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I'm aware that the internet is packed with 'quiet splash' kernel config issues regarding the boot process on several hardware sets, which generally leads to graphics issues that can be prevented with 'nomodeset' or similar. This is not one of them.

On a fresh 20.04.1 Server installation (no additional packages installed, absolute installer-default minimum set), just adding quiet splash to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub (which is empty by default), breaks the boot process. Splash is shown and hangs there forever. No console login possible. Adding nomodesethas no effect. Same thing on an Intel NUC w/ UEFI and within a Parallels VM.

When using the minimal set of of the corresponding Desktop image, quiet splash is the default cmdline and splash works fine.

There are several questions I can't find an answer yet:

  1. What are the differences here? Shouldn't be a driver issue as only Kernel drivers are used, no proprietary sets. And AFAIK Ubuntu uses the same kernel config for desktop and sever since 12.04 or something.. Any hints which configurations to check for differences?
  2. Tips on how to debug this? As the issue only occurs with quiet splash set, I'm not able to see any logs from boot. I guess I could mount the partition with another system after a failed start and inspect log files, but is there a way that doesn't involve a second (or live) system?

Thanks!

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    Not an answer, but: what's the point in setting quiet splash on a server in the first place? I usually disable this explicitly to be able to see all messages when an error occurs. There is no need for servers to look pretty during boot. Sep 25, 2020 at 6:07
  • @GeraldSchneider What? You mean you don't want your servers to be able to say "oh la la, I feel pretty?"
    – Davidw
    Sep 25, 2020 at 6:17
  • I would even disable those on an Ubuntu desktop, (if I were ever crazy enough to run one) considering how badly they've implemented the boot screen and how many years this has been an unfixed problem. Every other distro has gotten this right but Ubuntu, and they appear uninterested in fixing it. Sep 25, 2020 at 6:24
  • I don't get why to place a comment specifically for questioning OPs intentions? I'm using this server installation on an embedded kiosk system. Using the server version has several reasons and benefits, but in the end it's a user-facing system - not displaying startup logs that nobody in front of this understands would simply be a nicer experience.
    – loopend
    Sep 25, 2020 at 7:04

1 Answer 1

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It seem that remove the $vt_handoff option work, too. following is my boot option:

linux   /boot/vmlinuz-4.15.0-123-generic root=/dev/mapper/geo48-ubuntu ro  quiet splash $vt_handoff

I am using ubuntu 20.04 desktop, vt_handoff should be empty if $prefix/gfxblacklist.txt exist, so touch /boot/grub/gfxblacklist.txt should fix this problem.

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