[Bug 1970069] Re: Annoying boot messages interfering with splash screen

[Daniel van Vugt]

I'm starting to suspect our patch (comment #39) isn't directly to blame
for the systemd issue. Disabling or otherwise breaking systemd-
fsckd.service doesn't stop fsck output from polluting the console and
triggering this bug. Only skipping fsck avoids it. You can skip fsck
using 'fastboot' or 'fsck.mode=skip' on the kernel command line.

The fact that fsck prints a useless success message to its stdout is the
issue, but it's upstream systemd asking for that:

  https://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/main/src/fsck/fsck.c#L336

and there doesn't seem to be any simple fsck parameter to tell it to run
more quietly (systemd already uses fsck -T).

I think maybe Red Hat unwittingly works around the problem by starting
the Plymouth splash earlier in initrd because they have SimpleDRM
enabled.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1970069

Title:
  Annoying boot messages interfering with splash screen

Status in linux package in Ubuntu:
  In Progress
Status in plymouth package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in systemd package in Ubuntu:
  In Progress

Bug description:
  [ Impact ]

  Kernel (and systemd) log messages appear during boot for many
  machines, when the user should be seeing only the BIOS logo and/or
  Plymouth splash screens.

  [ Workaround ]

  On most machines you can hide the problem by using these kernel parameters together:
    quiet splash loglevel=2 fastboot

  [ Test Plan ]

  1. Boot Ubuntu on a number of laptops that have the problem and verify no console text messages appear during boot.
  2. Verify you can switch VTs (e.g. Ctrl + Alt + F4) and log into them still.
  3. Reboot Ubuntu and remove the "splash" kernel parameter, now messages should appear.

  [ Where problems could occur ]

  Since the fix works by deferring fbcon's takeover of the console, the
  main problem encountered during its development was the inability to
  VT switch.

  [ Original Description ]

  Since upgrading from 20.04.6 Desktop to 22.04, the boot screen is not
  as clean as it used to be.

  Basically, the flow used to be in 20.04:

  GRUB > Splash screen > Login prompt

  Currently in 22.04:

  GRUB > Splash screen > Messages (in the attached file) > Splash screen
  again for a sec > Login prompt

  All of those messages already existed in 20.04, the difference is that
  they were not appearing during boot.

  I was able to get rid of the "usb" related messages by just adding
  "loglevel=0" in GRUB. Currently is "quiet loglevel=0 splash".

  Regarding the fsck related message, I can get rid of them by adding
  "fsck.mode=skip".

  However, I do not want to just disable fsck or set the loglevel to 0.
  This is not a sustainable solution.

  Something definitely changed here. These messages are not of enough
  relevance to be shown at boot by default, and they should remain
  hidden like they were in Focal.

  Obviously a minor issue, but important to the whole look and feel of
  the OS for desktop.

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