English | 中文
Replace the Linux boot splash with kernel log output — the look of a vanilla Arch / Debian boot — and switch it back with a single command.
It peels off the decorative layers one by one and lands the console on the graphical console (fbcon).
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| On screen | Vendor logo / theme animation | Kernel printk log + systemd [ OK ] lines |
| Look | Graphical boot animation | A vanilla Arch / Debian boot |
It appends the following parameters to the kernel command line:
| Parameter | Purpose |
|---|---|
console=tty0 |
Make sure the log lands on the local graphical console (if only console=ttyS0 is configured, you won't see anything without this) |
loglevel=7 |
Restore pr_info-level output (quiet clamps loglevel down to 4) |
fbcon=nodefer |
Let fbcon take over the console immediately — the log starts scrolling as early as possible, and any leftover firmware / bootloader image is wiped |
logo.nologo |
Don't draw the kernel penguin |
vt.global_cursor_default=0 |
Hide the blinking cursor |
plymouth.enable=0 |
Safety net: even if plymouth gets pulled in by some other unit, no theme is displayed |
It also strips the distro-specific graphical boot flags from the command line:
| Flag | Origin |
|---|---|
quiet, splash |
Common |
rhgb |
Fedora / RHEL |
splash=silent, splash=verbose |
openSUSE (matched by prefix) |
On systems using mkinitcpio it additionally removes plymouth from HOOKS in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf.
Key point:
quietsuppresses both the kernel log and systemd's[ OK ]lines. This tool takes the "noquietat all" route, so you get the vanilla-Arch-style scrolling output. Wanting to keep only the systemd status lines and not the kernel log is a separate matter — the reverse, just addsystemd.show_status=0.
Backends are auto-detected; which file to edit and how to regenerate are decided automatically:
| Scenario | Where the command line goes | initramfs | Bootloader refresh |
|---|---|---|---|
Limine + limine-entry-tool |
KERNEL_CMDLINE[default] in /etc/default/limine (keeping the existing = / += form); otherwise /etc/kernel/cmdline |
mkinitcpio -P |
limine-update |
| BLS entries (Fedora / RHEL / systemd-boot + kernel-install) | Edit the options line of /boot/loader/entries/*.conf directly, and also write /etc/kernel/cmdline for future kernel installs |
mkinitcpio -P / dracut -f --regenerate-all |
Not needed (entries are updated directly) |
| mkinitcpio (Arch family) | /etc/kernel/cmdline |
mkinitcpio -P |
Auto-detected |
| systemd-boot / UKI | /etc/kernel/cmdline |
mkinitcpio -P |
bootctl update |
| Debian / Ubuntu | /etc/kernel/cmdline |
update-initramfs -u -k all |
update-grub / grub-mkconfig |
| openSUSE / generic GRUB | GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub |
Auto-detected | grub-mkconfig |
Backend priority: Limine → BLS entries → GRUB → generic /etc/kernel/cmdline.
Both forms of HOOKS are supported (HOOKS=(...) array form and HOOKS="..." string form), and plymouth is handled correctly whether it sits first, last, or in the middle.
Not covered: syslinux, rEFInd, ZFSBootMenu, U-Boot (embedded), Android/ABL, and Alpine's extlinux.conf — these need to be configured by hand.
- The kernel must be built with
CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLEfor the log to reach the screen. Very stripped-down embedded kernels often disable it, in which case thefbcon=parameter has no effect. - The UEFI firmware's BGRT logo cannot be fully turned off:
CONFIG_ACPI_BGRTis a compile-time option, so it can't be changed on a distro's prebuilt kernel;fbcon=nodeferonly overwrites it as early as possible. Removing it entirely requires building your own kernel. - On non-mkinitcpio systems there is no equivalent plymouth hook to remove: dracut pulls plymouth into the initramfs automatically whenever it is installed, and Debian's initramfs-tools is triggered by
splashon the command line. In that case this tool falls back toplymouth.enable=0; for a completely clean result, uninstall the plymouth package. - If Limine has
ENABLE_ENROLL_LIMINE_CONFIGenabled, you must runlimine-enroll-configafter changing the configuration, or the checksum check will fail and the machine will not boot. The tool detects and warns about this, but does not run it for you. - In UKI mode the command line is baked into the
.efifile, so the UKI must be regenerated for changes to take effect. - The display manager's own login-screen background (SDDM / GDM) is unrelated to the boot splash and will still be shown.
