[Bug 1869655] Re: The plymouth splash starts too late to be useful on modern fast systems

[Daniel van Vugt]

** Summary changed:

- Add an Ubuntu splash logo to Grub to supplement the BGRT logo
+ The plymouth splash starts too late to be useful on modern fast systems

** Description changed:

- Add an Ubuntu splash logo to supplement the BGRT logo.
+ The Plymouth splash starts too late to be useful on modern fast systems.
  
- Since we now keep the BIOS logo (ACPI BGRT image) on screen and don't
- replace it with a blank purple screen, it lasts much longer in 20.04
- than it did in 19.10. This removes some sense of boot progress in that
- long period while we wait for the kernel to start plymouth.
+ Such systems spend all their boot time (a couple of seconds)
+ decompressing the kernel. During that time the user only sees the static
+ BIOS logo (ACPI BGRT). Then when Plymouth can finally start animating,
+ the startup process is already finished and there's virtually no time
+ left to show any useful animations.
  
- I suggest we need grub to display *something* once again. Because it's
- the longest part of the boot process on many machines and it feels a bit
- broken in 20.04 seeing nothing but the BIOS logo for most of it. But
- since we're using the Plymouth 'bgrt' theme, grub would need to
- understand and integrate with the BIOS logo.
+ This could be fixed in:
+ 
+   grub: By adding a splash under the BIOS logo to show some progress
+ _before_ a Linux kernel is even started
+ 
+ and/or
+ 
+   plymouth: By preferencing legacy framebuffer devices over DRM, if we
+ find those are available a few seconds sooner. That would also fix bug
+ 1868240.

** Summary changed:

- The plymouth splash starts too late to be useful on modern fast systems
+ The Plymouth splash starts too late to be useful on modern fast systems

** Changed in: grub2 (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Wishlist => Low

** Also affects: plymouth (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Changed in: plymouth (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided => Low

** Changed in: plymouth (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Triaged

** Description changed:

  The Plymouth splash starts too late to be useful on modern fast systems.
  
  Such systems spend all their boot time (a couple of seconds)
  decompressing the kernel. During that time the user only sees the static
  BIOS logo (ACPI BGRT). Then when Plymouth can finally start animating,
  the startup process is already finished and there's virtually no time
  left to show any useful animations.
  
  This could be fixed in:
  
-   grub: By adding a splash under the BIOS logo to show some progress
+   grub: By adding a splash under the BIOS logo to show some progress
  _before_ a Linux kernel is even started
  
  and/or
  
-   plymouth: By preferencing legacy framebuffer devices over DRM, if we
- find those are available a few seconds sooner. That would also fix bug
- 1868240.
+   plymouth: By preferencing legacy framebuffer devices (like EFI) over
+ DRM, if we find those are available a few seconds sooner. That would
+ also fix bug 1868240.

** Description changed:

  The Plymouth splash starts too late to be useful on modern fast systems.
  
  Such systems spend all their boot time (a couple of seconds)
  decompressing the kernel. During that time the user only sees the static
  BIOS logo (ACPI BGRT). Then when Plymouth can finally start animating,
  the startup process is already finished and there's virtually no time
  left to show any useful animations.
  
  This could be fixed in:
  
    grub: By adding a splash under the BIOS logo to show some progress
  _before_ a Linux kernel is even started
  
  and/or
  
    plymouth: By preferencing legacy framebuffer devices (like EFI) over
  DRM, if we find those are available a few seconds sooner. That would
- also fix bug 1868240.
+ also fix bug 1868240 completely, and bug 1836858 mostly as the flicker
+ moves to when the login screen starts.

-- 
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1869655

Title:
  Boot animations start too late to be useful

Status in Plymouth:
  Unknown
Status in grub2 package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in plymouth package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Boot animations start too late to be useful

  Modern systems spend all their boot time (a couple of seconds)
  decompressing the kernel. During that time the user only sees the
  static BIOS logo (ACPI BGRT). Then when Plymouth can finally start
  animating, the startup process is already finished and there's
  virtually no time left to show any useful animations.

  This could be fixed in:

    grub: By adding a splash under the BIOS logo to show some progress
  _before_ a Linux kernel is even started

  and/or

    plymouth: By preferencing legacy framebuffer devices (like EFI) over
  DRM, if we find those are available a few seconds sooner. That would
  also fix bug 1868240 completely, and bug 1836858 mostly as the flicker
  moves to when the login screen starts.

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