[Bug 1856712] Re: spinner theme displays a blank (black) screen at boot on some systems

[Daniel van Vugt]

** Tags added: flickerfreeboot

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Title:
  spinner theme displays a blank (black) screen at boot on some systems

Status in Plymouth:
  New
Status in plymouth package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  I tried the plymouth-theme-spinner package to test the flicker free vendor logo boot process.
  When shutting down the machine, everything works as expected. On my XPS 9380 system, the Dell logo is displayed and the white spinner spins until the machine shuts down.

  At boot, the Dell logo is shown by the UEFI firmware, then grub
  switches immediatly (without timeout) to the linux kernel. Then
  Plymouth blanks the screen and leaves an empty black screen until the
  graphical session starts (Wayland or Xorg, it does not matter).

  Here is the relevant portion of the plymouth debug log:
  ---
  00:00:03.245 ./plugin.c:934:create_plugin                                  : Using '/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner' as working directory
  ...
  00:00:03.246 main.c:1718:load_theme                                        : attaching plugin to event loop
  00:00:03.246 main.c:1721:load_theme                                        : attaching progress to plugin
  00:00:03.246 ply-boot-splash.c:138:ply_boot_splash_add_pixel_display       : adding 1920x1080 pixel display
  00:00:03.246 ./plugin.c:1480:add_pixel_display                             : adding pixel display to plugin
  00:00:03.246 ply-device-manager.c:1029:ply_device_manager_activate_renderer: activating renderers
  00:00:03.246 ply-boot-splash.c:486:ply_boot_splash_show                    : showing splash screen
  00:00:03.246 ./plugin.c:1538:show_splash_screen                            : loading lock image
  00:00:03.246 ply-boot-splash.c:492:ply_boot_splash_show                    : can't show splash: No such file or directory
  00:00:03.246 ply-boot-splash.c:390:ply_boot_splash_free                    : freeing splash
  00:00:03.246 main.c:489:show_default_splash                                : Could not start default splash screen,showing text splash screen
  ---
  note that i uninstalled plymouth-text. If it is installed then the dummy plymouth text is shown instead of the spinner one.

  My hypothesis is the following :
  - the bgrt theme contains in its theme file :
  ImageDir=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner
  - the initramfs hook for plymouth only copies the theme directory (bgrt) not the one referenced in the theme file. I checked it using lsinitramfs on the newly generated initramfs image.
  - At boot, when plymouth tries to find files under /usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner, my real root is not mounted yet, plymouth cannot find the files and bails.

  If I modify the bgrt theme as follows:
  - change the line ImageDir to reference
  ImageDir=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt
  - copy all the image files from the spinner directory to the bgrt directory
  - regenerates the initramfs

  Then plymouth works as expected, I have the Dell logo and spinner at
  boot, or the resume message when exiting from hibernate [*].

  I have a ZFS root partition on an nvme disk (might explain why my root
  partition is not up at that time ?).

  [*] Small caveat, on my system it seems there is a mode change after
  the kernel boot and while plymouth starts, hence my boot is not
  "flicker free" but this seems like a driver related issue.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.10
  Package: plymouth-theme-spinner 0.9.4git20190712-0ubuntu4.1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.3.0-25.27-generic 5.3.13
  Uname: Linux 5.3.0-25-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
  ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.3
  Architecture: amd64
  BootLog: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/boot.log'
  CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
  Date: Tue Dec 17 14:49:09 2019
  DefaultPlymouth: /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth
  EcryptfsInUse: Yes
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-10-19 (58 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 19.10 "Eoan Ermine" - Release amd64 (20191017)
  MachineType: Dell Inc. XPS 13 9380
  ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/BOOT/ubuntu_5to4s3@/vmlinuz-5.3.0-25-generic root=ZFS=rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_5to4s3 ro plymouth:debug resume=UUID=136e5fef-7afe-4cb4-a996-e2d01f197738 quiet splash vt.handoff=1
  ProcFB: 0 i915drmfb
  ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/BOOT/ubuntu_5to4s3@/vmlinuz-5.3.0-25-generic root=ZFS=rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_5to4s3 ro plymouth:debug resume=UUID=136e5fef-7afe-4cb4-a996-e2d01f197738 quiet splash vt.handoff=1
  SourcePackage: plymouth
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
  dmi.bios.date: 10/01/2019
  dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.bios.version: 1.8.0
  dmi.board.name: 0KTW76
  dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.board.version: A00
  dmi.chassis.type: 10
  dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvr1.8.0:bd10/01/2019:svnDellInc.:pnXPS139380:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0KTW76:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct10:cvr:
  dmi.product.family: XPS
  dmi.product.name: XPS 13 9380
  dmi.product.sku: 08AF
  dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

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