Customizing the Plymouth Boot Logo in Ubuntu

Plymouth manages the splash screen (boot logo) displayed during Ubuntu startup and shutdown. Switching themes involves selecting a Plymouth theme, regenerating the initramfs, and verifying the change takes effect on reboot.

List available themes

Check what Plymouth themes are installed and available:

apt search plymouth-theme

To see only installed themes:

apt list --installed | grep plymouth-theme

Common Ubuntu themes include plymouth-theme-ubuntu-logo, plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text, and variants for other flavors like plymouth-theme-kubuntu-logo or plymouth-theme-xubuntu-logo.

Install additional themes

If the default themes don’t suit you, install alternatives:

sudo apt install plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text

The Ubuntu repositories include several built-in options. Third-party themes exist on GitHub and other sources, though the standard themes usually provide reliable boot experiences. Community themes may lack maintenance—stick with official or well-maintained options if you want stability.

Select the active theme

Use update-alternatives to switch between installed themes:

sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth

This displays all available themes with priorities:

There are 3 choices for the alternative default.plymouth.

  Selection    Path                                                      Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/share/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-logo/ubuntu-logo.plymouth   100       auto
  1            /usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/spinner.plymouth           70       manual
* 2            /usr/share/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-text/ubuntu-text.plymouth   100       manual

Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

Enter the number of your preferred theme, or set it programmatically:

sudo update-alternatives --set default.plymouth /usr/share/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-text/ubuntu-text.plymouth

Regenerate the initramfs

Plymouth loads during boot via the initramfs, so you must regenerate it after changing themes:

sudo update-initramfs -u

For a specific kernel version:

sudo update-initramfs -u -k 6.12.0-1-generic

If you run multiple kernels, update all of them:

sudo update-initramfs -u -k all

The process takes about a minute and outputs:

update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.12.0-1-generic

Verify the change

Confirm which theme is active:

cat /etc/alternatives/default.plymouth

Check that Plymouth is present in the initramfs:

lsinitramfs /boot/initrd.img-$(uname -r) | grep -i plymouth

The new theme appears after your next reboot. If you see no change, verify the symlink actually updated:

ls -l /etc/alternatives/default.plymouth

Troubleshooting

Theme doesn’t appear on boot:

Verify the theme package is installed:

apt list --installed | grep plymouth-theme-NAME

If it’s not there, reinstall it and regenerate the initramfs again. Double-check that update-initramfs -u completed without errors.

Black screen during boot:

The splash screen may fail to initialize, though this rarely affects functionality. Check the kernel log:

dmesg | grep -i plymouth

Some custom themes have broken dependencies. Try an official Ubuntu theme instead. If you’re on a fresh system, this usually resolves itself on the next boot cycle.

Changes don’t take effect:

Confirm you ran update-initramfs -u after selecting the new theme. Verify the symlink points to the correct theme:

cat /etc/alternatives/default.plymouth

If it still shows the old path, the update-alternatives command may not have completed. Run it again and verify with the cat command before rebooting.

Encrypted disk (LUKS) password prompt overlays the splash:

This is expected behavior with encrypted systems. Plymouth displays a password prompt over the splash screen. Some themes handle this better than others—the ubuntu-text theme typically provides a cleaner experience for encrypted disks.

Stuck on splash screen during boot:

If the system hangs rather than continuing, you may have selected a broken or incompatible theme. Hold Shift during boot to access the GRUB menu, then edit the kernel command line to add splash=off or quiet to disable Plymouth temporarily. After booting, switch back to a standard theme like ubuntu-logo or ubuntu-text and regenerate the initramfs.

Create custom themes

Themes live in /usr/share/plymouth/themes/. To create a custom theme, copy an existing one as a template:

sudo cp -r /usr/share/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-logo /usr/share/plymouth/themes/my-custom-theme

Edit the .plymouth configuration file:

sudo nano /usr/share/plymouth/themes/my-custom-theme/my-custom-theme.plymouth

You can adjust image paths, animation speeds, text colors, and other properties. The configuration format is straightforward key-value pairs. After editing, set it as active and regenerate the initramfs:

sudo update-alternatives --set default.plymouth /usr/share/plymouth/themes/my-custom-theme/my-custom-theme.plymouth
sudo update-initramfs -u

Custom theming requires familiarity with Plymouth’s structure and is only necessary if standard themes don’t meet your needs. Study an existing theme before building from scratch.