Change Boot Logo under Linux Mint & LMDE (Plymouth Tutorial)

Change Boot Logo under Linux Mint & LMDE (Plymouth Tutorial)

When starting a Linux system, you typically do not see the classic text mode, but rather a graphical boot screen. Under Linux Mint and LMDE, this boot screen is realized via Plymouth. In this tutorial, I will show step-by-step how you can change the boot logo under Linux Mint and LMDE or even create your own boot logo – including notes for an emergency in case something goes wrong.

What is Plymouth?

Plymouth is a framework that displays graphical animations and logos during system startup. It bridges the time between kernel startup and the appearance of the login manager.

Typical tasks of Plymouth:

• Displaying the boot logo

• Showing loading animations

• Prompting for passwords (e.g., on encrypted systems)

• Uniform boot screen independent of the console

Linux Mint and LMDE use Plymouth by default.

Differences between Linux Mint and LMDE

The procedure is almost identical for both distributions:

Display Current Plymouth Theme

First, we check which Plymouth theme is currently active:

sudo plymouth-set-default-theme

Display all available themes:

sudo plymouth-set-default-theme --list

Plymouth Themes: Location

All Plymouth themes are located under: /usr/share/plymouth/themes/

Example: ls /usr/share/plymouth/themes/

Typical themes are:

• mint-logo

• spinner

• text

Copy Existing Theme (Important!)

Never change an original theme directly!

Instead, we copy it and adapt the copy.

Example with the Mint logo:

sudo cp -r /usr/share/plymouth/themes/mint-logo /usr/share/plymouth/themes/custom-bootlogo

Insert Your Own Boot Logo

Change into your new theme directory:

cd /usr/share/plymouth/themes/custom-bootlogo

There you will find, among others:

• .png or .svg image files

• a .plymouth file

• a .script file

Note on .script Files

Plymouth supports various theme types. While some modern themes can get by without their own scripts (e.g., spinner or label), .script files are still part of script-based themes. These are not obsolete and are still supported, especially if an individual boot logo or custom animations are to be implemented.

Replace the existing logo:

sudo cp ~/Bilder/mein_logo.png logo.png or just from where your logo is located.

Recommended Properties for the Logo:

• PNG or SVG

• Transparent background

• At least 256×256 px

• No extreme contrasts (otherwise it looks ugly during boot)

Adapt Theme File

Open the .plymouth file:

sudo nano custom-bootlogo.plymouth

Example content:

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[Plymouth Theme]
Name=Custom Bootlogo
Description=Eigenes Bootlogo für Linux Mint & LMDE
ModuleName=script

[script]
ImageDir=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/custom-bootlogo
ScriptFile=/usr/share/plymouth/themes/custom-bootlogo/custom-bootlogo.script