- bash 4.0+ is required (the scripts use associative arrays to hold the bilingual message tables). Every mainstream distribution ships bash 5.x.
Interactive TUI (recommended)
git clone https://github.com/helloHub1212/boot-splash.git
cd boot-splash
chmod +x install.sh boot-splash
./install.shIt picks a language at startup (your last choice is remembered — press Enter to use the default):
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
│ 选择语言 / Select language │
╠══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
│ 1) English │
│ 2) 中文 │
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
请选择 [1-2] (默认: 中文):
Choosing English brings you to the main menu (item 8 switches language at any time):
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
│ boot-splash · Boot splash manager · V1.0 │
╠══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
│ Current mode : boot splash (not enabled) │
│ Bootloader : limine │
│ Command line : /etc/default/limine │
│ Tool status : installed /usr/local/bin/boot-splash │
│ Running as : user (will ask for sudo password) │
╠══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
│ 1) Install and enable — turn the splash off, use kernel log │
│ 2) Restore — bring back the graphical splash │
│ 3) Preview — dry-run, writes nothing │
│ 4) Rollback — restore the most recent backup │
│ 5) Install only — copy files, leave system config alone │
│ 6) Uninstall │
│ 7) Show detailed status │
│ 8) Switch language │
│ 0) Quit │
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Both option 1 and option 2 show the complete diff first, ask for confirmation, and only then write anything; answering n leaves the system completely untouched.
Language: the UI is available in Chinese and English. The choice is remembered in /var/lib/boot-splash/lang; --lang=zh|en or BOOT_SPLASH_LANG=zh|en skips the picker entirely. The TUI passes the language through to boot-splash, so the command output shown inside the UI is in the same language.
Privilege model: no need to sudo up front. It normally runs as an ordinary user and asks for a password only when it actually needs to write system files; once verified, the sudo timestamp is cached and kept alive by a background process, so later actions do not ask again. If you are already running as root, or the system is configured with NOPASSWD, nothing is ever asked. Read-only operations (preview, status) never prompt.
Command line
bash ./install.sh --install # Install the files only
bash ./install.sh --status # Print status (no root needed)
bash ./install.sh --uninstall # Remove the files (leaves the system config alone)
boot-splash status # Show the current state
boot-splash off --dry-run # Preview (no root needed)
boot-splash off # Turn the splash off -> kernel log
boot-splash on # Restore the graphical splash
boot-splash rollback # Roll back to the most recent backupAliases: boot-splash-off = boot-splash off, boot-splash-on = boot-splash on.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-y, --yes |
Skip confirmation |
-n, --dry-run |
Only print the changes that would be made; writes nothing, needs no root |
--no-regen |
Don't run the initramfs / bootloader refresh |
--force |
Allow writing a command line that contains no root= (dangerous) |
--params "..." |
Override the parameters appended when turning the splash off |
--splash "..." |
Override the parameters restored when turning the splash back on |
--strip-extra "..." |
Extra flags to strip but not restore by default (default rhgb) |
--strip-prefix "..." |
Flags to strip by prefix (default splash=) |
--no-bls |
Don't modify BLS entries directly |
--lang=zh|en |
Set the UI language and skip the startup picker (install.sh) |
--porcelain |
Make status emit language-neutral ASCII key=value (boot-splash) |
A reboot is required for the changes to take effect.
Only by taking it apart layer by layer can it be turned off cleanly:
| # | Layer | Who draws it | What this tool does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UEFI firmware | The vendor logo in the BGRT table; the kernel keeps CONFIG_ACPI_BGRT alive until it is overwritten |
fbcon=nodefer grabs the screen as early as possible |
| 2 | Bootloader | Limine menu background, timeout countdown | Left alone (that is the bootloader menu, not the boot splash) |
| 3 | Kernel | The CONFIG_LOGO penguin; quiet lowers the console loglevel |
Drop quiet, add logo.nologo |
| 4 | initramfs | mkinitcpio's plymouth hook starts plymouthd right here |
Remove plymouth from HOOKS |
| 5 | Userspace | plymouth-start / plymouth-quit |
plymouth.enable=0 as a safety net |
At startup it probes in a fixed priority order to decide where the command line lives:
Limine → BLS entries → GRUB → generic /etc/kernel/cmdline
Putting BLS ahead of GRUB is the crucial part: Fedora / RHEL also have /etc/default/grub, but their grub.cfg merely chains to /boot/loader/entries/*.conf, so editing GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT (or even running grub-mkconfig) has no effect whatsoever on already-installed kernels. BLS detection accepts only options lines containing a literal root=, which automatically skips indirect forms such as options $kernelopts ....
