How to Change Boot Splash Image in CentOS 7

In this how to change boot splash image in CentOS 7 guide, we'll have a look at different ways to set custom splash screen on CentOS 7. By default, CentOS will display a progress bar when it's booting up. This progress bar will keep showing until the boot process is complete and you're presented with a login screen.

In all Linux distributions, you can change what you see on the screen while the OS is booting up through GRUB bootloader modification. Some parts of this guide are specific to CentOS,  but other parts can be a reference point for other Linux distributions. Only a few differences on the location of boot files and GRUB configuration file.

Read Also:

• How to Show Progress Bar for Linux Commands
• All Stages of Linux Booting Process Explained
• How to Hide Grub Menu in Boot of your Linux Machine

Setup Prerequisites:

I'm assuming you're working on CentOS or Ubuntu Desktop with GUI to create a splash screen image. For any other distro, you can install the dependencies by referring to its documentation - Only applicable to those using convert tool and Gimp.

Method 1: Copying xpm.gz splash image to /boot/grub directory

If you are lazy to create your custom image for use on the splash screen, then first, download a random image on the web:

# wget http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/io-js-Will-Be-Merging-Back-into-Node-js-482552-2.jpg -O splash.jpg

This is a jpg image that we need to convert to png and resize it to fit our screen. Here I'm using 640x480 resolution. You can scale it to your desired screen resolution.

# convert splash.jpg -resize 600x400 -colors 14 -depth 16 -normalize -verbose linoxide.xpm
splash.jpg=>linoxede.xpm JPEG 1024x768=>533x400 533x400+0+0 16-bit PseudoClass 14c 213KB 0.710u 0:00.540

For those interested in creating custom images, you can use GIMP for this work. GIMP is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, converting between different image formats, and more specialized tasks

On CentOS, install Gimp by running:

$ sudo yum install gimp

To install Gimp package on Ubuntu, run:

nbsp;sudo apt-get install gimp

To install Gimp package on Arch, run:

$ sudo pacman -S gimp

Install 2-D Drawing Tools -  tgif and fonts on CentOS

nbsp;sudo yum install tgif xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-1-75dpi xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-1-100dpi

Install 2-D Drawing Tools -  tgif and fonts on Ubuntu

nbsp;sudo apt-get install tgif xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpi

Creating a Picture on Gimp

Now that we have the tools we need to get started, let's proceed to create an image used for the splash screen on Gimp.

Create an image on Gimp that fits your screen display, you might have to check screen resolution for this. In this example, I'll create an image with a resolution of 1080x920 and capacitive inch display of 10.

Open the Gimp application window, the create a new picture by navigating to File --> New

For Width, I'll use 1080, and height 920, then click OK.

On created canvas, draw your desired image, once completed, export it as linoxide.xpm

Check if the file were created successfully:

# ls -lh | grep li
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 211K Jan 19 10:34 linoxide.xpm

Compress created files:

# tar cvf linoxide.xpm.gz linoxide.xpm

Copy this file to the /boot/grub directory

# cp linoxide.xpm.gz  /boot/grub

Check the current contents of /boot/grub directory:

# ls /boot/grub
linoxide.xpm.gz splash.xpm.gz

Now modify grub2.conf by adding the line:

GRUB_BACKGROUND="/boot/grub/linoxide.xpm.gz"

You also have to comment the line:

GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="console"

My grub settings look like below:

# cat /etc/default/grub 
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="$(sed 's, release .*$,,g' /etc/system-release)"
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=true
#GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="console"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="crashkernel=auto rd.lvm.lv=cl/root rd.lvm.lv=cl/swap rhgb quiet"
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"
GRUB_BACKGROUND="/boot/grub/linoxide.xpm.gz"

Then regenerate grub configuration file:

For CentOS 7.x, run

# grub2-mkconfig grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found background: /boot/grub/linoxide.xpm.gz
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.10.0-693.11.6.el7.x86_64
Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-3.10.0-693.11.6.el7.x86_64.img
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.10.0-514.el7.x86_64
Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-3.10.0-514.el7.x86_64.img
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-0-rescue-11caeeaf1aba438f99400d0a22b9e92a
Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-0-rescue-11caeeaf1aba438f99400d0a22b9e92a.img
done

You should have settings ready for your new splash screen, proceed to reboot your OS and check if newly added screen splash will show.

Note that a .jpg or .png image can also be used without touching Gimp or doing any conversion. For this, your grub configuration file we have these lines:

#GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="console"
GRUB_BACKGROUND="/boot/grub/linoxide.jpg"

Then:

# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found background: /boot/grub/linoxide.jpg
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.10.0-693.11.6.el7.x86_64
Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-3.10.0-693.11.6.el7.x86_64.img
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.10.0-514.el7.x86_64
Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-3.10.0-514.el7.x86_64.img
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-0-rescue-11caeeaf1aba438f99400d0a22b9e92a
Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-0-rescue-11caeeaf1aba438f99400d0a22b9e92a.img
done

Method 2: Using Plymouth to change boot splash screen

Here I'll show you how to use Plymouth script to modify CentOS 7 splash boot screen. We'll need to install ImageMagick which provides convert package which is used to convert image from one format to another,

$ sudo yum install ImageMagick plymouth-plugin-script

Let's download an image that we'll use, here we're downloading .jpg image then we convert it to .png.

nbsp;wget http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/io-js-Will-Be-Merging-Back-into-Node-js-482552-2.jpg -O splash.jpg $ convert splash.jpg splash.png $ file splash.png splash.png: PNG image data, 1024 x 768, 8-bit/color RGB, non-interlaced

Create new themes directory which will host files used for the new theme.

$ sudo mkdir /usr/share/plymouth/themes/linoxide

Copy converted splash png image to a directory created above:

# cp splash.png /usr/share/plymouth/themes/linoxide

Create new them file, here we're naming it linoxide.plymouth.

# cat /usr/share/plymouth/themes/linoxide/linoxide.plymouth

[Plymouth Theme]
Name=Linoxide
Description=Linoxide CentOS 7 Theme
ModuleName=script

[script]

ImageDir=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/ ScriptFile=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/linoxide/linoxide.script

Now we need to create a script which is used to generate theme.

# cat /usr/share/plymouth/themes/linoxide/linoxide.script

wallpaper_image = Image("splash.png");
screen_width = Window.GetWidth();
screen_height = Window.GetHeight();
resized_wallpaper_image = wallpaper_image.Scale(screen_width,screen_height);
wallpaper_sprite = Sprite(resized_wallpaper_image);
wallpaper_sprite.SetZ(-100);

Now that we have everything we need, generate new ramdisk with this theme

# plymouth-set-default-theme -R linoxide

Once successful, reboot the OS and enjoy new splash screen.

In this guide, we've covered different ways of creating and using Grub splash screen on CentOS 7. You can stick to any of the methods which seem easy to set up and understand for you. A splash screen is good if you normally reboot your Computer, especially for a Desktop. It gives your machine a better look.