Comments and Explanations
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Change Proposal Name

Summary

Provides a streamlined and more consistent user experience for graphical startup across bootloader and system startup.

Owner

Name: Your Name
Email: <your email address so we can contact you, invite you to meetings, etc.>
Release notes owner:

Current status

Targeted release: Unknown
Last updated: 2015-07-29
Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

There was discussion back in 2013, led by the Design Team, surrounding proposed changes to Fedora's graphical startup process. As illustrated by this blog post, the current startup process uses several different types of displays with various design motifs, including pure text mode, a fancy looking GRUB screen that I believe has since been removed, and a boot splash that has branding inconsistent with the login screen (boot screen uses just the Fedora symbol, while login has the full wordmark).

Bolder, fancier looking boot screens were more common on older operating systems because we needed to communicate progress and activity to the user, especially if it was going to take a long time to start up (hence RHGB, Bootsplash, Splashy, Usplash, Plymouth etc.), but with the speed of startup on modern systems, it is better to go with a presentation that is streamlined, but allows us to maintain Fedora's on-screen identity. But there are still other factors we need to address, including communicating problems to users, and how to react in these scenarios. Factors introduced by fast startup, especially on UEFI-based systems, were also noted, such as a need for an easy way to access UEFI firmware settings without using a keyboard shortcut.

Windows 8 has already provided solutions to some of these issues, but we do not want to imitate them completely, and they also need to be adapted to suit the nuances of a Linux-based system. A key to these proposed changes is BGRT; it is an ACPI table accessible on most UEFI-based systems (especially those manufactured since the release of Windows 8), which stores the manufacturer logo displayed during POST. Windows 8 utilizes BGRT for its boot screen on supported devices, replacing the generic Windows logo with the manufacturer logo. The boot screen itself is otherwise a black screen with a basic throbber, which is something we should aim towards in order to maintain consistency throughout the boot process.

Benefit to Fedora

Scope

Proposal owners:

Other developers: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Release engineering: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Policies and guidelines: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)