Removing persistent boot messages for a silent boot

[joshrule]

Wow - thanks for the detailed response, @TLATER!

Just for context, I’m configuring a 9th Generation Lenovo X1 Carbon Thinkpad with a 14" 3840 x 2400 display.

@TLATER

I think the best way to get this fixed is to reply to that issue to double check that was missed, and then just implement the stage 1 fixes there - it should be straightforward as far as init changes go.

Ooh, fun - I haven’t contributed before, but #108294 looks simple enough.

@TLATER

Plymouth is cool and I recommend it! The reason it’s not appearing likely is going to be related to your kernel and graphics driver configuration, if you can share that maybe we’ll find a fix.

What information would be helpful here?

Here are some of the config options related to kernel & graphics:

{
  # ...
  boot = {
    initrd = {
      availableKernelModules = [ "xhci_pci" "thunderbolt" "nvme" "usb_storage" "sd_mod" ];
      kernelModules = [ ];
    };
    kernelModules = [ "kvm-intel" ];
    extraModulePackages = [ ];
  };

  # Select internationalisation properties.
  i18n.defaultLocale = "en_US.UTF-8";

  # Setup the system console.
  console = {
    # Make fonts readable from the start of boot
    earlySetup = true;
    font = "${pkgs.terminus_font}/share/consolefonts/ter-132n.psf.gz";
    packages = with pkgs; [ terminus_font ];
    keyMap = "us";
  };

  services.xserver = {
    # Enable a windowing system.
    enable = true;
    displayManager.startx.enable = true;
    # Configure keymap
    layout = "us";
    # Enable touchpad support (enabled default in most desktopManager).
    libinput.enable = true;
    # video support
    videoDrivers = [ "modesetting" ];
    useGlamor = true;
    # HiDPI
    dpi = 323;
  };

  # Additional hardware configuration
  hardware = {
    video.hidpi.enable = lib.mkDefault true;
    # Update the Intel microcode.
    cpu.intel.updateMicrocode = true;
    # Allow connected display discovery.
    i2c.enable = true;
    # Setup graphics acceleration.
    opengl = {
      enable = true;
      driSupport = true;
      extraPackages = with pkgs; [
        intel-compute-runtime
        intel-media-driver
        vaapiIntel
        vaapiVdpau
        libvdpau-va-gl
      ];
    };
  };
  # ...
}

and

$ lsmod | grep video
uvcvideo              114688  0
videobuf2_vmalloc      20480  1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops       20480  1 videobuf2_vmalloc
videobuf2_v4l2         28672  1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_common       61440  4 videobuf2_vmalloc,videobuf2_v4l2,uvcvideo,videobuf2_memops
videodev              237568  3 videobuf2_v4l2,uvcvideo,videobuf2_common
mc                     53248  4 videodev,videobuf2_v4l2,uvcvideo,videobuf2_common
video                  53248  2 thinkpad_acpi,i915
backlight              20480  4 video,thinkpad_acpi,i915,drm
i2c_core               86016  13 i2c_designware_platform,videodev,i2c_hid,i2c_designware_core,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,i2c_smbus,i2c_i801,i2c_hid_acpi,i915,psmouse,i2c_dev,drm
usbcore               278528  5 xhci_hcd,typec,uvcvideo,btusb,xhci_pci
usb_common             16384  3 xhci_hcd,usbcore,uvcvideo

@TLATER

Hanging on shutdown is likely not Plymouth, you can press escape at any point to see “behind” the graphical screen and check what is actually causing issues (systemd will probably be shutting something down).

Thanks - I re-enabled Plymouth. Here’s what I see:

• during boot
  • I see neither spinner nor NixOS logo
  • If I don’t hit any keys, a single line prints to the screen:

    setfont: KDFONTOP: Function not implemented
    

  • If I hit Esc, then ^[ prints to the screen. It does not drop “behind” the graphical screen. Each press of Esc prints another ^[. I do not see the setfont line.
• during shutdown
  • I see both spinner and NixOS logo
  • If I don’t hit any keys, the spinner spins smoothly for a few seconds, the screen flickers to black and then back the splash screen, and the spinner freezes, updates every 5 seconds or so, and shutdown takes an extra 15-20 seconds.
  • If I hit Esc, I see “behind” the screen and shutdown finishes in about 5 seconds.

@TLATER

It’s worth checking for firmware updates or BIOS settings.

Okay, I’ve looked through the BIOS and didn’t see anything that looked relevant, other than the amount of memory allocated to graphics. It’s currently set at 256MB but I boosted it to the maximum 512MB.

I set services.fwupd.enable = true and following Problem using fwupd ran sudo fwupdmgr update. It reported:

$ sudo fwupdmgr update
Devices with no available firmware updates:
 • KXG6AZNV1T02 TOSHIBA
 • System Firmware
 • UEFI Device Firmware
 • UEFI Device Firmware
 • UEFI Device Firmware
 • UEFI Device Firmware
 • UEFI Device Firmware
 • UEFI Device Firmware
 • UEFI Device Firmware
 • UEFI Device Firmware
 • UEFI Device Firmware
 • UEFI Device Firmware
 • UEFI Device Firmware
 • UEFI Device Firmware
 • UEFI Device Firmware
 • UEFI dbx
No updatable devices

@TLATER

If you can’t increase your resolution there, grub can also set a different mode: boot.loader.grub.gfxmodeEfi. It would hand over to your stage 1 in the correct mode. However, note that this mode must be present in grub’s videoinfo . Don’t forget to rebuild the boot loader.

Hmm - I’m currently using systemd-boot I think (boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true). Would this option still apply?

@TLATER

Finally, any additional flickering is likely caused by your graphics driver and/or lack of early modeset. This is especially common with nvidia, who don’t support modesetting

I have integrated Intel Xe Graphics (TGL GT2) graphics, so nvidia thankfully isn’t the issue. If you have ideas for performing the modeset earlier for Intel Mesa, let me know!