Dear Ubuntu fans, we are proud to announce that, as of this morning, Canonical added a brand-new X-based boot splash, which will be present in the upcoming Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) operating system, due for release on October 29th. xplash is the package in charge of the new boot splash and it is a userspace software that uses the X interface to draw a splash screen at boot before the desktop loads. See the video below to see it in action! Softpedia is once again the first website to offer you a preview of the new artwork, which will probably be present in the final release of Ubuntu 9.10.
Well, we've tested it on two 19" Samsung LCDs and a 19" DELL one, and it looks and acts pretty good, without flickering. The idea is to completely replace the existing boot method with a flicker-free one. The graphical boot splash is designed to run on top of the X.Org Server and not Usplash! A graphical operating system switcher will also be present during the boot sequence, accessible by pressing the ESC key (see the second video for a mockup of this feature).
The new X-based boot splash in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) 20090827 Daily Build
Ubuntu 9.10 boot animation test
On October 29th, Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) will become the 11th release of the Ubuntu operating system.
Among some of the interesting features that will be present in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala), we can mention the lightweight and powerful GNOME 2.28 desktop environment, which brings lots and lots of improvements in many areas, such as Empathy, Evolution, GNOME Control Center, GNOME Media, GNOME Power Manager, and many more. Karmic's kernel packages will be based on the latest version of the unreleased Linux kernel 2.6.31, which will offer improved support for webcam or wireless devices, and new filesystems. Moreover, applications such as OpenOffice.org 3.1.1, The GIMP 2.6, Mozilla Firefox 3.5, Mozilla Thunderbird 2, Transmission 1.7 or Pidgin 2.6 (not as default IM client) will also be present in the final version of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala), due for release in late October this year!
Don't forget to visit our website next Thursday for a detailed report on the Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 5 release, where we will unveil more of Karmic's new features!
Would graphics card did you use? Intel? Just wondered what you were using to get the flicker free boot and will I get it using my NVIDIA card which has a proprietary driver
Comment #3 by: Marius Nestor on 27 Aug 2009, 09:10 UTC
I appreciate the fact that Ubuntu offers plenty of eye-candy. In fact, Ubuntu has visual effects that rival or beat MS Windows. However ... I think Canonical should spend a little more time working on graphics drivers, wireless drivers, and bluetooth drivers before they devote so much energy to attractive but ultimately useless eye-candy. Once they can iron out all the odd-ball issues with different drivers (be honest, we've ALL had "fun" dealing with driver issues), THEN go on to dazzle us with some eye-candy.
Comment #5.1 by: simon@syd on 28 Aug 2009, 00:44 GMT
I agree - that stuff is much more significant.
Comment #5.2 by: dave on 29 Aug 2009, 15:27 GMT
I'm no expert, but I'm betting that building numerous drivers is a bit more difficult than pasting a pretty image on the screen.
Comment #5.3 by: Kris on 30 Aug 2009, 07:34 GMT
I agree drivers and beeing bug-free is crucial! I love idea of three or more OSs that have to compete (and all have like 33% of market) , but in the end some people need computers for work and this is where reliability is REAL needed. I do see enormous improvement over last 5 years but still if I had to put my work on risk I would consider twice. OSs has to run .. that's all .. run flawlessly. No X server crashes after upgrade, no program exceptions etc. I really hope that Linux will evolve to this point asap.
Comment #5.4 by: MrE on 30 Aug 2009, 17:21 GMT
I dont think that eye-candy improvements are taken away from driver work. It would be good is artists and other graphics designers would refine the colors, fonts etc.
A visually good system is much nicer to work with and gives a good impression of the quality of the program.
Comment #5.5 by: TK on 31 Aug 2009, 19:48 GMT
I second the response, working on drivers and such is much harder than this. For hardware that has no open specifications, kernel developers and other volunteers have to reverse-engineer the stuff so they can build a driver that works decently. If you have hardware that doesn't work correctly, encourage the company to work with the Linux Driver Project instead of harping on individual distros to duplicate the effort.
http://www.linuxdriverproject.org/twiki/bin/view
How much do you want to bet that the self proclaimed 'user friendly' distro will STILL use that fugly DOSlike black and white boot that is sure to scare off newbies who have an XP and Linux dual boot?
My first step when converting someone who is hesitant is to show them my Mandriva laptop's dual boot so they can see that they have the familiarity of XP always at hand if they need.
Seriously, other distros have prettied up the dual boot options and Ubuntu STILL hasnt moved a finger?
>In fact, Ubuntu has visual effects that rival or beat >MS Windows
Stop drinking the koolaid, EVERY distro has the same eye candy depending what desktop they are using as well if they are using Compiz/Fusion/Beryl/Kwin. Its not a distro specific thing like wallpapers (Oooooh!!) and Icons (Aaaaaaaaaaah!!).
You can barely tell three different KDE4.2 distros from each other they are so alike.
You simply can't please everyone. People complain that it is brown and want more eye-candy, then others complain wireless and graphics don't work. Both have their merits. I'm from the latter camp. :)
The second video looks quite nice. I guess it won't work on my install graphics. :(
Comment #13 by: David Mooney on 30 Aug 2009, 03:28 UTC
How come you don't make the circular ubuntu symbol spin around, I'd think that would make more sense for a boot animation rather than some line going up and down or across...jimho.
I've downloaded karmic-alternate-i386.iso Alpha 5 and burnded on a RW-DVD, cause I wanted to give it a Live CD test.
It boots ok, the icon shows, then the logon music play's, but it gets stuck at Ubuntu 9.10's New X Based Boot Splash. It starts just like in the first video above and then the screen goes black, and it starts X Based Boot Splash all over again, and it loops like this every 5-6 seconds.
I have tryed the 64 version two, and even with safe graphisc but i get the same result. All other previous versions work fine, so I'm guessing that the New X Based Boot Splash causes the problem. I hope they do something about it, cause this alpha is not usable for some people.
P.S. I forgot to mention: My video card is Ati Radeon Mobility HD3470 Graphics
Comment #14.1 by: Chris on 08 Sep 2009, 04:43 GMT
Better than hoping is simply to put this bugreport into Launchpad. It's the least we can do to help out and thank the devs, packagers artists & all.
Comment #14.2 by: jake on 21 Sep 2009, 23:02 GMT
i have the same gfx card and the same happens to me... must be a driver problem
Comment #15 by: Scavenger on 07 Sep 2009, 06:52 UTC
I have exactly the same issue. Ubuntu starts from Live CD, and stuck in new X Based Boot Splash screen. Only hard reset can help.
My config - Athlon 64 X2, ATI HD4350, Asus M3A78.
Sorry, had to stop reading the article because the animated favicon drives me nuts. Why does anybody thing an animated favicon is not completely annoying?
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