Plymouthd not terminating after X starts

[varaug]

Once I get the the log in screen, and check tty7 (Ctrl + Alt + F7), the splash screen is still running, saying 'the partition dev/map/cryptswapper blah blah could not be mounted, press S to skip or M to mount manually. After logging in the splash screen is still running as described, and plymouthd has to be killed manually other it is constantly taking up 5% of CPU.

Checking the virtual console after killing plymouthd shows just - mountall: plymouth command failed
mountall: Disconnected from plymouth

This has been going on for about 5 months now as far as I am aware, so not sure what has caused it to break, but I know that plymouthd should be terminating after X-org starts.

Any way I can troubleshoot this?

Edit: There has been a bug report filed for this https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...e/+bug/1240376

While it says a fix has been released, I don't actually know how to implement it, clicking in the 'fix released' link just links back to the bug report

[SteveRiley]

Are you using KDM or LightDM?

[varaug]

Kdm

[Buddlespit]

While it says a fix has been released, I don't actually know how to implement it, clicking in the 'fix released' link just links back to the bug report

This bug was fixed in the package kde-workspace - 4:4.11.3-0ubuntu1

What they're saying is that the KDM bug that causes your issues was fixed in a package called 'kde-workspace', version 4.11.3. If you open Muon and search for 'kde-workspace' (and highlight it), you'll find a tab that says 'Technical Details' which will tell you the installed version and the available version. I'm on 4.11.5. Which seems to have broken LightDM ( bug #1270436).

[varaug]

Hmm, I have kde-workspace v.4.11.3, checked a load of other installed packages that were related to it in muon and they are all the available version.
You say you're on version 4.11.5, but how, is that just for light-dm? Because I have kubuntu-backports repository that's supposed to update KDE in my software sources?

[SteveRiley]

Bug 1240376 is confusing. Comment #11 indicates that the command to quit Plymouth is plymouth quit, not plymouth --quit. Yet on my system, which is at 4.11.5, the incorrect command still shows in /etc/init/kdm.conf. I'm not experiencing this problem because I always remove Plymouth from my machines.

@varaug: would you please:

1. Edit the Upstart file:

sudo nano /etc/init/kdm.conf

2. Find the line containing plymouth --quit

3. Remove the two hyphens in front of quit

4. Save the file, exit the editor, and restart your machine

Does the problem disappear on your machine now?quit

[varaug]

there aren't any hyphens in front of quit in my kdm.conf file, should I bother trying to rectify the problem by inserting them?

[SteveRiley]

No, the hyphens should not be present.

I would recommend two things. First, add a comment to that bug, and mention that the problem still persists even though your kdm.conf file is correct. Second, create an autostart file that kills Plymouth after you log on.

[varaug]

Will do, should the autostart file just be: plymouth quit and save the script with root permissions/ownership?

[SteveRiley]

The autostart will run in your user context, so you'll need to use sudo plymouth quit. You'll need to reconfigure sudo to not prompt for a password.

Alternately, you can remove Plymouth completely. It serves no useful purpose other than to provide the animated boot splash. See Launchpad bug 556372, comment #16 for details. I've been doing this ever since 10.04 and have never encountered a single problem, despite Langasek's arguing with me farther down in the comments.

[varaug]

So just to check do I only need this much detail to build the plymouth-dummy package?

1 ### Commented entries have reasonable defaults.
2 ### Uncomment to edit them.
3 # Source: <source package name; defaults to package name>
4 Section: misc
5 Priority: optional
6 # Homepage: <enter URL here; no default>
7 Standards-Version: 3.9.2
8
9 Package: plymouth-dummy
10 # Version: <enter version here; defaults to 1.0>
11 # Maintainer: Your Name <yourname@example.com>
12 # Pre-Depends: <comma-separated list of packages>
13 # Depends: <comma-separated list of packages>
14 # Recommends: <comma-separated list of packages>
15 # Suggests: <comma-separated list of packages>
16 Provides: plymouth
17 # Replaces: <comma-separated list of packages>
18 # Architecture: all
19 # Copyright: <copyright file; defaults to GPL2>
20 # Changelog: <changelog file; defaults to a generic changelog>
21 # Readme: <README.Debian file; defaults to a generic one>
22 # Extra-Files: <comma-separated list of additional files for the doc directory>
23 # Files: <pair of space-separated paths; First is file to include, second is destination>
24 # <more pairs, if there's more than one file to include. Notice the starting space>
25 Description: plymouth-dummy, LP# 556372
26 dles
27 long description and info
28 .
29 second paragraph

[varaug]

minus the half 'toodles ' i accidentally pasted in....

[SteveRiley]

Yep.

[varaug]

Ok I've successfully removed plymouth, got a nice blank (as in switched completely off) screen before KDM, but edited /etc/default/grub to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="" so I now get a nice bit of informative text output.


Thanks guys

Btw, should I mark this as [SOLVED], as it has kinda solved the problem?

[SteveRiley]

Ok I've successfully removed plymouth, got a nice blank (as in switched completely off) screen before KDM, but edited /etc/default/grub to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="" so I now get a nice bit of informative text output.

Ah yeah, sorry -- I forgot to mention that part.

Thanks guys

You're welcome.

Btw, should I mark this as [SOLVED], as it has kinda solved the problem?

Sure.