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Anyone who’s ever tried to customize the Usplash theme that comes with Ubuntu knows that it’s a bit of pain. And if you’re trying to create your own theme, things just get a bit more difficult.

Enter Splashy, a boot splash manager with some very flexible features. One of the thing I like about it is that it does require any kernel patching and runs completely in userspace. And it supports 8bit, 16bit and 24bit framebuffers and TrueType fonts. Even better, its ridiculously easy to create themes for Splashy.

This tutorial was written with Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 in mind but with a little tweaking, it can be applied to Fiesty and Gutsy(if you’re using anything older, you really really realy should upgrade).

First, we need to get splashy on your system. Make sure your sources have universe enabled and are up to date. Fire up your favourite terminal and:

apt-get update

Once that’s done, next up is:

apt-get install splashy splashy-themes

This will install Splashy, a few themes and uninstall Usplash!. Once this is done, you need to edit your GRUB configuration file to setup the frame buffer:
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.list
Scroll down and add vga=791(1024×768 millions colors) or vga=791 (1024×768 thousands colors to your default boot option
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.10-5-k7 Default
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hde6 ro quiet splash vga=792
initrd /initrd.img
savedefault
boot

Save and reboot. Voila! You should be looking at your new boot splash. However, the default splash is a bit … bland. If you want to spice this a bit, you can change to one of the themes you installed. First check to see what themes are installed.
kwame@amaterasu:~$ ls /etc/splashy/themes
aqua carbonalien default crux debian-cubism
kwame@amaterasu:~$
So let’s say I want to use the aqua theme, I used the splashy_config -s to set the theme
kwame@amaterasu:~$ sudo splashy_config -s aqua
>Set theme as: aqua [ DONE ]

Next, you’ll have to update your initramfs or it’ll look like the change hasn’t taken effect.
kwame@amaterasu:~$ sudo update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
You can then reboot and admire your new theme.

You can get some more info here.

Coming soon..How to make your own Splashy Themes