[gentoo-user] A couple questions related to fbsplash

[gentoo-user] A couple questions related to fbsplash

[Paul Hartman]

In all my years of Gentoo I've never set up fbsplash and fbcondecor,
so I finally did so on my old laptop. It all worked, pretty easy to
set up -- however, there are 2 things I have questions about:

1) I see much of OpenRC's colorful output before the fbsplash kicks
in. Is there any trick to prevent that stuff from showing and/or
making the splash screen show up earlier?

2) With the fbsplash enabled, xdm (slim) starts in the background. I
have to alt-7 to see the graphical login screen. xdm starts at default
runlevel. With splash disabled, xdm (slim) starts in the foreground.
Why is that?

I'm using radeon/kms and gentoo-sources-3.4.0 with the livedvd-12.0 theme.

Thanks,
Paul

[gentoo-user] Re: A couple questions related to fbsplash

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 30/05/12 09:42, Paul Hartman wrote:
> In all my years of Gentoo I've never set up fbsplash and fbcondecor,
> so I finally did so on my old laptop. It all worked, pretty easy to
> set up -- however, there are 2 things I have questions about:
>
> 1) I see much of OpenRC's colorful output before the fbsplash kicks
> in. Is there any trick to prevent that stuff from showing and/or
> making the splash screen show up earlier?

Yes.  Compile the KMS driver in-kernel rather than as a module.


> 2) With the fbsplash enabled, xdm (slim) starts in the background. I
> have to alt-7 to see the graphical login screen. xdm starts at default
> runlevel. With splash disabled, xdm (slim) starts in the foreground.
> Why is that?

Sounds like a bug.  I use KDM and it switches to console 7 automatically.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: A couple questions related to fbsplash

[Paul Hartman]

On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 4:45 AM, Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 30/05/12 09:42, Paul Hartman wrote:
>>
>> In all my years of Gentoo I've never set up fbsplash and fbcondecor,
>> so I finally did so on my old laptop. It all worked, pretty easy to
>> set up -- however, there are 2 things I have questions about:
>>
>> 1) I see much of OpenRC's colorful output before the fbsplash kicks
>> in. Is there any trick to prevent that stuff from showing and/or
>> making the splash screen show up earlier?
>
>
> Yes.  Compile the KMS driver in-kernel rather than as a module.

Thanks, that fixed it. I saw my OpenRC through "Waiting for uevents to
be processed" before, so that makes perfect sense now. Radeon starts
in dmesg at 0.3 seconds instead of 2.8 seconds. :)

I see Tux for a microsecond, then the splash screen appears and
flashes black three times before stabilizing. I don't think it is the
display changing modes (the backlight stays on), it just looks like
it's switching between blank screen and back to showing the graphics.
It happens at the very beginning of the splash, before root is
remounted and the progress bar is moving. I'm using dracut's gensplash
module to generate the initrd, maybe it's doing something funny.

>> 2) With the fbsplash enabled, xdm (slim) starts in the background. I
>> have to alt-7 to see the graphical login screen. xdm starts at default
>> runlevel. With splash disabled, xdm (slim) starts in the foreground.
>> Why is that?
>
>
> Sounds like a bug.  I use KDM and it switches to console 7 automatically.

I just tried plain xdm as well as slim and both wind up in the
background when splash is enabled. Weird.

What specifically happens is: I see the graphical login screen for a
split second, then it changes back to tty1, I briefly see the last
parts of OpenRC finishing and then the console login prompt. alt-7
will take me back to the graphical login screen and it works normally
once I'm there.

I will keep hunting.

[gentoo-user] Re: A couple questions related to fbsplash

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 31/05/12 06:29, Paul Hartman wrote:
> [...]
> I see Tux for a microsecond, then the splash screen appears

To fix that one, disable the "Bootup logo" in the kernel config:


CONFIG_LOGO: Device drivers -> Graphics support


> and
> flashes black three times before stabilizing. I don't think it is the
> display changing modes (the backlight stays on), it just looks like
> it's switching between blank screen and back to showing the graphics.
> It happens at the very beginning of the splash, before root is
> remounted and the progress bar is moving.

Make sure that SPLASH_XSERVICE is *not* set in /etc/conf.d/splash.  If 
it's set, comment it out:

   # Name of the boot service starting X.  Useful in cases when X is
   # started by a custom initscript, other than the usual 'xdm'.  If you
   # are using a custom X initscript and do not set this variable
   # correctly, do not be surprised if you end up at tty1 at the end of
   # the boot process (instead of in an X session).
   # SPLASH_XSERVICE="xdm"


> I'm using dracut's gensplash
> module to generate the initrd, maybe it's doing something funny.

