System Startup

From power on to either GDM or the user session should be fluid and seamless.

Goals

• Indicate the power is on
• Show something is happening
• Efficiently get the system operational

Non Goals

• Don't be a separate place
• Don't beat the user over the head with branding

Constraints

• Operate in both graphics and text mode
• Graphics mode must work at 800x600
• Text mode must work at 80x24 characters
• Text mode restricted to ASCII character set
• Background cannot be pure black (#000) due to the way monitors align video images. However, #080808 for example is OK.

Tentative Design

Base color: #2e3436

Boot menu

Boot menu is meant for selecting an OS, should look fairly generic. Not shown by default, opt in.

Graphics Mode

• Background texture: http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-shell/plain/data/theme/noise-texture.png

• http://jimmac.fedorapeople.org/gnome3/login.webm

Text Mode

• Character: ASCII 254, Unicode 25A0
• Highlight color: #fff
• Secondary color: #979a9b or (#ffffff80)
• Appearance: Three characters with one non-breaking space between
• Behavior: Should start with no characters highlighted. Then progress from 1 to 3. Fade out at finish.

See Also

• http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/Plymouth