. Troubleshooting
9. Advanced Customizations
10. Wrapping Up

1. Introduction to Plymouth

Plymouth is a graphical boot animation and logger designed to improve the visual appeal of the Linux boot process. Originally developed by Red Hat, it has become the standard for many Linux distributions, allowing developers to customize how their system looks during startup.

Features of Plymouth include:

• Graphical splash screens.
• Support for animations.
• The ability to display progress bars or other indicators.
• Compatibility with various display drivers.

Plymouth achieves this by starting early in the boot process and taking over the graphical display before the operating system fully initializes.

2. Why Customize the Boot Sequence?

Customizing the boot sequence is more than just a cosmetic change. Here are some compelling reasons:

• User Experience: A graphical splash screen provides a polished look, which is particularly important for consumer-facing projects.
• Branding: For commercial or educational projects, adding a custom logo or animation reinforces branding.
• Simplification: Hiding verbose boot messages prevents users from being overwhelmed by technical details.
• Consistency: A unified boot appearance aligns the user experience with the application’s design language.

3. Pre-requisites

Before diving into the setup, ensure you have the following:

• A Raspberry Pi with Raspbian installed.
• Access to the terminal with sudo privileges.
• Basic familiarity with Linux commands and configuration files.
• An internet connection (to install packages and updates).

Optional but recommended:

• A custom image or logo for your splash screen.
• A backup of your Raspberry Pi system (in case of misconfiguration).

4. Installing Plymouth

Plymouth is not included in Raspbian by default, so you’ll need to install it manually. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Update the System

Begin by updating your Raspberry Pi to ensure all packages are up-to-date:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Plymouth

Install Plymouth and its themes using the following command:

sudo apt install plymouth plymouth-themes

5. Configuring Plymouth

Once Plymouth is installed, you need to configure it to run during boot.

Step 1: Update Boot Parameters

Edit the /boot/cmdline.txt file to enable Plymouth. Use the following command:

sudo nano /boot/cmdline.txt

Add the following parameters to the existing line (do not insert line breaks):

quiet splash plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles

Save and exit the file by pressing Ctrl+O, Enter, and Ctrl+X.

Step 2: Configure Initramfs

Plymouth requires an initramfs (initial RAM filesystem) to load early during the boot process. Generate an initramfs using:

sudo update-initramfs -u

6. Setting Up the Splash Screen

Plymouth includes several default themes, but you can also create or install custom ones.

Step 1: List Available Themes

To view the available themes, run:

plymouth-set-default-theme --list

Step 2: Set a Theme

Choose a theme from the list and set it as the default. For example:

sudo plymouth-set-default-theme spinner

Step 3: Apply the Theme

Update Plymouth to apply the selected theme:

sudo update-initramfs -u

Step 4: Customize the Theme (Optional)

To customize a theme, navigate to its directory (usually /usr/share/plymouth/themes/) and modify the configuration or image files.

Step 5: Preview of available Themes

7. Testing Your Setup

Reboot your Raspberry Pi to test the new bootsplash:

sudo reboot

If everything is configured correctly, you should see the Plymouth splash screen during boot.

8. Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues, here are some common solutions:

• No Splash Screen: Ensure quiet splash plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles is correctly added to /boot/cmdline.txt.
• Theme Not Applied: Verify the theme is set correctly and the initramfs was updated.
• Verbose Text Appears: Remove additional parameters that may override quiet in /boot/cmdline.txt.
• Low Resolution: Add video=HDMI-A-1:1920x1080@60 (or similar) to /boot/cmdline.txt to specify a resolution.

9. Advanced Customizations

For advanced users, Plymouth offers numerous customization options:

• Create a Custom Theme: Design your own theme by following the guidelines in the Plymouth documentation.
• Add Animations: Use GIFs or scripts to create dynamic splash screens.
• Log Redirection: Configure Plymouth to log boot messages for debugging purposes.

10. Wrapping Up

Setting up Plymouth on your Raspberry Pi running Raspbian transforms the boot process into a sleek and professional experience. Whether you’re building a kiosk, media center, or a custom project, a polished splash screen enhances the overall presentation and usability.

With the steps outlined in this guide, you now have the tools to create and customize a bootsplash that aligns with your project’s vision. Experiment with different themes, animations, and configurations to make your Raspberry Pi truly unique!

Happy hacking!