HOWTO: Spice up your boot text [font resolution and color]

[Zorael]

Okay, there it is, thanks. My apologies, I'm not very knowledgeable in the order of releases pre-Feisty, having only recently discovered (K)Ubuntu, so I hope you can appreciate my confusion.

I take it there is no way to have the [OK] mark aligned to the left of the message?

Perhaps if I copy/pasted some of those lines from log_end_message() to log_begin_message()?

edit: Also, what happens if I "mess up" that file? Naturally I'll be keeping a backup, but will it end up in a state where the system won't boot, or merely in a state where there's no tty output at startup?

[martinbc]

I tried this, but then my keyboard stopped working, after restoring the old init-functions file the keyboard started working again, why is this?

Any ideas?

(Using Ubuntu 8.10, 2.6.27-7-generic)

[Ace_NoOne]

what happens if I "mess up" that file? Naturally I'll be keeping a backup, but will it end up in a state where the system won't boot, or merely in a state where there's no tty output at startup?

I'm not an expert, but worst case you boot from a live CD (e.g. your Ubuntu installation disc) to restore your backups.

I'm not quite sure how to do this on my Intrepid machine though, as the log_failure_msg function looks a bit different there:

log_failure_msg () {
    if log_use_fancy_output; then
        RED=`$TPUT setaf 1`
        GREEN=`$TPUT setaf 2`
        NORMAL=`$TPUT op`
        /bin/echo -e "${RED}*${NORMAL} $@"
    else
        echo "$@"
    fi
}

[sh4d0w808]

Yes, I see a little bit different implementation in Hardy also, like Ace_NoOne in Intrepid.

Can somebody explain, how to change this function in these systems?

[port]

Did anyone find out how to get this working in 8.10 ?

[´silas]

The latter one made my keyboard and touchpad non-functionable I'm becoming quite good at re-installing ubuntu xD

[ley_lines]

The latter one made my keyboard and touchpad non-functionable I'm becoming quite good at re-installing ubuntu xD

I did that yesterday as well. But you dont have to re-install. If you made a backup of your original init-functions file then go into your text mode before gdm and remove the new file and restore the back up. I named the original init-functions.bak and entered these commands:

sudo rm lib/lsb/init-functions
sudo mv lib/lsb/init-functions.bak lib/lss/init-functions

and then reboot

[pgodfrey]

@ port. I too am looking to do this to my install but haven't figured out how too just yet. I tried replacing the 'init-functions' with the file a few pages back 'init-functions-front.txt' but ended up with a useless interface. Fortunately I backed up my original file.

I'm getting bored looking at the splash screen and look forward to all the scrolling text when booting.......I suppose it's an ADHD thing...I like blinky lights too.


Phil


*edit*

Got the splash off and lots of text displayed - still working on the color

Looking at my /boot/grub/menu.lst file -- I removed quiet splash and that seemed to take care of the splash screen leaving just ro.


Mine looks like this (with the exception of my UUID...it's not actually a bunch of asterisks.

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-11-generic
uuid =********-****-****-****-************
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic root=UUID=********-****-****-****-************ ro vga=792
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-11-generic
boot


If I put in ro single vga=792, halfway through the boot it popped up a menu asking me if I wanted to repair the system.

vga=792 on my 1440x900 laptop screen looks compressed and wide. It's nice because most of the text doesn't have to wrap around to the next line.

[sectorek]

everything is more less ok. I mean resolution is much better now. At least log is looking much better with VGA 792 on my 1600x900 LCD. But i cant get colors to work.

Im using ubuntu 8.10. Any ideas?

[SketchyClown]

Looking at my /boot/grub/menu.lst file -- I removed quiet splash and that seemed to take care of the splash screen leaving just ro.


Mine looks like this (with the exception of my UUID...it's not actually a bunch of asterisks.

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-11-generic
uuid =********-****-****-****-************
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic root=UUID=********-****-****-****-************ ro vga=792
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-11-generic
boot


If I put in ro single vga=792, halfway through the boot it popped up a menu asking me if I wanted to repair the system.

vga=792 on my 1440x900 laptop screen looks compressed and wide. It's nice because most of the text doesn't have to wrap around to the next line.

If you look at your /boot/grub/menu.lst and look at the 2nd kernel entry, you will see that it has the ro single listed there. That's your recovery/single user console. Leave single off of the first entry to avoid getting that popup menu about repairing on normal bootup.

Since you have a 1440x900 display you can set the framebuffer to use that resolution by adding either vga=0x365 or vga=868, the codes used for 1440x900.

As for the boot colors, I am still stumped as well. I have tried using the info here, and while I haven't messed anything up with these tips yet, I still have no colors.