OK, to verify that it's not a problem with dracut, try to use Gentoo's 
native tool for this (splash_geninitramfs).  Try the below, which should 
duplicate my own working config:

   emerge media-gfx/splash-themes-livecd

   emerge media-gfx/splashutils

   splash_geninitramfs --verbose --res 1920x1080 --generate \
   /boot/initrd.splash1920x1080 livecd-2007.0

Then edit your grub config:

   kernel <your kernel> <your other opts> quiet 
splash=theme:livecd-2007.0 console=tty1
   initrd /boot/initrd.splash1920x1080

(Substitute 1920x1080 with whatever you're using.)

Another useful thing to do is to disable clearing the text of tty1, so 
that the OpenRC messages don't get cleared.  To do that, find this line:

   c1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty1 linux

in /etc/inittab and append "--noclear" to it:

   c1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty1 linux --noclear

Lastly, make sure that tty7 doesn't get a decoration.  In 
/etc/conf.d/fbcondecor, set something like:

   FBCONDECOR_TTYS="1 2 3 4 5 6"

to only decorate tty1 through tt6.  Reboot and check if it works, 
especially automatic switching to tty7/xdm.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: A couple questions related to fbsplash

[Paul Hartman]

On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 2:09 AM, Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 31/05/12 06:29, Paul Hartman wrote:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> I see Tux for a microsecond, then the splash screen appears
>
>
> To fix that one, disable the "Bootup logo" in the kernel config:
>
>
> CONFIG_LOGO: Device drivers -> Graphics support
>
>
>
>> and
>> flashes black three times before stabilizing. I don't think it is the
>> display changing modes (the backlight stays on), it just looks like
>> it's switching between blank screen and back to showing the graphics.
>> It happens at the very beginning of the splash, before root is
>> remounted and the progress bar is moving.
>
>
> Make sure that SPLASH_XSERVICE is *not* set in /etc/conf.d/splash.  If it's
> set, comment it out:
>
>  # Name of the boot service starting X.  Useful in cases when X is
>  # started by a custom initscript, other than the usual 'xdm'.  If you
>  # are using a custom X initscript and do not set this variable
>  # correctly, do not be surprised if you end up at tty1 at the end of
>  # the boot process (instead of in an X session).
>  # SPLASH_XSERVICE="xdm"
>
>
>
>> I'm using dracut's gensplash
>> module to generate the initrd, maybe it's doing something funny.
>
>
> OK, to verify that it's not a problem with dracut, try to use Gentoo's
> native tool for this (splash_geninitramfs).  Try the below, which should
> duplicate my own working config:
>
>  emerge media-gfx/splash-themes-livecd
>
>  emerge media-gfx/splashutils
>
>  splash_geninitramfs --verbose --res 1920x1080 --generate \
>  /boot/initrd.splash1920x1080 livecd-2007.0
>
> Then edit your grub config:
>
>  kernel <your kernel> <your other opts> quiet splash=theme:livecd-2007.0
> console=tty1
>  initrd /boot/initrd.splash1920x1080
>
> (Substitute 1920x1080 with whatever you're using.)
>
> Another useful thing to do is to disable clearing the text of tty1, so that
> the OpenRC messages don't get cleared.  To do that, find this line:
>
>  c1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty1 linux
>
> in /etc/inittab and append "--noclear" to it:
>
>  c1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty1 linux --noclear
>
> Lastly, make sure that tty7 doesn't get a decoration.  In
> /etc/conf.d/fbcondecor, set something like:
>
>  FBCONDECOR_TTYS="1 2 3 4 5 6"
>
> to only decorate tty1 through tt6.  Reboot and check if it works, especially
> automatic switching to tty7/xdm.

Thanks. By eliminating dracut, the flashing & the XDM problem both
went away. splash & fbcondecor both worked properly.

Going back to my dracut config, trying to eliminate modules to find
out which ones cause the flashing. This was my first time using dracut
and I'm using the default modules (with the -H switch) with the
addition of the gensplash module.

Omitting the "i18n" module got rid of the largest blank screen delay
during splash. Two shorter delays remain, but they are quick flashes.
Omitting the "resume" module fixed the xdm-starts-in-the-background
problem. Omitting other modules resulted in kernel panic/unbootable
system... ran out of patience trying every possible combination.

Nex experiment: A minimal dracut (no modules except for "btrfs" and
"gensplash"). This does not allow me to boot by UUID on the kernel
commandline, but with this configuration I get no blank flashing
screen and XDM starts properly. With this I don't see any kernel
messages/OpenRC stuff at all during boot, just like using the
non-dracut configuration.

Thanks,
Paul