Plymouth splash screen not visible always

Technical Support
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1

Hello Community,

We are building custom OS for apalis-imx6 in Scarthgap kernel. I want to display a custom logo during boot time on the display. For that i followed How to Add a Custom Splash Screen (Linux) | Toradex Developer Center .

It worked once, that time custom logo is only displayed for 1 or 2 seconds, at the very end of the boot process, in next power cycles, i am unable to see the boot logo.

Is there any patch needed for this, apart from the above article.

Thanks in Advance,

Muthyam D.

2

Hi, I’m the Toradex AI Assistant.

I might make mistakes or occasionally get you wrong. Our support team will step in if needed.

Custom Splash Screen on Apalis iMX6 with Scarthgap

Based on your description, it seems you’re experiencing intermittent display of the Plymouth splash screen. Let me provide some guidance on troubleshooting this issue.

Understanding Plymouth Splash Screen Behavior

Plymouth is designed to provide a graphical boot animation while the boot process happens in the background(1). The splash screen you’re implementing using the guide you followed uses Plymouth, which runs in user space and is started from an initial minimal root file system (initramfs) very early during boot(1).

Verifying Plymouth Installation

First, ensure Plymouth was correctly installed by checking if it’s present in your image. You can verify this by running:

$ bitbake -e tdx-reference-multimedia-image | grep plymouth

(1)

Troubleshooting the Intermittent Display Issue

The fact that your custom logo only displays for 1-2 seconds at the end of the boot process and then disappears in subsequent power cycles suggests a few potential issues:

  1. Plymouth Configuration: Ensure your spinner.plymouth file is correctly configured and placed in the proper location
  2. Image Installation: Verify that your custom layer structure matches the expected format:
.
├── conf
│   └── layer.conf
├── COPYING.MIT
├── README
└── recipes-core
    └── plymouth
        ├── files
        │   ├── spinner.plymouth
        │   └── torizonlogo-white.png
        └── plymouth_%.bbappend

(1)

Additional Considerations

For the Apalis iMX6 specifically, you should also be aware that starting from BSP 6, Linux Kernel splashscreen support has been dropped(2). The Plymouth approach you’re following is the recommended alternative(2).

Configuration Verification

Double-check that your plymouth_%.bbappend file contains the correct installation paths:

FILESEXTRAPATHS:prepend := "${THISDIR}/files:"

SRC_URI += " \
    file://torizonlogo-white.png \
    file://spinner.plymouth \
"

EXTRA_OECONF += "--with-runtimedir=/run"

do_install:append () {
    install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/torizonlogo-white.png ${D}${datadir}/plymouth/themes/spinner/watermark.png
    install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/spinner.plymouth ${D}${datadir}/plymouth/themes/spinner/spinner.plymouth
}

(1)

Make sure your custom layer is properly configured and that you’ve added Plymouth to your image with:

CORE_IMAGE_EXTRA_INSTALL += "plymouth"

(1)

If the issue persists, try rebuilding the image completely and ensure that all Plymouth-related files are correctly deployed during the installation process.

Best regards, Toradex AI Assistant.

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3

Hello @ToradexAI ,

I followed the all things as you suggested, but issue is still persists.

Thank You,

Muthyam D.

4

Additional Troubleshooting for Plymouth Splash Screen Issues

Since the standard configuration isn’t working consistently, let’s explore some additional solutions that have been identified for Plymouth issues with Scarthgap BSP.

Updated Plymouth Configuration for Scarthgap

Based on community feedback, there have been specific issues with Plymouth in Scarthgap that require a modified approach. Try this updated plymouth_%.bbappend configuration (1):

FILESEXTRAPATHS:prepend := "${THISDIR}/files:"

SRC_URI += " \
    file://torizonlogo-white.png \
    file://spinner.plymouth \
"

PACKAGECONFIG:append = " pango drm"

EXTRA_OECONF += "--with-udev --with-runtimedir=/run"

do_install:append () {
    install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/torizonlogo-white.png ${D}${datadir}/plymouth/themes/spinner/watermark.png
    install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/spinner.plymouth ${D}${datadir}/plymouth/themes/spinner/spinner.plymouth
}

(1)

Required Layer Addition

You’ll also need to add meta-initramfs to your bblayers.conf file (2), (1). This is a critical requirement that’s often missed.

Alternative Simplified Configuration

If the above doesn’t work, try this simplified approach that has resolved issues for other users (2):

FILESEXTRAPATHS:prepend := "${THISDIR}/files:"

SRC_URI += " \
    file://torizonlogo-white.png \
    file://spinner.plymouth \
"

PACKAGECONFIG:append = " pango drm"

EXTRA_OECONF += "--with-udev --with-runtimedir=/run"

do_install:append () {
    install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/torizonlogo-white.png ${D}${datadir}/plymouth/themes/spinner/watermark.png
    install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/spinner.plymouth ${D}${datadir}/plymouth/themes/spinner/spinner.plymouth
}

(2)

Verification Steps

  1. Check Plymouth Theme Installation: After building, verify that your custom theme files are correctly installed in the target image
  2. Display Initialization: Ensure your display drivers are loaded early enough in the boot process to support Plymouth (2)
  3. Clean Build: Perform a complete clean build after making these configuration changes

Known Scarthgap Issues

There have been compilation and configuration issues specifically with Plymouth in BSP 7.x/Scarthgap that required these modified approaches (1). The key differences from earlier BSP versions include the need for the meta-initramfs layer and the specific PACKAGECONFIG settings.

Try implementing these changes and let me know if the splash screen appears more consistently.

Best regards, Toradex AI Assistant.

Did you like my answer? :+1: :-1:

If I answered your question, please tick the “Solution” checkbox.

For follow-up questions to me, please use @ToradexAI in your post.

5

Hi @Muthyam ,
There is no additional modificatios needed apart from what has been writen in the article to display booting logo.
In case you want to also display logo at shutdown, you need to do additional settings as mentioned here.
Try to follow the steps again and let me know the results. If it still does not work, let me know your OS version.