Reading and writing the command line is abstracted into three shapes: a plain single-line text file, Limine's KERNEL_CMDLINE[]=, and GRUB's GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="...". When rewriting a Limine entry the existing = / += form is preserved and only the value is replaced.
assert_root_token() {
# new command line contains root= -> allow
# source has root= but new one doesn't -> refuse (the genuinely dangerous case)
# neither has root= and backend is GRUB -> allow (grub-mkconfig assembles root= itself)
# neither has root= otherwise -> refuse
}The rule follows the semantics rather than the intuition: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT never contains root= to begin with, so a blanket requirement of "must contain root=" would make the GRUB backend permanently unusable.
It runs as an ordinary user and asks for a password inside the UI only when it needs to write system files:
- The password is not echoed and is passed to
sudo -Svia stdin, so it never appears in the argument list (invisible tops). - After successful verification the sudo timestamp is written and kept alive by a background process, so it does not expire while you sit in the menu.
- An empty password gets its own message (it does not consume a retry), and Ctrl-D at the password prompt cancels with zero changes.
- It gives up after 3 consecutive failures.
- If there is no
sudoon the system it says so clearly and offers asu -calternative;BOOT_SPLASH_NO_ELEVATE=1disables automatic elevation entirely.
Every file path goes through a redirectable root prefix:
R="${BOOT_SPLASH_ROOT:-}"
STATE_DIR="${R}/var/lib/boot-splash"So a complete off / on round trip can be previewed against any given configuration without touching the real system at all.
Before every write, the original files are backed up under a UTC timestamp to /var/lib/boot-splash/backups/ (the most recent 5 are kept), and rollback restores them with a single command; files this tool created are deleted rather than left empty.
State is recorded in /var/lib/boot-splash/state in a directly readable shell-variable format that you can edit by hand.
The TUI is implemented in pure bash and depends on neither whiptail, dialog, nor newt — otherwise the installer itself would be the first thing that isn't portable. Boxes are laid out by display width (CJK characters are double-width), so the borders stay aligned in mixed Chinese/English output.
All messages live in two associative-array tables at the top of each script (MSG_ZH / MSG_EN), indexed by key and resolved by t() for the current language:
[menu.1]="安装并启用 —— 关闭开机动画，改用内核日志" # MSG_ZH
[menu.1]="Install and enable — turn the splash off, use kernel log" # MSG_ENCall sites only name the key, so adding a message cannot leave one language behind:
box " ${C_GRN}1${C_OFF}) $(t menu.1)"The language is resolved in this order: --lang / BOOT_SPLASH_LANG → the remembered choice → the system locale → English. The TUI passes the language down through ELEV_ENV, so even the elevated boot-splash runs in the same language and the UI never mixes languages.
Label alignment in the menus is computed from display width, not from printf '%-16s' — the latter pads by character count, which under-pads CJK text. A small padw() takes the display width via wc -L and pads with spaces, so the colons line up in both languages.
The TUI needs to read the current mode, backend and command-line file out of boot-splash. Parsing the human-readable status directly would break the moment the UI switches to English, because the label matching would no longer find the Chinese labels. So status has a second, language-neutral interface:
$ boot-splash status --porcelain
MODE=unknown
BACKEND=limine
CMDLINE_FILE=/etc/default/limine
CMDLINE=quiet splash rw root=UUID=...
MANAGED_PARAMS=console=tty0 loglevel=7 ...
PARAMS_REMOVED=
HOOK_PLYMOUTH=yes
The TUI parses only this; the human-readable status follows the language setting, and the two never interfere.
boot-splash Main script (CLI, no external file dependencies)
install.sh TUI installer / manager (must sit in the same directory as boot-splash)
README.md This document