[K12OSN] Change plymouth theme on client?

Jeff Siddall news at siddall.name
Tue Nov 29 00:53:56 UTC 2011


On 11/27/2011 03:07 PM, Warren Togami Jr. wrote:
> On 11/24/2011 5:07 PM, Jeff Siddall wrote:
>> I created a new plymouth theme that I want to use on my SL6.1 thin
>> clients. In the chroot I ran plymouth-set-default-theme and it reports
>> that the new theme is the default. However, when the client boots it
>> still shows the standard SL6 two-step theme. Interestingly, if I give it
>> the three finger salute from a text console while with the LDM login
>> screen up it _does_ show my new theme while restarting so it seems the
>> theme itself is OK.
>>
>> I am guessing the bootup plymouth stuff is loaded in the initramfs. I
>> tried running dracut inside the chroot but it bombed with an error about
>> not finding /lib/modules/2.6.32-131.12.1.
>
> Did you try ltsp-rewrap-latest-kernel within the chroot? That runs
> dracut with the desired parameters.

Nope, that was the missing piece of the puzzle.  Thanks Warren!

I included a procedure below.  If you could add to the wiki that would 
be great.

Jeff

----------

Create a new plymouth theme.  You can do this by making simple 
variations on the stock theme by taking a copy of the default theme 
using the procedure below.  You can replace "newtheme" in the commands 
below with whatever name you want to give the new theme.  This procedure 
assumes the chroot is in the /opt/ltsp/i386 directory.

Start by copying the folder with this command:

cp -a /opt/ltsp/i386/usr/share/plymouth/themes/solar 
/opt/ltsp/i386/usr/share/plymouth/themes/newtheme

Now modify "newtheme" as appropriate.  First go into the new theme 
directory by typing:

cd /opt/ltsp/i386/usr/share/plymouth/themes/newtheme

Then rename the .plymouth file by running:

mv rings.plymouth newtheme.plymouth

Edit the .plymouth file and change:

Name=Rings

to:

Name=Newtheme

and change:

ImageDir=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/rings

to

ImageDir=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/newtheme

You may also want to change the background colors.  BackgroundStartColor 
is the color at the top of the screen and BackgroundEndColor is the 
color at the bottom of the screen.  Plymouth will make a gradient of 
these colors across the screen.  For example to make the background 
change from white to black change the lines:

BackgroundStartColor=0x080808
BackgroundEndColor=0x080808

to:

BackgroundStartColor=0xffffff
BackgroundEndColor=0x000000

When finished making changes save the file.

Next replace the image file named header-image.png with the desired 
replacement.  Do not change the name of this file!

The exact size does not seem to matter as the plymouth will center it in 
the screen above the animated "rings".

You can also get fancy and replace all the other progress images also.

Chroot to the client directory by running:

chroot /opt/ltsp/i386

Activate the new theme with this command:

plymouth-set-default-theme newtheme

Note: you may get an error from sed (ex: sed: warning: failed to set 
default file creation context to unconfined_u:object_r:usr_t:s0: No such 
file or directory).  This does not seem to cause problems.

Build a new initramfs file with the new theme:

ltsp-rewrap-latest-kernel

Exit the chroot by typing:

exit

and update the tftp directory with the new initramfs by typing:

ltsp-update-kernels

If you use NBD you will also need to run:

ltsp-update-image

Now fire up a client and enjoy the new theme!




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